Maintaining your visibility and relevance on social media is a constant rat-race for businesses. It is pretty easy to get overwhelmed, so you might need some help to make your task easier.
This is where social media marketing tools come into play. They can boost your efficiency with their ability to integrate the operation of multiple social channels on a single platform. From solo entrepreneurs to large business organizations, social media automation tools have become a key to reaching billions of netizens and luring your potential customers.
Table of Contents
Overview
SocialPilot is one of the emerging leaders in social media marketing tools. Established in 2014, it has quickly carved a definite space for itself, becoming one of the top preferences of small business owners and agencies.
SocialPilot has created a delicate balance between providing excellent features and the value for money to its users. This gives it an extra edge against its famous competitors like Hootsuite and Buffer.
You can connect all your social media profiles to a single SocialPilot account and operate them using the tool itself. Everything is right here for you to manage in a single space, from creating content, scheduling, and posting to generating analytics data and reporting. Schedule an entire month’s worth of social media posts in one sitting.
Keeping up with the ever-evolving social media trends and requirements is a top priority. And that’s what tools like these are putting their focus on.
In this SocialPilot review, we’ll try to understand the reasons for its success as a social media management tool.
SocialPilot Review: Pricing
While considering products such as this, the first thing which comes to your mind is pricing. And as a marketer, we want our requirements met with cost-effective marketing strategies.
SocialPilot reviews will tell you that it offers competitive prices compared to other players in the market. But that doesn’t in any way compromise with the features it provides. It has 4 paid plans along with a free trial for 14 days. This free trial will give you the taste of everything you can do with SocialPilot. So let’s take a tour of all the paid plans one by one.
Professional Plan
- This plan costs $30 per month.
- It allows you to connect up to 10 social media accounts.
- It can be used by a single user.
- You can queue up to 1000 posts at a time.
- You see all the social media analytics in one comprehensive dashboard.
- Bulk scheduling options are available.
- Finding relevant content to post is easy with curated content options.
- You can add up to 5 RSS feeds.
- It also supports GIFs.
- Drafted posts can be saved for scheduling or publishing later.
- Video posts are also supported under this plan.
- The browser extension is available for easy ad-hoc posting.
- Visual editing can be done on the mobile app.
- Facebook ad accounts can also be added to the tool.
- Boost post features are available.
- Prompt customer support is included.
- Multiple images can be posted in a single post.
Small Team Plan
- It costs $50 per month.
- Up to 25 profiles can be connected to this account.
- 5000 posts can be queued into the schedule.
- A total of 3 users can access the account in this SocialPilot plan.
- Detailed social media analytics are within access to read and download.
- White-label analytics reports are available as PDFs.
- The social inbox feature can be used to directly handle the engagement on Facebook and Instagram.
- 10 RSS feeds can be added for automated posting.
- Client management and collaboration features are available.
- Content curation tools help to find relevant content to post.
- A browser extension is available for instant posting or scheduling.
- All the features of the Professional plan are available under the Small team as well.
Studio Plan
- This plan is priced at $100 per month.
- Up to 50 social media profiles can be connected to this plan.
- 10000 posts can be queued at a point under this plan.
- Up to 5 users can use the SocialPilot account.
- 15 RSS feeds can be added for automated post scheduling.
- White-label PDF reports are available.
- Boost your Facebook posts for effective reach and engagement
- Social inbox features can be used to manage engagement on Instagram and Facebook.
- Visual editing can be done using the mobile app.
- All the client management features are available.
Agency Plan
- This plan costs $150 per month.
- Up to 75 social accounts can be connected.
- 10 users can access this SocialPilot account.
- Up to 10000 posts can be queued at once under this plan.
- All the features of the previous plans are available.
- All the content creation and recommendation features are available.
- This plan is suitable for large businesses with all aspects customizable for their needs.
All SocialPilot plans are reasonably priced, which must be apparent to you. Every paid subscriptions’ feature-to-price balance leaves not much to be desired by the users. This kind of value proposition offered by SocialPilot has built its distinction as a brand.
You might think that SocialPilot does not have a free plan as some of its competitors do. But the features offered under these free plans are hardly enough to fulfill the requirements of an organization. In contrast, even the lowest costing SocialPilot pricing plan can be enough for any small business or individual to manage their social media presence.
Interesting Read: 5 Affordable Content Marketing Tools That Every Marketer Must Have
Also if you opt to pay for the tool annually, it offers you a discount of 15%. This makes the deal even sweeter. It’s a steal compared to the other marketing tools out there. That’s why the preference has shifted from these tools to a SocialPilot since its inception in 2014.
Till now, we have covered the pricing options in this SocialPilot review. Another crucial aspect is the features available through the tool. So let’s dive into the attributes it offers.
