Hey there! If you‘ve landed on this post, you‘re likely assessing if Sprout Social is the right social media management platform for your brand in 2024. With new tools entering the market all the time, it can get overwhelming trying to figure out which one best fits your needs.
That‘s exactly why I put this in-depth Sprout Social review together. I‘ve personally used Sprout for over 3 years now to manage social media for multiple small business clients. I‘ll share everything you need to know – from features to pricing to who Sprout Social works best for.
Let‘s dive in!
An Overview of Sprout Social‘s Core Features
Sprout Social positions itself as an "all-in-one social media management platform." It aims to provide a centralized dashboard where you can:
- Publish and Schedule Content – Create social posts, schedule them to publish at optimal times, and manage a content calendar
- Listen and Monitor Mentions – Monitor brand mentions across social channels and join relevant conversations
- Engage with Your Audience – Respond to comments/DMs, assign tasks to teammates, manage customer relationships
- Analyze Performance – Review analytics and create reports to showcase ROI and impact
Unlike some platforms focused solely on volume publishing, Sprout places significant emphasis on social listening, monitoring brand conversations in real-time, engaging your audience, and proving business impact through social.
Sprout Social‘s central dashboard
Over the past year, they‘ve introduced capabilities like:
- NFT and social commerce integrations
- More advanced listening filters
- Expanded digital asset libraries
- A free marketing resource toolkit for customers
So with a high-level understanding of Sprout‘s core offerings secured, let‘s look at some of the major pros and cons:
Sprout Social Pros
Powerful Publishing and Scheduling – I‘ve found Sprout‘s publishing tools, content calendar, and scheduling extremely intuitive and helpful managing social for small business clients.
The ability to:
- Bulk schedule content across multiple brand profiles and social channels
- Automatically queue new posts into your content calendar
- Use tags to organize and filter different post types
Has been an absolute game changer!
The time savings here vs individually logging into each platform and scheduling the same post cannot be understated.
Sprout‘s content calendar makes scheduling a breeze
Robust Listening and Monitoring – Another huge differentiator is Sprout‘s listening capabilities when monitoring brand mentions or relevant industry conversations across every major social network:
With intuitive filters, assignment rules and the ability to save social posts or entire search queries into collections, Sprout makes listening simpler than competitors.
The sheer breadth of their monitoring impresses too – pulling in content from Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, YouTube, news sites, forums and more. 300 million social profiles and counting in their index.
Audience Analytics and Reporting – As an agency owner, one of my favorite Sprout Social features is their customizable reporting. Their pre-built report templates have saved me tons of client reporting hours.
At a glance you can analyze:
- Audience growth
- Engagement rates
- Reply times
- Competitor social activity
- Content performance
- And much more
With beautiful charts and graphs to visualize the data too:
For freelancers, agencies and boutique social media firms looking to showcase ROI, it‘s an invaluable asset.
Reliable Platform and Support – Whenever I‘ve hit the odd technical hitch over 3+ years as a Sprout customer, their stellar customer support has solved problems quickly.
Even on the lowest "Standard" plan, you benefit from regular email assistance. For Pro, Advanced and Enterprise plans, they provide additional live chat, faster response times and dedicated support reps.
From both personal experience and client feedback, Sprout‘s near round-the-clock assistance gives peace of mind.
Sprout Social Cons
Now let‘s balance those rave reviews by discussing a few of Sprout Social‘s downsides:
Steep Learning Curve – With a huge amount of functionality built into one platform, expect a slight 1-2 week ramp up getting to grips with Sprout‘s tools and how they interlink.
Their onboarding resources and help guides are excellent. But the initial onboarding can still prove daunting if social media management is all-new to you.
Potentially Heavy Investment – Sprout Social risks being a hefty investment if you only need 1-2 user logins to manage accounts. For solopreneurs and freelancers, that $249/month entry price tag seems extremely hard to justify.
Competitors like Sendible offer more affordable solo user plans for micro agencies and independents.
You only see value in Sprout‘s pricing once you scale to 5+ user seats. There‘s a minimum 2 user requirement on mid-tier plans too.
So smaller teams may find it an unnecessary expensive investment, especially during growth stages.
Occasional Platform Issues – In over 3 years as a customer, I‘ve noticed the odd platform glitch from time to time. Delayed notifications or temporary inability to connect certain social media profiles for instance.
