What is Sprout Social?
Sprout Social is a social media management platform that helps businesses manage their social media presence and engage with their audience.
It provides a range of features like scheduling and publishing posts, social media analytics, social listening, and team collaboration.
With Sprout Social, businesses can manage multiple social media accounts from one platform and improve their social media strategy to drive better results.
Features of Sprout Social
1. Social media management: Sprout Social offers a comprehensive suite of tools to help manage multiple social media accounts on various platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.
2. Analytics: The platform provides in-depth analytics and reporting features to help users track their social media performance, measure ROI, and understand their audience.
3. Publishing and scheduling: Sprout Social allows users to schedule and publish social media posts in advance, saving time and ensuring consistency in their posting frequency.
4. Collaboration: The platform enables team collaboration, making it easy for multiple team members to work together on social media tasks, assign roles and permissions, and track progress.
5. Customer engagement: Sprout Social’s customer engagement features let users monitor and respond to customer messages, comments, and mentions across different social media platforms with a single tap.
Sprout Social Pros and Cons
Sprout Social is a popular social media management tool, but like any platform, it has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Here’s a breakdown of the pros and cons to help you decide if it’s the right fit for you:
Pros:
- Intuitive and user-friendly interface: Sprout Social is known for its clean and organized layout, making it easy to navigate and find the features you need.
- Powerful scheduling and publishing tools: Schedule posts across multiple platforms in advance, saving you time and effort.
- Robust reporting and analytics: Gain valuable insights into your social media performance with detailed reports and data visualizations.
- Excellent customer support: Sprout Social offers comprehensive support resources and responsive customer service.
- Integrations with various tools: Connect Sprout Social with other marketing and business applications for a streamlined workflow.
- Smart Inbox: Manage all your social media conversations in one centralized location, simplifying communication and engagement.
Cons:
- Higher pricing compared to some competitors: Sprout Social can be expensive, especially for smaller businesses or those with limited needs.
- Limited features for some platforms: While comprehensive for major platforms like Facebook and Twitter, features for other platforms might be lacking.
- Not ideal for enterprise-level needs: Large organizations might find Sprout Social’s scalability limited.
- Occasional glitches and bugs: Users have reported experiencing some technical issues with the platform.
- Limited hashtag management: Storing and utilizing frequently used hashtags isn’t as streamlined as with some competitors.
Overall:
Sprout Social is a powerful and user-friendly platform for managing your social media presence, but its high price tag might deter some users. Consider your specific needs and budget before making a decision.
Sprout Social Pricing
If you’re interested, you can give Sprout Social a try with a 30-day free trial. Once the trial period is over, you’ll be prompted to select a plan and provide your payment details.
Sprout Social offers three pricing plans to its users:
1. Standard Plan: This plan costs $249 per user per month (billed annually). This plan includes features like an All-in-one social inbox, Publish, schedule, draft, and queue posts, Content calendar, Group, profile, and post-level reporting, and iOS and Android apps.
2. Professional Plan: This plan costs $399 per user per month (billed annually). This plan includes all the features of the Standard Features+, Competitive reports, Custom workflows, Twitter trend analysis, Paid social reporting, Helpdesk, CRM, and Social Commerce integrations.
3. Advanced Plan: This plan costs $499 per user per month (billed annually). This plan includes all the features of the Professional features+
Digital asset and content library, Chatbots with automation tools, Automated Link Tracking, and External approvals.
Also included is an Enterprise Plan which is a customized-built plan with unlimited accounts designed to fit a customer’s needs. Features include Advanced Features+, Tailored implementation, Premier consulting services, and 24/5 prioritized customer support.
How Sprout Social Works
Sprout Social is an easy and complete tool for managing social media. To use it, new users have to link their social media profiles to Sprout Social. After that, they can access their social inbox to check all the messages from their linked profiles in one spot, make, plan, and post social content, manage and see tasks, enable social listening, track reviews, and generate reports.
Sprout Social vs Social pilot
Sprout Social and SocialPilot are both social media management platforms that offer a range of features to help businesses manage their social media presence.
Sprout Social is known for its user-friendly interface, powerful scheduling and publishing tools, and robust reporting and analytics. It also offers excellent customer support and integrations with various tools. However, it can be expensive compared to some competitors, and its hashtag management is lacking.
On the other hand, SocialPilot is a more affordable option that offers a wide range of features, including scheduling and publishing, social media analytics, team collaboration, and content curation. It also offers white-labeling options for agencies and freelancers. However, some users have reported occasional glitches and bugs with the platform.
Sprout Social Setup Guide:
Setting up Sprout Social involves several key steps:
1. Account Creation and Subscription:
- Sign up: Create an account on the Sprout Social website (https://sproutsocial.com/).
- Choose a plan: Select a subscription plan that suits your needs and budget. Plans offer different features and user limits.
- Billing information: Enter your billing information and payment method.
2. User Management:
- Add users: Invite team members and assign appropriate roles and permissions. Ensure they have access to the features they need.
- Set roles: Define user roles like Admin, Manager, and Member to control access and permissions.
3. Social Profile Connection:
- Connect profiles: Add your social media profiles (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) by providing the necessary login credentials.
- Grant permissions: Authorize Sprout Social to access and manage your social media accounts.
- Organize profiles: Group your profiles into categories for easier management.
4. Content Scheduling and Publishing:
- Compose posts: Create engaging content for your social media channels directly in Sprout.
- Schedule posts: Publish content in advance to maintain a consistent posting schedule.
- Bulk scheduling: Schedule multiple posts at once to save time.
- Draft management: Save draft posts for later editing and publishing.
5. Engagement and Monitoring:
- Social Inbox: Manage all your social media conversations in one central location.
- Respond to comments and messages: Engage with your audience promptly and efficiently.
- Monitor brand mentions: Track how your brand is being mentioned across social media platforms.
- Run social listening reports: Gain insights into brand sentiment, competitor activity, and industry trends.
6. Reporting and Analytics:
- Track performance: Analyze your social media performance across various metrics (engagement, reach, impressions, etc.).
- Generate reports: Create custom reports to track progress and identify areas for improvement.
- Schedule reports: Set up automated reports to receive regular updates on your social media performance.
Sprout Social FAQs
What is Sprout Social?
A: Sprout Social is a social media management and optimization platform that helps businesses manage their social media presence across multiple platforms.
What features does Sprout Social offer?
A: Sprout Social offers a variety of features, including social media scheduling, publishing, and analytics, as well as social listening, engagement, and customer service tools.
Which social media platforms does Sprout Social support?
A: Sprout Social supports a wide range of social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube.
How does Sprout Social help businesses with customer engagement?
A: Sprout Social offers a suite of tools designed to help businesses engage with their customers on social media, including monitoring and responding to customer inquiries, tracking brand mentions and sentiment, and measuring social media performance
