Item: Sprout Social
Rating: 7
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction

Pros and Cons

Pros

Sprout is a decent publishing tool. It is easy to use and understand, so communicating is relatively painless. There are more sophisticated tools out there, like Spredfast and Hootsuite, but Sprout is good enough for simple needs. Some features that are lacking are robust editorial control, which more involved organizations may need.

Cons

The listening aspect is not detailed enough. I wanted to have more specific streams such as listening to specific people in addition to listening to my accounts and keywords.
The reporting is lacking in Sprout. It is not detailed enough to truly understand the specific kinds of engagement happening.

Return on Investment

My clients could easily tell the difference in the time they spent communicating to their social channels. Previously, they were managing their communication directly in the social networks. That meant they had a shared username and password among several employees. They also had to spend a longer period of time each day to decide what to communicate, when it would be communicated and which of them was going to do it. With Sprout, they were able to plan communications in advance and even write them as a team, setting the publishing for a later date. That saved planning time was valuable and it freed my clients up to do their other work.

Likelihood to Renew

Sprout is a very good value for the money, especially if you are focused on publishing, have simple listening needs, and don't have stringent reporting needs.

Likelihood to Recommend

Sprout is a good value given it's pricing. I do not think it is an enterprise level product, but small business should find a lot of value here.

Product Usage

Users and Roles

3 - Social Media Manager, Marketing Manager

Support Headcount Required

1 - I consult with companies and utilize Sprout for my clients. I am the main support person.

Business Processes Supported

Social Communication - Publishing information such as event details, inspirational content, and student work to my client's social accounts
Social Listening - Listening to the social conversation about my client and their industry, so that we could participate in the conversation

Evaluation and Selection

No - I didn't switch from another system per se. I chose this package for my client based on the budget they had and the needs we identified. Sprout was the best value for the money and it fit their basic needs.