SocialPilot Review: Features for the Win
1. Easy to Navigate Dashboard
Social media management tools aim at making things simple for us. SocialPilot has managed to do just that. Despite being loaded with features, it gives us a dashboard so simple you will be an expert at it in no time.
You can see the status of your queued posts from every account on every platform at a single glance. The graphical view shows the type of content you have been posting recently. On the top of the screen, you can see the tab for “Add Post,” which is a quick way to create new posts.
Connecting accounts to the SocialPilot tool is also straightforward. Just go to the Accounts section on the dashboard. It’ll show you all the platforms available, the number of connected profiles, and the option to connect more.
In the Posts section of the dashboard, you can manage all your queued posts. Create a new post or schedule a draft to be published. Content calendar tools, like in SocialPilot, are a convenient way to take in all your queued posts at once. You can approve pending posts from Content schedulers since they need approval on posts from Admins and Managers. We will discuss these roles in detail in the upcoming sections. Moving things around is just a matter of dragging and dropping.
2. Content Scheduling and Posting
The bedrock of social media automation is its content scheduling and posting tools. SocialPilot brings a convenient and hassle-free way to deal with this. SocialPilot also comes with a strong understanding of managing content.
There are multiple ways you can access the post creation window from the dashboard. The easiest way would be from the top of the page, as mentioned above. Go to the “Add Post” tab to access the post creation window.
Just add your text and media like images, emojis, GIFs, and videos. With the Canva integration, you can also include your visuals to it. Content curation tools can also be used from this space directly. When you insert any link into the post, the tool generates a preview of the page and its appearance in the post.
Select the profiles to which you want the post to be published. If you have grouped your profiles, just select the group to schedule the post on all of those profiles. Or you could choose every profile manually. It’s up to you.
The last step is to schedule the post. SocialPilot offers five options from which you can choose exactly how you want to drop your post. Here’s how each of the options functions.
- Add to queue: This automated feature decides a time slot for your post.
- Share now: Selecting this option will lead to your post being shared immediately.
- Share next: This option will schedule your post in the next best time slot. It can push the other queued posts back.
- Schedule Post: This option allows users to manually put in the date and time they want the post to be queued.
- Repeat Post: Selecting this will give you the chance of repeating your post at a frequency of your choosing.
Apart from that, thereโs also bulk scheduling. It allows you to upload a large number of posts at once and schedule them accordingly. SocialPilot offers you a sample CSV file that you can use as a template format to upload your content.
In this SocialPilot review, we’ll discuss other sources to bring content from.
3. SocialPilot Review: Content Curation & Feeds
Putting out content on social media doesn’t mean the content always has to be created by you. You can always share articles and blogs that interest you and are relevant to your brand’s identity. For this, SocialPilot offers one of the best content curation tools.
Curated content is an excellent means to stay regular with your posting when you don’t have new ideas or original posts to deliver.
Go to Curated Content in the Posts section and search keywords on a topic. The tool will come up with recently published links to content on the topic you chose. You can schedule these directly from the curated section just as you schedule the posts that you create yourself.
Another excellent part of the content automation tool is the RSS feed sharing. You can select the website of your choice by adding the RSS feed URL to the “Add Feed” section. Once added, the tool will automatically share any new content published on that website directly to all your selected social accounts. The frequency of sharing feed from a feed is up to you.
Any well-informed digital marketer will know the importance of using hashtags with their content. SocialPilot has incorporated a hashtag feature into its content curation to maximize your reach. When you add the feed from a particular website, you can add a few hashtags. When a new post is made from that source, the hashtags will be added to that post.
4. Platforms Supported
It’s not about being everywhere but being in the right places.
SocialPilot offers you to connect multiple platforms to the tool. Compared to Hootsuite and its other major competitors, you get more options in platforms you can reach. This is a significant advantage SocialPilot has over others.
All of the above platforms are supported on the tool. The type of profiles you can connect from each channel is specific. Here’s the list.
- Facebook: Page and group
- Twitter: Profile
- LinkedIn: Profile & page
- Pinterest: Board
- My Google Business: Location
- Instagram: Personal profile & business account
- TikTok: Profile
- Tumblr: Blog
- VK: Profile & community
5. Browser Extensions
We don’t always stick to schedules when posting on social media, irrespective of whether it’s for personal use or business. You might come across an article or a post that you might want to share on your social accounts immediately. SocialPilot’s browser extension is the perfect shortcut for your intent.
This extension is simply installed in your browser from the links provided in the SocialPilot dashboard. Once done, the tool’s icon will appear beside the address bar of your browser. This is compatible with Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
When you want to post content that you have found relevant or valuable, just click on your browser extension. It will lead you to SocialPilot’s post-creation window. You can add text with the post, but it’s not required. Then select the accounts you want the post to go on, specify the date and time, and that’s it.
6. Social Inbox and Listening
Social inbox is a feature that enables you to connect with and monitor the audience’s engagement directly. SocialPilot offers this feature to its users. You can read the comments made on your posts and directly reply to them. If you are actively conversing with them, social media engagement is highly effective for you. This is made possible by a good social listening tool.
SocialPilot offers Social Inbox solutions for Facebook and Instagram accounts. You can monitor the messages and comments by the users on the Facebook pages and Instagram business profiles and also reply to them. You can also reply to posts on your profiles.
7. Analytics and Reporting
Analytics is an essential aspect of any social media management and reporting tool. SocialPilot also offers its users an integrated analytics and reporting framework. These features are available under all the SocialPilot pricing plans.
Some of the available metrics you can see in the analytics dashboard are followers, reach, engagement, frequency of posts, the content type you have been posting, mentions, etc.
The reports are understandable and transparent, and all the essential metrics are included. The dashboard is easy to navigate and doesn’t take much time to learn. Some of the other tools have complicated features that overload the user with information.
The moment you connect your social profiles and start to post through the tool, it begins collecting stats on your posting activities and engagement from the audience. You can also download white-label PDF reports.
These reports can give some fascinating insights. You can see a list of the top five influencers who have engaged with your posts and how many popular hashtags you have used. These hidden stats can make our social media management productive.
8. SocialPilot Integrations
The external app integration on the SocialPilot tool is kept compact. There are several tools that you can integrate into the platform. These integrations give additional perks to the users.
You can manage everything, from connecting thousands of external apps to the platform, customizing URLs, link shortening, cloud content management, and designing aesthetic graphics. SocialPilot has all the features right in the palm of your hand, which boosts its already efficient functions.
9. Team Management and Collaboration
If your requirements regarding social media management exceed a single user, you will need features in your marketing tool which support team management.
SocialPilot comes with efficient team and client management functionality. Users or account owners can add team members. The maximum number of members who can be added to an account is 10. But you can buy the add-on features which will allow you to add more people.
You can assign roles to team members. They dictate the degree of access they will have to accounts. The account owner decides these roles. These roles are
- Admin: They can manage and oversee the activities of the team members and deal with their account access except that of the owner.
- Manager: They can add updates to the accounts and approve, edit, and delete posts. They can also add and remove accounts and change post schedules.
- Content Scheduler: They can create, edit, and delete posts but don’t have the authority to schedule them. They need the approval of a manager or an admin to do so.
You can also add clients to the SocialPilot account. If you give them access to create and or boost posts, they will become team members. Owners can remove members and clients anytime they want.
The team management features in SocialPilot make for efficient workflow management. Differentiated roles of team members help get the task done without any complications because the control remains centralized.
Interesting Read: 5 Wonderful Social Media Collaboration Tools for Your Marketing Team
10. Customer Support
SocialPilot provides excellent customer support. They are available for users 24×5. Unlike other enterprises, it prioritizes customer experience. Hence they are quick in their responses to queries.
You will find many SocialPilot reviews online stating their response time is even shorter than they claim. They have several ways their users can reach them. You may put your queries in the live chat option on their website or fill out the contact form.
The fastest way to get a response from them is to reach out through email. SocialPilot advertises their response time to be 4 hours, but users have said they got a reply within 2 hours.
SocialPilot Review: Pros and Cons
All the SocialPilot reviews list the advantages of using the tool and it’s taking over its competitors. Active users themselves have stated how their experience has been with the platform in their reviews. Based on these opinions, here are the pros and cons of SocialPilot.
Pros
- Very easy to use
- Manages multiple profiles from all the major social media platforms
- Provides excellent value for money
- Allows more accounts to be connected as opposed to its competitors at the same price
- Setup is quick and easy
- Visualization of content strategy is conveniently available from the content calendar
- Access to analytics for all the paid plans
- Useful engagement metrics included in the analytics report
- Multi-user features make team management and collaboration smooth
- The approval workflow is easily managed with specified guidelines from the account owner
- The browser extension makes ad-hoc posting and sharing content easy
- Efficient content suggestion features are available
- A wide array of functions with multiple integrations
- Scheduling and analytics dashboards are easily navigable
- Compatible with Android and iOS
- Bulk scheduling function to organize and queue in a large number of posts in one go
- Efficient customer support facilities
- Branded white-label reports are available for download
- Perfect fit for solopreneurs, small businesses, and agencies
Cons
- Social inbox only for Facebook and Instagram
- Doesn’t have a YouTube integration yet
We have discussed the why’s of SocialPilot being great at social media marketing management. But what are the values being offered by its main competitors in comparison to SocialPilot? Analyzing the other players in the market will help us understand why it is a tool that people are shifting towards.
