Sprout Social, Inc. is a social media management tool that helps brands communicate with customers across social channels, collaborate across teams, and measure the effectiveness of their efforts.

Sprout Social, Inc.
Company typePublic
IndustryInternet
Founded2010; 14 years ago (2010)
Founders
  • Justyn Howard
  • Aaron Rankin
  • Gil Lara
  • Peter Soung
HeadquartersChicago, Illinois, U.S.
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Justyn Howard (CEO)
Aaron Rankin (CTO)
Gil Lara (CCO)
Scott Brandt (CMO)
Erika Trautman (CPO)
ProductsSocial media management
Social media marketing
Social media customer service
Social media analytics
Number of employees
1,383 (December 2023)
Websitesproutsocial.com

Sprout's platform integrates with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google+, Zendesk, UserVoice, Feedly, and Google Analytics. Bambu by Sprout Social, launched in August 2015, is an employee advocacy platform that allows organizations to curate content for employees to read and share on social media.[1]

Sprout Social was founded in 2010 by Justyn Howard, Aaron Rankin, Gil Lara, and Peter Soung. Sprout is a public company.[2]

History

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In late 2009, current Sprout Social CEO Justyn Howard was working for an enterprise software company and was looking for a social media tool to help him connect and communicate with customers. He found that solutions on the market were consumer-focused rather than ones meant to help brands. So he set out to build a solution, working alongside current Sprout CTO Aaron Rankin, Creative Director Gil Lara, and Director of Web & Mobile Engineering Peter Soung.[3]

Sprout Social, Inc. was founded in April 2010. The company has raised a total of $60 million, including a $1 million initial funding round in 2010 led by Lightbank, $10 million in Series B funding from New Enterprise Associates (NEA) in February 2011, and $42 million in Series C funding from Goldman Sachs Investment Partners and NEA.[4][5]

In November 2011, Sprout released S2, the second generation of the platform that is the basis of the current model. This release included customizable dashboards tailored to each user's social media responsibilities, support for multiple users, iPhone functionality, various options for strategic partner integrations, and more.[6][7]

In April 2015, Sprout released Spanish and Portuguese language support.[8]

In August 2015, Sprout launched Bambu by Sprout Social, an employee advocacy platform. Bambu enables organizations to curate selected content for employees to read and share using their personal LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook profiles.[1]

In March 2016, Sprout launched Landscape by Sprout Social, a free tool that resizes images for seven social networks and custom sizes.[9]

Partnerships and integrations

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Sprout Social partnerships include:

  • Facebook Marketing Partner (since July 2012)[10]
  • Twitter Official Partner (since November 2012)[11][12][13]
  • Google+ Pages Third-Party Management Tool Certification (since May 2013)[14]
  • LinkedIn Company Page Partner (since September 2015)[15]
  • Founding member of Instagram Partner Program (since November 2015)[16][17]
  • TikTok Marketing Partner https://sproutsocial.com/integrations/tiktok/

In November 2015, Sprout partnered with Twitter to relive Twitter's Official Partner Program and worked with Twitter to pursue further solutions for social customer care.[18][19]

In addition, Sprout Social integrates with:

References

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  1. ^ a b "Sprout Social Introduces Bambu to Enhance Social Advocacy for Employees". martechadvisor.com.
  2. ^ https://investors.sproutsocial.com/news/news-details/2019/Sprout-Social-Announces-Pricing-of-Initial-Public-Offering/default.aspx. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ^ Questly, Jenna (May 20, 2018). "What is Sprout Social and how does it work?". doeswhat.com.
  4. ^ Hickins, Michael. "Sprout Social Gets $10 Million From NEA". WSJ.
  5. ^ Wilhelm, Alex (February 23, 2011). "Sprout Social snags new funding, continues to shake up social media management". TNW.
  6. ^ Wilhelm, Alex (November 9, 2011). "Sprout Social launches giant new edition of its social media toolkit". TNW.
  7. ^ "Sprout Social Releases New S2 Edition of Social Media Management Platform". www.businesswire.com. November 9, 2011.
  8. ^ Paul, Victoria de (April 13, 2015). "Presentamos Sprout Social en Español y Portugués". sproutsocial.com.
  9. ^ Sprout Social Landscape marketingland.com
  10. ^ "Marketing partners. Sprout Social". Facebookmarketingpartners.com. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
  11. ^ "Twitter Adds Sprout Social To Elite List Of Certified Products". www.businesswire.com. November 13, 2012.
  12. ^ "Having Already Wooed Facebook, Sprout Social Now Gets Twitter Love, Too". Retrieved 10 April 2024.
  13. ^ Wilhelm, Alex (November 13, 2012). "Twitter Knights Sprout Social". TNW.
  14. ^ "Sprout Social Introduces Google+ Pages API Integration". www.businesswire.com. May 21, 2013.
  15. ^ Team, Product (December 17, 2014). "Start Publishing to Your LinkedIn Company Pages from Sprout". Sprout Social.
  16. ^ Sprout Social instagrampartners.com
  17. ^ Connolly, Amanda (June 26, 2015). "Sprout Social introduces Instagram integration to its platform". TNW.
  18. ^ "Sprout Social Partners With Twitter on Customer Care Initiative" (Press release) – via PR Newswire.
  19. ^ Lunden, Ingrid (October 21, 2015). "With Customer Care, Twitter Wants To Sharpen Its Profile As A Platform To Do Business". TechCrunch.
  20. ^ Wilhelm, Alex (May 8, 2012). "Sprout Social and Zendesk Team Up". TNW.
  21. ^ "Sprout Social Integration with UserVoice Helpdesk Connects Social to Support". community.uservoice.com.
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  • Official website
  • Business data for Sprout Social, Inc.: