Get in Touch

28+ must-have content marketing tools

Want to step up your content marketing? Then our guide has all the tools you need to help with everything from generating content ideas and competitor analysis through to content creation, promotion and analysis.

All Tools

Sprout Social: Social media management system for larger teams

Overview

Sprout Social takes the social media management features even further than Hootsuite but it doesn’t let usability suffer as a result. Buffer is still the easiest of the three to use but Sprout Social comes close, which is impressive considering it has far more features to squeeze into its platform.

Where Hootsuite relies on data from Brandwatch for social listening, Sprout Social has its own native social listening system with more in-depth reporting included. Sprout Social also includes a CRM for creating profiles of social leads and using data to power follow-up marketing strategies.

Key Features

Social listening:

Uncover trends and actionable insights from social data to inform brand and business strategy.

Publishing:

Plan, organise, schedule and deliver content as a team with cross-network social publishing.

Content calendar:

View social content and scheduled posts across channels.

Social inbox:

Manage and respond to messages across channels from one inbox.

Review management:

Monitor reviews across Facebook, Google Business Profile and more.

Analytics:

Track social campaigns and post-performance to improve results.

Sprout Social Fig. 1

Benefits & Costs

Pros

  • Social listening:

    Sprout Social has its own social listening system (Hootsuite relies on Brandwatch data for this).

  • Social CRM:

    A built-in CRM combines social information with conversation history and other insights.

  • sability:

    Sprout Social proves powerful features don’t need to compromise usability.

Cons

  • Profile limits:

    If you want to manage more than 10 social profiles, you might want to look elsewhere.

  • Per-user pricing:

    Social Sprout’s plans are more expensive than many alternatives and the per-user pricing model makes them even pricier for larger teams.

Sprout Social verdict

Sprout Social is the most advanced social media management tool we’ve looked at today and the only real downside vs Buffer and Hootsuite is that it’s more expensive. This is compounded by the lack of a free plan with Sprout Social but a 30-day free trial gives you just about enough time to get a feel for what the system has to offer.

For larger companies and social media marketing teams, Sprout Social stands out as the best all-round solution for managing multiple accounts.

Which is the best tool for promoting content across social media?

Sprout Social wins this round with the strongest set of features and only falls slightly behind Buffer for usability. If price is no issue, this is the obvious choice for promoting content across multiple social media accounts but smaller companies and teams on a budget may want to look at Buffer – just keep an eye on that per-user pricing model that can make it expensive for larger teams.

Get in Touch

Content Promotion: