Sprout Social Review 2024: Best Social Media Management Platform?

Tired of managing your social media accounts manually? Looking to establish and build your brand on social media?

Whether you’re looking for a timesaver or just need an automated business solution for managing your accounts, there are plenty of options out there. But if you’re in the market for a comprehensive suite that can really help give your online presence a boost, Sprout Social should definitely be on your radar.

In this Sprout Social review, I help you get a better understanding of how it can help you maximize your online presence through organized and efficient social interactions.

I’ll examine its features, pricing plans, customer service support options, and much more!

So whether you’re already using Sprout Social or just beginning to explore different social media tools, this review will help you find the right platform for you.

Keep reading to learn more about Sprout Social!

Sprout Social Pros & Cons

When considering a social media management platform, it’s essential to weigh Sprout Social’s pros and cons against your specific needs and preferences to make the right decision.

Sprout Social Pros

• Streamlined Social Media Management: Sprout Social provides a consolidated dashboard that allows you to manage all your social accounts from one place. This can significantly simplify your workflow, saving you time and reducing the risk of errors when juggling multiple platforms.
• Robust Analytics Tools: The platform offers in-depth marketing analytics to help you better understand your audience and optimize your strategy. It presents data in an easy-to-understand format, allowing you to make data-driven decisions easily.
• Effective Team Collaboration: Sprout Social facilitates teamwork by allowing you to assign tasks to multiple team members, track their progress, and ensure efficient communication within the team. This can enhance productivity and ensure that everyone is on the same page.

Sprout Social Cons

• Higher Price Point in Comparison to Basic Tools: Sprout Social’s pricing can be a hurdle, especially for small businesses or freelancers on a tight budget. But it’s essential to understand its value. The array of tools, insights, and efficiencies you gain can drive significant ROI in the long run, outweighing the monthly expense.
• Learning Curve: While Sprout Social is packed with features like the social listening tool, social media marketing scheduler, etc., it may take some time for new users to get the hang of it. However, the company offers comprehensive tutorials and excellent customer care to help you navigate the initial learning phase.

Quick Verdict – Is Sprout Social Worth the Money?

After thoroughly exploring and using Sprout Social for various campaigns and strategies, the verdict is clear:

Yes, Sprout Social is worth the investment for any serious marketer or business looking to improve their social media game. Here’s why:

Sprout Social account can streamline and automate social media management, providing a unified dashboard for all your accounts. This key selling point simplifies your workflow and saves you valuable time that could be better spent on strategic tasks.

You may hesitate over the cost of Sprout Social, considering it to be higher than other platforms and competitors. However, considering the range of features it offers, including social listening, smart inbox, tasking, employee advocacy, and social CRM, and the time saved by managing all your social accounts in one place, the investment is worth it!

It’s important to note that while Sprout Social is incredibly powerful, it isn’t without its learning curve. Some users, especially those new to social media management platforms, may find it somewhat overwhelming.

Ready to revolutionize your social media strategy? Give Sprout Social a try.

You’re not just getting a tool but investing in a resource that could drive your brand’s social media marketing strategy forward. 

Who is Sprout Social for?

You’ll love Sprout Social if:

• You’re a small business owner looking to automate your social media: Sprout Social consolidates all your multiple social media platforms and asset library into one manageable dashboard, making it a game changer for marketing automation and saving time.
• You’re managing a team (or teams) responsible for social accounts: Coordination can be chaotic without a central hub for all social media activities. Sprout Social provides a unified platform where various team members collaborate, schedule posts, respond to customer inquiries, and maintain a consistent brand voice across all channels.
• You’re a marketing professional focusing on data-driven strategies: If you thrive on understanding the ‘why’ behind every trend, click, like, and share, Sprout Social’s in-depth and premium analytics is your guide. It takes the guesswork out of campaign strategies, giving you more confidence in your social media marketing decisions.

You won’t love Sprout Social if:

• You’re an individual with basic social media needs: If you use social media for fun or just to stay in touch with friends and family, Sprout Social will be more of an expense than a need. The platform is designed for in-depth analysis and large-scale social media management, which may be overwhelming for personal use.
• You have a very tight budget or a solo entrepreneur starting out: Startups and individuals with limited resources might find Sprout Social’s advanced features and analytics more than they currently need. If you’re in this camp, consider simpler, more affordable solutions until your business scales.

What is Sprout Social?

Sprout Social is a comprehensive social media management tool designed to help businesses manage and enhance their presence. It provides a platform for companies to schedule posts, monitor conversations, view analytics, and manage team tasks from one place.

What is the key benefit of having Sprout Social?

