Asset Library

New to Sprout Social? Learn about how our Asset Library fits into our social media publishing suite here.

The Asset Library simplifies collaborative publishing and asset management within Sprout Social’s publishing suite. You can easily create, organize, edit and publish assets from a central location to create and deliver visually engaging social posts.

This article contains the following sections:

• Configuring Asset Library Settings
• Managing the Asset Library
• Managing Asset Library Folders
• Sharing Assets
• Using Assets
  • Instagram First Comment

Configuring Asset Library Settings

To ensure all team members in Sprout have appropriate levels of access to the Asset Library, it's important to configure Asset Library permissions.

To access these permissions:

1. Click your name in the bottom left corner of Sprout.
2. Click Settings from the menu.
3. Click Asset Library along the left bar.

You can choose to limit assets by groups or show assets across all groups. When selecting to limit assets by group, the asset only shows in the group you upload it to. 

If an asset is needed in multiple groups, but not all, upload it individually to each group. Adjustments to this setting are not retroactive and only take effect after you select a new setting.

Auto Save to the Asset Library from Compose

Streamline your publishing efforts by automatically saving images and videos from Compose to your Asset Library. Staying organized on social is hard enough and this convenient workflow shortcut saves you time. By toggling on the option to save images and videos directly to your Asset Library, you can quickly grab this media for reuse, rather than uploading the media first. 

Media saved from Compose gets put into the Auto Saved Media From Compose folder in your Asset Library. 

To automatically upload images and videos directly from Compose to your Asset Library:

1. Navigate to Account and settings.
2. Click Asset Library on the left-hand navigation panel.
3. Toggle on Save Media under the Save new media to Asset Library section.
   
   

Now, images and videos uploaded in Compose get automatically saved to the Auto Saved Media From Compose folder in your Asset Library.

Managing the Asset Library

You can manage assets from the Asset Library in the Smart Inbox or Publishing tabs.

Choose how want to view the Asset Library by toggling between the grid view and list view using.

The grid view shows all assets with larger previews.

The list view shows assets by assets detail, which includes a small image preview.

You can sort assets by Name, Creation Date, Created By or File Size by clicking the specific column header.

In the right bar of the Asset Library, you can filter your view by Asset Context, Asset Type, Tags or Authors to find your desired asset faster.

Uploading Assets

To add an asset to the library:

1. Click + Add Asset
2. Choose which asset type you want to add (image, video or text). Sprout supports JPEG, PNG and GIF (max size of 20MB) for images/gifs and MOV and MP4 (max size of 3GB) for videos.
3. Enter a name, Internal notes, Alt text and tag, if necessary. 

When you add a text asset, make sure to select the Context for Compose, Reply or Both Compose and Reply. This way, you can easily determine how to use the text asset in the future. For example, if  you’re running into the same questions, you may want to save a reply for you and your team to reuse. 

View Assets

Click an asset in the Asset Library to see the name, description, who uploaded the asset and when it was uploaded. 

Other asset information available includes file size, extension, who the last person was to attach the asset to Compose and when. You can also view and copy the asset's alt text for easy pasting in Compose when creating posts.

When viewing Assets, you can also quickly see which assets contain alt text with the Alt Text indicator so you can ensure you're using the most accessible content for your audiences.

Editing Assets

You can edit assets in the library with Sprout’s image editor to change image ratios and other features of your images. Click Edit to update the asset.

The edited asset is saved as a separate asset, while the original remains unedited.

Generating Alt Text for Assets

Within the editing view, click   to generate the alt text for the image. If you want to generate different text click Regenerate . When you're happy with the alt text description click Use Text and save your changes.

Managing Folders

It can be tough to juggle multiple social handles, specific assets and text and coordinating with other team members. By organizing your assets in Folders and creating hierarchies, you can better collaborate with your team and streamline your workflows in Sprout. 

Creating Folders

You can organize your assets across teams and Groups by creating Folders in the Asset Library. To create a Folder:

1. Navigate to the Publishing tab.
2. Click Asset Library on the left-hand navigation panel.
3. Click  in the top-right corner.
4. Click Add Folder. The Create a Folder popup appears.
5. Enter a name for your folder, and then click Create Folder.
   
