Sprout Social: Easy to Navigate for a Novice User
October 21, 2014

Sprout Social: Easy to Navigate for a Novice User

Jennifer Wagner | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Premium

Overall Satisfaction with Sprout Social

When I was actively utilizing Sprout Social, it was on a daily basis for a small magazine and coinciding website. Daily, I would post news stories/articles on the website as requested by the company's owner. In addition, I was required to also post these stories to Twitter and Facebook as a means to direct traffic to the story on the company's website. Multiple news stories/articles were posted on the website daily, therefore it was essential to schedule the tweets and posts to Facebook so that our followers would not be bombarded with information all at once. In a company with employees from all around the world, Sprout Social was an essential and effective tool that each employee could use despite the varying time zone differences. Our tweets and Facebook posts were all scheduled to post via EST, thus making for great organizational tool for all employees.
  • Superb Organizational Tool: As an editor, I was able to easily schedule the company's website content (i.e. articles and news stories) via Sprout Social to publish on Twitter and Facebook at a specific time so that readers and social media followers would not be bombarded with stories all at once.
  • Simple and Effective Marketing Tool: The use of hashtags via Twitter and Facebook allowed me to direct our content to specific people in specific locations. Also, being able to schedule content, via Sprout Social, from the website to post on Twitter and Facebook helped to drive readers to the company's website.
  • Adaptable for all types of users with different backgrounds: As an editor with a writing background, I was unfamiliar with social media and marketing when I first began working for the company in which I was employed. However, Sprout Social is simple to navigate and it provides users with helpful tips and instructional elements to better understand how it works.
  • As a basic user, I did not delve into any of the perhaps "complexities" of Sprout Social. However, there were times when I would schedule content to publish on Facebook or Twitter and it would indeed not publish. Therefore, immediate notification of error would be helpful.
  • When I first began using Sprout Social, I did find it difficult to understand how to incorporate an image to post to Facebook. While I did teach myself how to do it, the steps were a bit confusing upon first use. Therefore I would recommend simple image uploading to improve Sprout Social use for beginners.
  • When I was working for the company in which I utilized Sprout Social, I did see immediate feedback when sending tweets to specific users, as I was able to schedule tweets to go out to those people when I knew they'd be "awake" despite differences in time zones.
  • Sprout Social helped the company grow in regards to gaining followers on Twitter (as we were able to schedule our tweets for go out at specific times), and schedule posts for Facebook did drive our followers to the company's website to see the original content.
Those in the company who utilized Sprout Social were the web editors. Each of us did the same job: We posted content to the company website and then scheduled tweets and Facebook posts, via Sprout Social, to publish at a specific time in which we were assigned/scheduled to do so (so that our followers would not be bombarded with information all at once.)
Honestly, I never utilized anything other than Sprout Social. But as previously stated, I found Sprout Social easy to navigate and effective to use.
While I am currently no longer working with the company in which I was employed and utilized Sprout Social, I do know that the company is still utilizing Sprout Social on a daily basis and I do not foresee a time when the subscription would be cancelled.
Because I was a novice user and knew very little about Twitter/social media when I first began using Sprout Social, I would rate it as an 8. It was generally easy to learn and adapt to; however, there were times when I had difficulty (i.e. uploading an image to Sprout Social to specifically have post to Facebook). Therefore, beginners should find Sprout Social easy to use; however, they will probably stumble upon a few things they have difficultly with.

Using Sprout Social

As a novice user, I was able to navigate Sprout Social very well, especially in regards to how I was required to use it for the company in which I worked for at the time. It was easy to understand and use. I generally did not have any problems.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • Scheduling posts to publish on Twitter
  • Scheduling posts to publish on Facebook
  • Implementing hashtags to reach target audiences
  • Uploading images to publish to Facebook