The key benefit of Sprout Social is its ability to centralize your social media management efforts. Its robust features included social listening, an asset library, a smart inbox, employee advocacy, and content automation tools.

These features allow you to handle everything from content creation and scheduling to audience engagement and in-depth analytics. This holistic approach saves time and ensures consistency across all your social platforms.

How does Sprout Social work?

Sprout Social integrates with various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Once connected, you can use it to schedule posts, monitor interactions, reply to comments or a particular message, and analyze performance and social data.

It also comes with collaboration tools that allow teams to work together effectively, assign tasks, and approve content before it goes live.

How is it different from competitors?

Sprout Social sets itself apart from competitors through its user-friendly and intuitive interface, depth of analytics, and superior customer support. While many other tools offer similar features, Sprout Social’s detailed, easy-to-understand, competitive reports provide actionable insights. 

Furthermore, it offers CRM capabilities, allowing businesses to build and manage customer relationships directly through the platform.

Reasons I Recommend the Sprout Social to Everyone

#1) Streamlined Social Media Management

The primary benefit of using Sprout Social is its ability to streamline all your social media management tasks into one platform. This has been a game-changer, as it allows you to manage multiple accounts from one dashboard, saving time and reducing the risk of errors.

I’ve found that this centralization of tasks leads to improved efficiency and productivity. For example, instead of logging into each platform separately to schedule posts or respond to comments, you can do it all in Sprout Social. This feature alone can save you countless hours per week.

#2) Comprehensive Analytics and Reporting

Sprout Social’s comprehensive analytics and reporting tools are another reason I highly recommend it. These tools provide valuable insights into your audience, campaign performance, and overall strategy, helping you make data-driven decisions.

I’ve been particularly impressed with the channel-specific reports Sprout Social generates. It shows you how your content performs and gives insights into audience demographics and engagement trends. This information can be instrumental in refining your social media strategy and improving engagement rates.

#3) Excellent

Collaboration Features

Finally, the collaboration features offered by Sprout Social make it an excellent choice for teams. It allows you to assign tasks, set access levels, talk about trends using social listening, and approve content before it goes live, ensuring everyone on your team stays on the same page.

These features can significantly improve your team’s workflow. You can avoid miscommunications and ensure your social media content is consistent and on-brand. Plus, it can help you stay organized, even when managing multiple campaigns across different platforms.

What You Might Not Like About Sprout Social

#1) Pricing

One common complaint about Sprout Social is its pricing. Sprout Social is on the higher end of the price spectrum than other social media management tools. This is a higher price point for some small businesses or freelancers operating on a tight budget.

While its features and functionality can justify the cost for larger businesses or teams, smaller operations might be hard to afford. If you’re just starting out or your social media needs are minimal, you should explore more affordable options.

#2) Limited Customization in Reporting

Another potential downside of Sprout Social is its limited customization in reporting. While the platform provides comprehensive standard reports, it offers little customization flexibility.

This could be a stumbling block for businesses requiring specific or unique data points. You might need additional analytics tools to supplement Sprout Social’s reporting, which could add to your overall costs and complicate your workflow.

Sprout Social Pricing

Sprout Social’s plans range to suit various needs and budgets, starting at $249 per month for the Standard Plan. Professional and Advanced plans are available for those requiring more advanced features, including social listening, smart inbox, and social media posts.

Further, there is custom pricing and services offered in the Enterprise plan. Free trial users can explore the full functionality of Sprout Social with a 30-day free trial, with no credit card required, ensuring the platform meets their needs before making a financial commitment.

Sprout Social: Key Features Breakdown

Let’s break down all the features of Sprout Social and delve into the details of each feature:

Publishing and Scheduling

Sprout Social’s Publishing and Scheduling feature is a comprehensive tool allowing users to draft, schedule, and post content across multiple channels from one unified interface. With this, you can plan your social content calendar weeks or months ahead, using data-driven industry insights and content library to choose optimal posting times.

This feature stands out due to its ‘ViralPost’ functionality, which determines the most effective times for content publishing, increasing the likelihood of higher audience engagement. Using algorithmic data to pinpoint peak engagement periods takes away the guesswork.

This feature was a revelation, particularly when juggling multiple campaigns. It streamlines and automates the content scheduling and publishing process and noticeably enhances engagement rates. The ability to set, forget, and then review the performance makes consistency in your social media activity effortless, giving you peace of mind and more time to focus on strategic tasks.

Analytics

Sprout Social’s Analytics feature encompasses detailed reporting tools that dissect your social media performance data, offering breakdowns of engagement tools and metrics, audience demographics, and campaign effectiveness. These insights are presented through easy-to-understand graphs and charts within a customizable dashboard.

