Category: Social Networking
Price: Free
TiP Rating: 4/5 stars
Release Date: November 9, 2011
Version: 1.0.6.2
Seller: Sprout Social, Inc.
Rated: 12+
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Link to app

App Store Description: This is a companion app for users of SproutSocial.com. You will need to have an active account with Sprout Social in order to use this application. Sprout Social is a social media management tool created to help businesses manage their social media efforts more effectively and efficiently. Engage with your audience, manage team workflow and monitor your brand while on the go. Whether you are behind the counter helping customers or on the tarmac headed to a conference in Vegas, you will have the power to keep your business social.

Summary: The companion app for users of SproutSocial.com. The app makes it easy to monitor, manage, and engage with your audiences while you’re out and about.

Review: Sprout Social is a social media management tool that helps businesses engage with customers and establish a healthy presence on various social platforms. The tricky thing about social media is that conversations can happen at anytime, whether you’re at your desk or not. To help you keep an eye on your communities while on the go, Sprout Social has released a mobile companion.

When you first launch the app you’ll be asked to sign in. It’s important to note that you must have an active account with Sprout Social to use this app. When you sign up you have the option of linking your Twitter, Facebook profiles and pages, LinkedIn, and even Google Analytics profiles to your account. After logging in you’re greeted by your Smart Inbox, which keeps track of mentions and activity directly related to you across multiple services, such as @replies, retweets, and new followers. You can customize the details by tapping on the small triangle at the top of the page. Tapping on a message will open a menu where you’ll have the option to view the entire conversation, reply or retweet, archive, create a task, or send the message to your email.

You can also view messages that you’ve sent by tapping on the “Sent” tab at the top of the screen. Each message displays the number of responses and its potential reach. By tapping on a message, you can see more detailed information regarding retweets, replies, reach, as well as the option to resend or delete. There is also a search bar at the top of the screen that really comes in handy when you’re looking for a specific topic. For example, if you’re unsure if you’ve sent a tweet about the new iOS 5 update, you can search for iOS and it will filter the list by mentions of iOS.

At the top right of the screen is the icon to compose a new message. (This is quite possibly my favorite thing about the app.) Not only can you update your social accounts, but you can update all of them at the same time from the same screen. Your accounts are shown along the left side of the screen. Just tap on the ones that you want to update. When composing, you’ll notice that the “@” and “#” appear in the keypad next to the space bar – this is very convenient. If you’re entering a link, tap the link icon and it will shorten it using bit.ly. As with most social apps, you can attach images or assign a location to your updates.

My absolute favorite thing about the Sprout Social app is that I can schedule my updates without leaving the app. To schedule, tap on the icon that looks like a clock and a menu will appear with dates and times. You can schedule updates down to the minute. It would be nice to view scheduled messages in case an edit needs to be made, or you’re forgetful and want to double check that you did it.

The main feed shows you everything that your Smart Inbox is missing. It’s just like viewing a Twitter stream or Facebook News Feed. You can manually refresh by pulling on the feed (similar to Twitter), or you can let it update automatically and a green bar will appear at the top letting you know that there are X amount new messages. Tapping on any of the messages will reveal options to reply, retweet, quote, or email.

Tasks come in handy if you’re monitoring accounts with a team. The tasks tab will display items that have been assigned to you by others, as well as anything that you’ve assigned to yourself. For example, I received a tweet asking for my thoughts on the Sprout Social app. I assigned a task to myself by tapping on the thumbtack icon from the Smart Inbox menu. There you can leave a short reminder message and assign the task to a specific user. The thumbtack icon will then turn blue, signally that a task is attached. It can be viewed from the Smart Inbox, or from the Task tab. Once it’s complete, you can open the task, change the status, and it will then appear in the completed section of the Task tab.

The biggest difference I noticed between the web version and the app is that the app doesn’t come with all the awesome account analytics. This isn’t a deal breaker by any means. The app is meant to be effective while out and about and honestly, how often are you checking demographic information from your iPhone? Most likely it can wait until you’re back at your computer.

For an app that incorporates so much I found that it was surprisingly easy to navigate. It felt very intuitive and I believe that even a person using Sprout Social for iPhone for the first time would have no problem learning their way around. It’s certainly a powerful app for teams – You can manage multiple groups and switch between them almost effortlessly. The app is also great for anyone building a personal brand that has to manage multiple accounts. It’s a no brainer for any Sprout Social customer.

[Disclaimer: I write for Sprout Social's Insights blog. I wasn't asked to review the app; the above opinions are my own.]