Fortunately their customer support reps quickly investigate to resolve bugs. But worth noting for transparency the platform isn‘t 100% perfect.
Comparing Sprout Social to Top Competitors
Before we dive deeper into pricing and ideal customer use cases, it‘s worth exploring how Sprout Social compares against popular competitors like Hootsuite, Buffer and Sendible.
Understanding similarities and differences in feature sets can help match needs.
Sprout Social vs Hootsuite
Hootsuite has been around since 2008 – making them one of the original social media management players. They offer four core tiers:
- Free
- Professional
- Business
- Enterprise
Both Sprout and Hootsuite allow teams to manage social profiles, schedule content across networks, organize workflows and monitor brand mentions.
Some similarities between both platforms:
- All-in-one dashboard
- Content libraries to store assets
- Mobile apps so managers can publish on-the-go
- CRM tools to store social profiles and conversations
However, Sprout Social places a much heavier emphasis on social analytics and audience engagement capabilities than Hootsuite. For brands that just care about volume publishing, Hootsuite suffices.
But for added value around rich performance reporting, monitoring capabilities and streamlined audience engagement tools, Sprout Social edges out Hootsuite.
Sprout also provides more flexibility for social commerce features like shoppable Instagram posts or TikTok sales funnels vs Hootsuite.
Sprout Social vs Buffer
Buffer appeals to brands who just require straightforward scheduling and publishing across top social platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
They have an intuitive calendar manager, great mobile apps, seamless image creator and consistent new feature rollouts like video editing.
But Buffer positions itself firmly as a publishing-focused social media tool. They offer no analytics or reporting. And extremely limited options for social listening and monitoring compared to Sprout.
Buffer plans also get very basic beyond the core Pro plan – only adding things like additional users or social accounts.
For straightforward scheduling, Buffer delivers. But for an expansive feature set, Sprout Social easily wins out.
Monitoring conversations, responding to customers, proving ROI and managing collaboration simply isn‘t part of Buffer‘s remit.
Sprout Social vs Sendible
Sendible comes closest to a Sprout Social competitor in terms of blending publishing capabilities with listening, monitoring, automation and analytics.
Although Sendible has a lighter feature set, they offer competitive options for:
- Post scheduling
- Inbox stream
- Smart news feeds
- Auditing capabilities
- Collaboration tools
Where Sendible stands out versus Sprout is more affordable pricing plans for micro businesses and solopreneurs managing their own brand accounts.
For freelancers and single-person teams on tight budgets, Sendible provides better value. Their Essential plan allows 3 users for just $49/month – making it accessible for early founders without big funding.
But larger companies gain advantages opting for Sprout Social instead over time, thanks to superior analytics, richer automation tools, executive reporting and managed services via Enterprise tiers.
Ideal Sprout Social Customer Use Cases
We‘ve covered a lot so far! Let‘s summarize the main users and business types that gain advantages from Sprout Social:
Digital Marketing Agencies – With robust reporting, workload organization tools, helpdesk integrations and white labeling options, Sprout readily suits digital agencies supporting multiple brand clients.
Enterprise Companies – For global brands with large marketing teams, Sprout‘s sophisticated capabilities around workflows, messaging automation, analytics integrations and managed services provide huge upside.
Regulated Industries – Industries with strict compliance standards appreciate Sprout‘s advanced approval tools, policy center guidelines and audit logs tracking document social activity.
Customer-Focused Brands – Because Sprout emphasizes real-time audience engagement so heavily, it suits brands focused on community interaction, support and relationship-building.
Ecommerce Brands – For any brand selling products online, Sprout‘s ecommerce functionalities like shoppable posts, TikTok/Instagram selling and NFT tokens can accelerate revenue.
To reinforce these best-fit use cases, let‘s analyze relevant customer examples and statistics by industry:
Agencies
UK marketing agency Goat was struggling with scattered workflows across social media platforms. By centralizing 18 accounts into Sprout Social, they achieved:
✅ 5X increase in content output
✅ 72% of posts hitting optimal send times
✅ 11.5 hours saved per week
An impressive turnaround!
Large Enterprises
One Fortune 500 warehouse chain achieved great success migrating to Sprout. They improved response times 23x leveraging Smart Inbox. And reduced their volume of mentions needing response by 62% thanks to automation tools.
Finance & Insurance
Among regulated industries like banking and insurance, Sprout Social has proven impact too.
