https://dudodiprj2sv7.cloudfront.net/product-logos/Sh/i0/UB2ZWQ2XJ8XW.PNGSprout SocialWhat is the best Social Media management solution?2014-04-12T19:49:36.389ZI began searching for a Social Media Management and Monitoring tool when I realized that I was finding it increasingly difficult to create the content, manage the outgoing messages and also monitor our social media venues effectively. It came down to Sprout Social. It is being used by the Marketing Department, specifically the Social Media group.,Simple to understand visual reports: the kind you can just SEND to managers, without the need to EXPLAIN what they mean :)
A robust scheduling platform so you can arrange the content for the week according to your publishing topics and still be allowed to manually intervene when/if needed
Being cloud-based and also available for smartphones and tablets allows for reliability: you'll always have some form of access to your material and venues, no matter where you are.
When we first started using SproutSocial they were still showing the "posted via" signature on Facebook, now it is gone. So the experience users see and live is made to look like it just came from a human, not by a scheduled machine, which is a great personal touch.
With LinkedIn Pages support in the building, they'll surely add another important platform to their portfolio.,Add YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr
Offer a freemium model,10,1,Cut down budget for having multiple persons on specific digital venues
Better employer branding as we manage all of our job offers through Facebook too
Allows for a proper corporate presence on social media, making sure that each (supported) venue is covered,,10,1,live feed from our events (Twitter, Facebook)
managing our daily social media feeds
nline contests: we are able to calculate the time-stamp of any message, based on the publish time we set in SproutSocial for each,I still remember the face of our Marketing Director when I showed him the smart inbox and all those mentions of us :)
I was also surprised by the multiple use of the word "iQuest" out there. So many websites and digital venues were using it and Sprout Social discovered them :),add teams and allocate specialists: one person for Twitter, one for Facebook etc. They can all work in the same app but on specific venues they are best at using.,No,Price
Product Features
Product Usability
Third-party Reviews,Would not chnage anything,Implemented in-house,No,Change management was minimal,nothing significant,10,Online training,10,10,Yes,Yes, it was 1-2AM, I was preparing for a meeting the next day where I had to present the past 6 months for all digital venues. I remember planning the design of the reports and then it hit me: I could just easily use the amazing designed PDF reports Sprout Social was producing and show them those. Great choice! Went back to sleep and nailed it the next day in the meeting room.,reporting
smart inbox,keywords (would rather have a drop-down where I can select my own variations/combinations, then write things like "keyword -from @username etc),Yes,10,8,10,10,10,Method of payment,Try to be honest and true about your business and objectives. They will not try to upsell crap to you, so the more you open in an initial approach and let them know your needs, th ebetter your profile will be matched against a solution that vest fits your needs.Valentin VesaSolid for Agency Use2013-10-24T14:55:34.711ZI especially liked Sprout Social's ability to organize your followers into categories, such as Twitter users who aren't very active. This allows a brand to weed out inactive users.
Sprout Social's reports are basic, especially when compared to reports from Simply Measured. But they lay out solid information in a very attractive package, and the data is exportable and customizable.
Scheduling posts across mulitple networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+) is simple, and the "Publishing" tab gives a nice outline of all your scheduled posts.
You can easily view your "history" with another Twitter user, not just a a recent conversation.,Reports are basic, and social networks like Instagram and YouTube are not included. If in-depth reporting is a need, you'll want to look elsewhere.,Brand engagement.
Customer service.,7,7,2,Scheduling posts.
Reporting.
Monitoring.,,Implemented in-house,7,Self-taught,Yes, though I'm sure there's plenty the Sprout Social team could show you that would be worth your time.,No,7,8,8,8Bryden McGrathSproutSocial — Stick to Reporting for a Satisfying Experience2013-08-13T23:15:45.848ZSproutSocial provides highly detailed, visual PDF reports that answer all of your key social media analytics questions in one location. For us, this is invaluable as it's the dashboard of choice we use to show progress and results to all clients.,Social media scheduling is extremely bulky and time-consuming. Lightweight tools like Buffer for scheduling are much more convenient and efficient, even after the time it takes to switch tools.