SocialPilot vs Hootsuite vs Buffer
Below is a comprehensive comparison of these social media management tools.
It is apparent that SocialPilot offers the most value for money amongst the three. The target audience of all these tools is slightly different, but SocialPilot and Buffer are closer in terms of the type of users. These are the ones who look for reasonably priced tools to manage their social media marketing.
Buffer might come across as a bargain, charging you per channel. But don’t be fooled. This pricing style might get unsustainable in the long run. Connecting a single profile with the Essentials plan can cost $60. Whereas under SocialPilot, it costs $25.5 for one account.
If we compare SocialPilot vs. Hootsuite, the point of contrast is pretty apparent. Hootsuite comes across as an all-encompassing social media marketing tool, filled to the brim with features and hundreds of integrations. But this comes at extravagant prices which not everyone can afford.
Whereas SocialPilot offers a neat and compact setup that any individual can get the hang of within a day. They offer all the features Hootsuite does at a much lesser price than its top competitors.
User Testimonials
Now, letโs hear from some verified users themselves, how their experience with the tool has been.
Jenna D
It took me a solid 3 weeks to compare and contrast every single social media scheduling tool on the market, but I’m glad I did it! SocialPilot was BY FAR the best service for the best price. I get more from SocialPilot than I do from HootSuite or Buffer at a fraction of the cost… AND their customer support is unbeatable! Thanks for all you guys do! You’ve helped me and my business more than you’ll ever know! I use a lot of different platforms for my work, and SocialPilot is simply the best.
Lisa D
I am a freelance SMM with a handful of clients and a growing portfolio. I tend to serve smaller businesses and entrepreneurs looking for affordable services. When looking for a content planner, it was important for me to have very specific features while also keeping the cost low so that I could pass saving on to my clients. After researching several options, Social Pilot was a great solution. Since subscribing, I have also been very impressed with their customer service. They are easy to get a hold of and to talk to. I don’t feel like I’m chatting with a robot or someone who only responds with vague prompts.
Dennis S
Through SocialPilot we have managed to make light work in terms of the management of our social networks and our CRM. I can easily schedule the publication of content on different platforms and design marketing strategies without mishaps. SocialPilot is extremely intuitive, easy to configure, easy to use, and its features and customer service are fantastic. It’s simply amazing how useful this application is for social media management and marketing campaign planning in search of generating customers and leads, it’s worth a try.
David H
The overall system is very user-friendly and regularly being updated with more social media services. Able to bulk schedule posts. Their customer service has always been very good and any minor issues have always been handled promptly. A great solution to posting to multiple social media platforms and accounts. I have looked at many systems like this and SocialPilot continues to be the best system and is regularly being improved.
Conclusion
Social media management is a key driver in the growth of businesses nowadays. Different businesses take separate routes in case of strategizing and promotion. But the constant upkeep of social media presence can be cumbersome, to say the least. Despite that, one thing that remains the same is the need for social media presence. However, it can be quite cumbersome and draining.
Tools like SocialPilot are game-changers for organizations. Managing so many platforms and being regular is a challenge it tackles within a snap. SocialPilot has emerged as a promising option in the crowd of other marketing tools. That is because of the value it brings to all of its users.
We hope you got most of your questions answered with our detailed SocialPilot review, if not all. Watch out for more of such reviews, tips, hacks, and social media trends. If you want to share your thoughts, you can write for us. Until then, happy posting!
Frequently Asked Questions
๐ What platforms does SocialPilot support?
SocialPilot supports all the major social media platforms which include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google My Business, TikTok, Tumblr, and VK.
๐ Does SocialPilot have a free version?
SocialPilot offers a free trial of 14 days. Post that, they offer their Professional plan for $30 per month.
๐ How do I connect my Instagram to my SocialPilot?
Just go to the Accounts section on the left side menu. Select "Connect Account ."Then go to Instagram and click on "connect personal" if it's a personal account. Select "Connect Business" if it's a business page. Now sign in to your Instagram account, and it'll be connected to your SocialPilot account.
๐ Can SocialPilot post stories?
Yes, you can schedule and post Instagram stories from SocialPilot. Itโll also show you the ideal time choice for posting.
๐ What is better and cheaper than Hootsuite?
SocialPilot is much more affordable than Hootsuite. It costs only $30 per month for the Professional plan whereas Hootsuite costs $49. If you opt to pay on an annual basis, SocialPilot will cost only $25.5 per month.