One investment management group saw 53% higher audience engagement after adopting Sprout‘s social listening capabilities to monitor relevant conversations faster.
While an insurance firm accelerated response times to complaints and queries by over 19 hours on average!
Retail & Ecommerce
The stats also showcase Sprout‘s strengths for retail brands:
✅ 200% increase in website traffic driven from social platforms after 2 years with Sprout Social
✅ 15% higher follower growth quarter-over-quarter
So whether B2B or D2C, ecommerce brands have capitalized on Sprout‘s commerce-friendly feature set.
This cross-section of data indicates that mid market to enterprise brands across most industries can extract tremendous value from Sprout Social.
Next let‘s explore the pricing and plans enabling brands to tap into these tools.
Sprout Social Pricing Breakdown
Sprout Social offers four paid plans, catering to businesses at different lifecycle stages:
1. Standard Plan
- $249/month
- 5 social profiles
- Scheduling & analytics
- Smart Inbox
- Email support
Ideal for early stage brands establishing their efforts. Gives a taste of Sprout‘s scheduling and reporting capabilities.
2. Professional Plan
- $399/month
- Unlimited social profiles
- Competitive benchmarking
- CRM integrations
- Team hierarchy tools
- Chat support
Proven fit for established SMBs wanting more advanced features as they scale up. Unlocks extra tools and priority assistance.
3. Advanced Plan
- $499/month
- Robust listening filters
- Automation bots
- NFT and commerce features
- Expanded asset library
- Predictive analytics
Targeted at mid market / enterprise users invested in optimizing workflows, selling through social and accessing premium data.
4. Enterprise Plan
- Custom pricing
- Managed services team
- Executive reporting & strategy
- Custom integrations
- Premium infrastructure
- Concierge onboarding
For global brands wanting white-glove support, customized to unique needs and ultra premium access.
These numbers don‘t account for Sprout Social‘s per user pricing model. $199/month for additional seats. And a 2 user minimum beyond entry plans.
Factor those additions in, and costs stack up quickly for smaller teams on tighter budgets. Freelancers and solopreneurs often can‘t justify 1 user pricing unless client budgets permit.
But the value prop improves as organizations grow. Efficiency and productivity gains outweigh the costs over 5+ users.
For context – an 8 person social media team would pay $1,592/month on a Standard plan. Seems pricey upfront, but reasonable if it delivers 3-4 hours time savings daily managing workflows.
Most brands thrive on a Standard or Professional tier plan based on my experience. You only tip into Advanced or Enterprise offerings once tremendous scale or executive complexity necessitates the premium capabilities.
Key Takeaways: Who Wins From Sprout Social?
We‘ve covered a ton of ground in this extensive Sprout Social review! Let‘s recap who stands to gain most by investing in this industry-leading platform:
Growing Organizations – Once past solopreneur stage, Sprout delivers material value helping teams collaborate on multi-channel strategies with centralized workflows.
Client-Focused Brands – With powerful engagement, monitoring and automation tools, organizations prioritizing customer experience thrive on Sprout Social.
Marketers Focused on ROI – Sprout‘s breadth of built-in reports and modeled analytics make quantifying social media ROI simple for savvy marketers.
Regulated Industries – Advanced oversight capabilities around permissions, approvals and auditing attract industries like financial services.
Commerce Brands – For retailers, D2C manufacturers and service providers, Sprout‘s shoppable social and influencer commerce features showcase revenue lift potential.
As for brands better suited to competitor platforms:
Budget Bootstrappers – Solo founders and early startups may find Sprout‘s pricing prohibitively expensive to trial until funded. Other tools like Sendible allow more bootstrap-friendly plans.
Basic Scheduling Needs – Brands who just require straightforward publishing without listening analytics can find Sprout Social overpowered. Scheduling-only tools like Buffer may better suit.
Hopefully that gives you a good feel for ideal use cases!
Next Steps and Getting Started
Thanks for sticking with me all the way to the end of this nearly 3,000 word guide! 😅
Let‘s wrap up with quick practical next steps if you want to trial Sprout Social:
💡 Sign up for a free 14 day trial here – no credit card needed
💬 Chat with their pre-sales team if any specific questions on onboarding or ideal plans
🤝 Connect your social media profiles to assess initial capabilities fit
Alternatively, if interested in competitor options explored earlier:
With that, thanks so much for reading! Let me know if you have any other questions on finding the best social media management platform for your brand and budget.