It is not a one-size-fits-all-dashboard because the interface takes too much time to load most features — the functionality that allows users to find people to follow and connect with is slow and ineffective, and managing any type of back-and-forth communication is very frustrating. You are going to use multiple platforms if you use SproutSocial.,Since implementing SproutSocial, we have been able to clearly tie social media initiatives to ROI for our internal marketing efforts as well as for those of our clients. Between measuring all of the social media-specific metrics within SproutSocial, we have supplemented conversion monitoring with Argyle Social to show a clear social media attribution path.,8,8,1,1,Social media reporting.
Social media scheduling.
Social media management.
Finding followers on social media.
Social media analytics.
Social media dashboard.,,,Implemented in-house,10,Online training
Self-taught,9,Yes, it's pretty intuitive in terms of what is where and how to use the platform.,10,6,10,5,Google Analytics
Twitter
Facebook
Google+
LinkedIn,Argyle Social,Lizzie MaldonadoSprout Social is A Member of Our Marketing Team2013-10-23T19:15:03.366ZCreates visually appealing, clear analytics reports.
Easy to organize, publish, and edit across multiple clients and users.
Great for finding new audience members that may like the content.,You cannot respond to comments/responses through the platform.
Cannot upload videos to post.
Can only manage certain types of accounts.,Able to monitor and provide substantiated reports to clients.
Easy to manage multiple clients and teams.,9,7,6,1,Create and publish content, and manage social accounts on behalf of a number of clients.
Monitor and document analytics.
It aids in outreach and monitoring conversations to enter our client into.,,Implemented in-house,8,Self-taught,Yes, it's fairly intuitive and has a similar UX to other social platforms.,8,7,7,7,Facebook
Twitter
Google +,LinkedIn,,I am not sure.Sarah ZibanejadradData analysis inadequate for an agency.2013-02-22T17:08:45.307ZIt is a good overall social media analytics tool. It has basic data but it doesn't drill down to our specific needs, and it doesn't have the ability to deliver custom reports with hard data.
It certainly has some nice features (e.g. search) and is probably an effective tool for corporate social media managers.,It doesn't go deep in to data analysis: In order to supply our clients with the kind of data they wanted to see, we were still obliged to export data from the system into Excel and spend valuable time creating appropriate reports to share with clients.
We really needed a tool where we could build custom reports and provide our clients with access to those reports by logging into the system. Sprout does not offer this kind of "agency" functionality.
We also needed to compare changes in metrics across specific time periods. Sprout does not offer this functionality.,Better insights analysis for our online and social media data. Improvement on decision making,1,4,4,1,Social Media Analytics: Our main business problem was being able to provide our clients with proof-points that the social engagement efforts we were making on their behalf were, in fact, effective. The overriding issue was to provide customized metrics showing engagement through content click-throughs etc.,,,Professional services company,6,Self-taught,The product is fairly easy to use and has a good user interface, so it's not difficult to learn.,Yes,4,6,7,7,,There isn't any room for negotiationsVerified User
Sprout Social is a social media management platform for businesses. This platform powers smart social communication for leading brands around the world including Anthropologie, GrubHub, Hyatt, MailChimp, Spotify and Zipcar. Sprout Social is available via a web browser, iOS and Android apps. Sprout enables brands to more effectively communicate on social channels, collaborate across teams and provide an exceptional customer experience. The vendor says that its intuitive platform was designed with the user in mind, making it easy for anyone to publish content, monitor their social presence, engage with their audience and analyze social media efforts across all connected profiles. Teams can be up and running in minutes—Sprout does not require up-front investment, has flexible contract terms and there is little-to-no implementation needed. Sprout is a Twitter Certified Product, Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer and Google+ Pages API Partner, and also integrates with Instagram, LinkedIn, Zendesk, UserVoice and Salesforce.