How to Utilize Internal Tagging with your Publishing Strategy
Table of Contents
Tagging is only available on Professional and Advanced plans.
Adding internal tags to your published content in Sprout unlocks valuable insight and tracking capabilities. This article provides an overview of the best way to leverage content tags with your current publishing strategies in Sprout.
Tags vs. Campaigns
- Tags - internal labels used to organize, filter and report on your content. You can add tags to posts, Inbox messages, and Sprout Cases for in-depth analysis.
- Campaigns - a specialized tag type connected to the Sprout Campaigns feature. Like other tags in Sprout, you'll see Campaigns in your tag filters and tag performance reporting.
How to Assign Tags to a Post
Sprout tags are configured within your Account’s Tag Management Settings. Users with the Manage Tags permission are able to create, edit, delete, archive and unarchive tags from these Settings, as well as add new tags on the fly while searching for tags in the Compose Window, Calendar, and Reporting.
Users with the Apply Tags permission can search for and apply existing tags to content from the Compose window, as well as directly in the Calendar. Teams can also retroactively apply tags to posts within the Post Performance Report.
For more information on managing tags and user permissions, check out this article: Internal Tagging
In Compose
- Scroll to the Sprout Tags section of the Compose Window
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Click Add tags to search for or select available tags configured on your Sprout Account.
- When applying tags on the Advanced Plan, you'll see your Tag Collections listed. Click into a Collection to browse its tags, or type a tag name to search across all Collections.
- If a post caption is already entered, Sprout’s Recommend Tags by AI Assist will recommend the most relevant tags from your existing taxonomy beneath the tag input field. Simply click a recommended tag to apply it!
In the Sprout Calendar
- Locate the scheduled post or recently published post on your Calendar
- Click the tag icon to search for and instantly apply tags
- Alternatively, you can click the pencil icon on a scheduled post to open the Compose Window and apply tags in this way.
In the Post Performance Report
- Use filters to locate the post
- Click the tag icon to search for and instantly apply tags
Tag Automations: Apply published post tags to replies
If you are looking to categorize and track the comments received on specific published content, Sprout offers the option to automate your reply tagging within Inbox Settings.
Users with Administration Permissions can enable the option to automatically add published post tags to the replies a post receives by going to Settings > Inbox Settings.
This setting applies to each individual Sprout Group and is available on the Professional plan or higher.
Additional Content Tagging Tools for the Advanced Plan
Users on the Advanced Plan have additional tools on-hand to ensure that published content is being properly tagged with minimal manual effort. These tools eliminate the need for retroactive tagging and guarantee data integrity for downstream reporting workflows.
Require Tags for Publishing
Enable “Require label tags on each post” setting that will then require content managers to add a certain amount of tags to be able to schedule posts
Automate Tagging
Use Automated Publishing Rules to automatically tag published posts based on criteria you define. This works for all posts ingested by Sprout — whether sent via Sprout, natively, or from another app.
To set this up, navigate to Account and Settings > Automated Rules. Note: to create and manage Automated Rules, this requires the Manage Advanced Inbox Features permission within your assigned Smart Inbox permissions.
Monitoring Results in the Tag Performance Report
You can track the performance of your tagged content using the Tag Performance Report. In particular, this report can help you compare how certain content tags and campaigns performed against others. A full overview of this report can be found in this article: How do I use the Tag Performance Report?
For instance, utilizing this report at the end of a campaign cycle can help you identify which content had the most impressions, engagements, etc and compare the strategies you used to influence your social strategy moving forward.
To utilize this option, navigate to the Tag Performance Report and select the corresponding tags from the filter bar. You can start analyzing metrics like impressions, trends and top posts. You can even see the content that had the most engagement.
For users on the Advanced Plan: you have the option to schedule this report to arrive weekly or monthly via email, so you never miss an update!
Filter by Tags in Post Performance Report
This feature requires the Premium Analytics add-on.
Premium Analytics users are able to filter the Post Performance Report by tags to easily isolate content. To utilize this function, navigate to Cross Network Reports > Post Performance and then select your tags from the filter bar.
The Post Performance Report shows key performance metrics, including the overall impressions and engagements for each post. This can help you to analyze the content types that resonate most with your audience and leverage this information for your future publishing strategy.
Tip: The CSV export for the Post Performance Report will show applied tags for a post in the last Column. This is available on both the Professional Plan and Advanced Plan and does not require Premium Analytics.
Sprout Tagging + Publishing FAQs
Q: What’s the difference between internal Sprout tags and hashtags?
A: Internal tags are different from hashtags. Internal tags in Sprout help you organize your posts, track content performance and help to create deeper levels of data in your Reporting suite; whereas hashtags are great to ensure your posts show up for users searching for relevant conversations on social.
Q: Can I add new tags from the Compose Window, Calendar, or Reporting?
A: Yes! Users that are assigned “Manage Tags” within their Company Permissions will be able to add new tags on the fly by searching the tag name and then following the prompts to create a new tag
Q: How are the tag recommendations generated?
A: Tag recommendations are generated based on your post caption, the type of media attached (e.g., video vs. image), and tags you have frequently used within the last 90 days.
Q: Will AI Assist create new tags for me?
A: No. To maintain the integrity of your reporting and prevent "tag bloat," AI Assist only suggests tags that already exist in your Sprout Tag Management.
Q: Why am I not seeing any tag recommendations?
A: Ensure you have entered a caption in the Compose window. If a caption is present and no suggestions appear, it may be because there are no relevant matches in your existing taxonomy, or you have already applied all suggested tags.
Q: Are tag recommendations available on the Sprout mobile app?
A: Not at this time. Tag recommendations are currently available exclusively on the Sprout Web App.
Q: Which permissions do I need to add tags to a post?
A: You must have Publishing permissions for at least one profile and the Apply Tags permission enabled.
Q: Why am I seeing the same recommended tags after refreshing the recommendations in Compose?
A: If there are no AI-generated recommendations available, the system shows frequently used tags from your account instead. Try updating your caption text to get different AI-based recommendations.
Q: Will Recommend Tags work if my account doesn't have any tags set up yet?
A: Recommend Tags by AI Assist draws from your existing tag taxonomy. If your account has no tags configured in Tag Settings, there will be no suggestions to surface. You'll need to create tags first before the AI can recommend them.
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