You’ve probably seen mentions of Sprout Social when you’re applying for jobs. More and more companies, especially for jobs in fields like marketing and communications, are requiring applicants to have experience in this social media software. Although it has only been launched in 2010, it has quickly become the ultimate way to schedule, post, and monitor social media related content. 

Although you may assume Sprout Social is just another tool to schedule posts, think again. The primary purpose of using Sprout Social is to build a brand persona with high engagement. This means that, through using this tool, you should be able to establish a unique way to express your brand or product. It’s also an analytics tool, providing you with the numbers to back up your marketing and content ideas. 

Although this platform is incredibly useful and widely used across many industries, many universities don’t teach it to their students just because of how new it is. This prevents students from applying to modern jobs that use this tool. Thankfully, the platform is easy to learn if you take the time to explore all of the important aspects.

Let’s discuss what Sprout Social does and how you can leverage these new skills to get more opportunities in the job search. 

What Is Sprout Social? 

Sprout Social is a platform to help social media managers  schedule posts, manage conversations, and collect campaign insights.

For example, if you want to upload three posts to Instagram, Sprout Social can:

• Publish them at a specific time with its scheduling tool, which also helps to optimize your response with campaign planning and time suggestions.
• Tell you how well the posts did with rich social data, provided through Sprout Social’s analytics and social listening tools.  
• Respond to all customer comments across multiple social media platforms with Sprout Social’s engagement tools. 
• And, figure out the collective community response by tracking customer conversations and competitor actions.

No wonder companies want you to learn this tool!

How to Learn About Sprout Social 

Thankfully, the interface is so easy that the best way to learn is to just experience it for yourself. Sprout Social offers a free 30 day trial, which is more than enough for you to learn the ropes. Getting Sprout Social certification also only takes around 4 hours.  

Even if you don’t have a company social media account of your own, you can input your personal TikTok or Instagram accounts just to see how the software reports social media data or responds to comments. 

However, if you’re still unsure how to use it, or just want a more academic learning structure, then there are multiple free walkthroughs and tutorials online for you to use. Sprout Social also offers its own Learning Portal to get you started on the basics and beyond. If you get stuck, or you just want more input, you can also join Sprout's Community, where you can ask questions and get advice from experienced users as well as the Sprout team. 

How to Utilize Sprout Social In Your Resume 

Once you’ve gained experience in Sprout Social, you probably want to list it on your resume. If you decide to use Sprout’s Learning Portal to learn about the software tool, you can also gain Sprout Certification as mentioned earlier. Just like certifications for other tools such as Google Analytics, Sprout Certification is the best way to prove your knowledge. 

Having certification is a huge Applicant Tracking System (ATS) benefit, since most companies who want people with Sprout Social experience place it as high priority during resume parsing. Similarly, it also helps your Hireability Score. The Hireability Score, PathMatch’s algorithm based score, is the best way to help you determine how likely you are to get a role. The higher your number is on the scale, the more attractive your resume looks to recruiters! Check out your Hireability Score in the PathMatch app.

No matter how you learn it, Sprout Social is a highly in-demand tool that has become necessary to learn. If your job applications aren’t getting any responses, or you keep getting rejected, try to take the time to invest in this social media tool. You might be surprised at the changes a few hours can do to your application. 

Interested in learning more about the skills it takes to make it in the workforce? PathMatch can help you find companies that match your interests and help you build an application. Download the Pathmatch app today!