We covered Sprout's widget creator, product SproutBuilder at the DEMO '08 conference. Since then, it had to withdraw their free offerings to concentrate on remaining profitable. The good news is that recently, it is putting a toe back in with the availability of a limited free account type that allows for up to 3 projects (widgets) without reporting features or support. This is perfect if you have an idea for a Sprout widget but you want to try before you buy.

Details on how Sprout's foray into social media campaigns will work on a technical level are not outlined in the provided documentation. But, if it is telling us that a marketer or advertiser can use their product and deploy it cross-platform without any coding skills, it could potentially add up to a big cost savings overall and may make the difference between Sprout and one of its competitors. Plus, one of those platforms is Facebook, which means instant viral exposure to millions of active user accounts.