The platform’s ability to convert complex data into straightforward, actionable insights sets Sprout Social’s analytics apart. This feature gives a snapshot of current performance and helps forecast future social media trends and audience behaviors, putting it ahead of traditional analytics tools.

From my experience, the clarity provided by Sprout Social’s analytics is transformative. The all-in-one platform reshapes how you approach social media strategies by highlighting what content resonates with your audience.

The informed future campaigns and content can save you time previously spent on trial and error to directly contribute to a more robust social media presence.

Integrations

The integrations allow you to connect seamlessly with other software tools and systems. Whether linking with your social CRM tools, connecting to e-commerce platforms, or integrating with content management systems, Sprout Social ensures a cohesive workflow.

The power of Sprout Social’s integrations lies in its extensive compatibility with many tools, from Google Analytics to Salesforce and even niche industry-specific systems. This flexibility ensures businesses can maintain their existing digital asset when incorporating Sprout Social. Instead, it centralizes your operations, making your data more accessible and actionable.

Implementing Sprout Social within our existing framework streamlined our processes incredibly. Before, we’d jump between different platforms to get a full view of our social media marketing efforts, which was time-consuming and allowed for errors due to manual data transfer. 

Integrating Sprout Social with your other tools centralizes your operations, which saves you and your team considerable time and significantly reduces the risk of overlooking valuable customer data. Imagine upgrading to a fully integrated control room for all your social media endeavors.

FAQs about Sprout Social

Can Sprout Social monitor brand mentions and engagement?

Yes, Sprout Social has event monitoring tools that track mentions of your brand health across platforms. It enables you to promptly respond to comments, incoming messages, and reviews, ensuring active engagement with your audience.

What kinds of customer support does Sprout Social offer?

Sprout Social prides itself on offering a range of customer support options, including a help center with guides and tutorials, email support, and live chat for immediate assistance. This ensures you can quickly resolve issues that you encounter.

How does Sprout Social handle the security and privacy of data?

Sprout Social takes data security and privacy very seriously, employing industry-standard practices like SSL encryption to protect user data. It also complies with global privacy regulations, ensuring your and your customer’s information is safe.

Are there training resources available for new Sprout Social users?

Yes, Sprout Social provides various training resources such as webinars, how-to guides, and tutorials on their website. These resources help new users understand the platform’s capabilities and how to utilize it effectively for their social network management needs.

Final Verdict – to Buy Sprout Social or Not to Buy Sprout Social?

After thoroughly reviewing Sprout Social, I strongly recommend buying this platform if you’re serious about effective social networking management.

Sprout Social has proven itself as a powerful tool for scheduling, publishing processes, monitoring, and engagement across major social platforms. The platform has received positive social reviews from users who have praised its excellent user interface, clean left navigation column, and robust features.

While some argue that the price point is steep, the value you get in return, in terms of time saved and increased social media engagement, can far outweigh the cost. Plus, with the option of a 30-day free trial, you can test out the platform and see if it meets your needs before making a financial commitment.

So, if you want to take your social media game to the next level, don’t hesitate to try Sprout Social today!

In the following section, we’ll explore some alternatives to Sprout Social for those who might still be on the fence or are interested in comparing different social networking management tools.

Sprout Social Alternatives

If $249 to $499 is too much for you to stomach right now or you need a different solution, you might like one of these alternatives.

#1) Loomly

Loomly is an excellent alternative to Sprout Social, offering a simpler and more affordable social management solution. While it may not have all of Sprout Social’s core features, it still provides solid post-scheduling and team collaboration tools.

Loomly is better for smaller social media teams or startups looking to manage their networking accounts without breaking the bank.

#2) Hootsuite

Hootsuite is another well-known name in social management. It offers many features similar to Sprout Social but stands out with its social listening tools and competitive analysis.

However, some users find its interface less intuitive than Sprout Social’s. Hootsuite is a good choice for businesses that prioritize tracking social conversations and understanding their competitors’ activities.

#3) Later

Later is a platform primarily focused on visual content scheduling, especially for Instagram. It is less comprehensive than Sprout Social, lacking features like monthly advanced analytics or customer engagement tools.

However, if your business relies heavily on a visual content library and Instagram is your primary social platform, Later’s visually oriented-planning tools are more beneficial.

#4) Buffer

Buffer is a user-friendly platform that excels in post-scheduling and publishing across multiple social networks. It’s a lighter platform than Sprout Social, focusing less on analytics and engagement.

Buffer is an excellent choice for businesses needing straightforward scheduling rather than a full-suite social management platform.