   

Adding assets to Folders

After you create a Folder, you can start adding assets to it. To add an asset to a Folder:

1. Navigate to the Publishing tab.
2. Click Asset Library on the left-hand navigation panel.
3. Hover over the left-hand corner of the asset you want to add to a Folder.
4. Select the checkbox for the asset. You can repeat this process to select as many assets as you’d like.
5. Click Move to Folder at the top of the screen. The Move Items popup appears.
   
   
6. Select the Folder you want to move your asset(s) to.
   
   
7. Click Move to folder name.

Removing assets from Folders

If you no longer need an asset in a particular Folder, remove the asset. To do this:

1. Navigate to the Folder in the Asset Library you want to remove assets from.
2. Hover over the left-hand corner of the asset you want to remove.
3. Select the checkbox for the asset. You can repeat this process to select as many assets as you'd like.
4. Click  at the top of the screen. The Confirm Delete popup opens.
   
   
5. Click Delete.

Building asset hierarchies

Asset hierarchies can help you organize media assets by the segments that you specify. For instance, if a large flooring company has multiple brands under its umbrella, each with its own line of flooring products and each product with its own specific material - it can be a lot to try and understand which asset belongs where.

With asset hierarchies, the social team can use folders and folders nested within those to stay organized and understand which assets belong to each brand and product.

To build an asset hierarchy:

1. Navigate to the Publishing tab.
2. Click Asset Library on the left-hand navigation panel.
3. Click your desired Folder.
4. Click Add New in the top-right corner.
5. Click Add Folder.
6. Enter a name for the folder, and then click Create Folder.

The folder is now nested within the folder you selected.

Sharing Assets

You can share assets with your team members by sending them direct links to either the asset itself or the folder the asset is in.

Sharing Asset Library Folders with Groups

You can choose how you want to share assets across groups or keep certain assets private to specific groups. To update your sharing settings:

1. Click Account and settings in the bottom-left corner.
2. Click Settings.
3. Click Asset Library on the left-hand panel under Global Features.
   
   
4. Select either Shared across all groups or Limited to group for your assets.

Sharing a direct link to a Folder

If you need to quickly share a Folder of assets with a team member, you can copy and paste the link to the folder for instant access. To share a direct link to a Folder:

1. Navigate to the Folder you want to share in the Asset Library.
2. Hover over the name of the Folder.
3. Click Copy the link to this Folder.
4. Share the link with your team member.
   
   

Sharing a direct link to an asset

Alternatively, you can share a link to a single asset with your team members. To share a direct link to an asset:

1. Navigate to the asset you want to share.
2. Click Copy Asset Link in the bottom right-hand corner.
3. Share the link with your team member.
   
   

Using Assets

After assets are added to the library, it's easy to attach them to new messages from the library itself, or when composing a new message.

Send Asset to Compose

Click the checkbox in the upper left corner of the image, and then click Send to Compose. 

Compose: Attach from Asset Library

Click , and then click Asset Library when composing a new message.

 

Then select the asset(s) you want to attach to the post, and then click Send to Compose. You can view the library in list or grid format from this view.

Compose: Instagram First Comment

You can include your commonly used hashtags to use when posting an Instagram First Comment.

When composing an Instagram message:

1. Select your desired Instagram Business profile.
2. Add the image or video and text you want to post.
3. Click , and then type the name of the text asset or click Filter by Tags to find the tagged text asset you want to use.

You can also save hashtags to the Asset Library directly from the Instagram First Comment box. Following the same process, add your hashtags in the Instagram First Comment box, and then click . Name your asset in the Add Asset popup up, and then click Add Asset.

When it comes time to post on mobile, the first comment text appears in the Instagram post.

 

Your Instagram Publisher can copy the first comment text by tapping . Additionally, if you're scheduling a post to Instagram using the mobile app, you receive a reminder to copy the first comment after posting. 

Reply: Attach from Asset Library

You can also attach text assets in the library via the reply window. Click  to open a list of saved replies to choose from. You can filter this list by tags.

Additionally, if you write your own reply that you'd like to save for you and your team to use in the future, click Add current reply to Asset Library. 

Asset Security

Protecting your data is our priority at Sprout Social. All assets are securely hosted on Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3). 

Read more about Asset Security

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