Tool Reviews
Yasmina Akni Ebourki
Last updated: Jul 14, 2024
Content creation and managing content calendars are essential for every content creator seeking to simplify their workflow and enhance efficiency.
Choosing the right app or tool is crucial as it directly impacts your productivity and organization.
This article will analyze SocialPilot, an all-in-one management tool, and explore who would benefit most from this app: content creators, advertising agencies, community managers, or companies?
Ultimately, I'll provide a comprehensive review to help you decide if SocialPilot is the right fit for your needs.
TL;DR: SocialPilot helps you manage all your social media in one spot, with features for creating, designing, scheduling and integrating content. Its pricing plans are varied but tend to suit businesses and advertising agencies best.
What is SocialPilot?
SocialPilot presents itself as a comprehensive tool for managing all your social media accounts.
It stands out as one of the pioneers in the market, offering a platform that integrates Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and more into a single management tool.
Their goal is that you can see and manage all content calendars in one app.
It offers multiple features such as Ai assistant, scheduling, analytics and different browser extension such as Canva.
I've explored many of these features firsthand, so let me share the ones that stood out to me as particularly useful for content creators.
But before diving in, here are the pros and cons I've gathered:
✅ Pros
Generous 14-day free trial
Integration with various social media platforms
Content scheduling capability
Comprehensive analytics accessible within a single platform
Integration with different extensions such as Canva
❌ Cons
Analytics limited to company pages, not available for personal profiles
AI assistant for content creation lacks effective hooks and calls-to-action (CTAs)
SocialPilot features
SocialPilot offers an extensive range of features, covering publishing, analytics, engagement, and more.
However, having tested the professional plan specifically from the perspective of a LinkedIn content creator, here are the standout features:
AI Assistant
One of the first features I was eager to test in SocialPilot is their AI assistant for content creation.
It promises utility not just for LinkedIn but also for crafting Instagram descriptions and Facebook posts.
However, I found that LinkedIn is where the quality of writing truly matters, and this AI generator could use some improvement in that regard.
I started by exploring various templates tailored for different platforms.
Using the LinkedIn guide, I requested content on "common mistakes every entrepreneur should avoid" with an informative tone.
The result was correct, the content guide surprised me by allowing customization of post length, target audience, emoji preferences, and hashtags.
Additionally, it offers over 12 tones ranging from casual to informative, and even more unique options like dramatic or grumpy.
While the AI includes a hashtag generator, the results were less relevant for LinkedIn, where hashtags are less commonly used nowadays and the suggestions felt overly saturated.
One notable drawback is the absence of a hook or a compelling call-to-action (CTA) to conclude posts effectively.
Overall, SocialPilot provides valuable content ideas for LinkedIn but requires adjustments to better suit LinkedIn's content preferences, particularly reducing reliance on hashtags and enhancing essential elements like hooks and CTAs.
Publishing
Another significant feature of SocialPilot is its scheduling capability, highlighted by the inclusion of "bulk publishing" even in its basic plans, allowing scheduling of up to 500 social media posts through a .csv file upload.
This capability is extensive and efficient for managing large volumes of content effortlessly.
For small content creators like myself, I was particularly interested in understanding how the scheduling part functions within the application.
It allows you to schedule your content directly within the app, featuring a post preview.
However, it lacks a preview for the "see more" section on mobile devices, showing only a complete post preview on a computer.
Additionally, you can compose and schedule not only the main post but also the first comment associated with it.
One limitation I noticed is the absence of a visual calendar view for all scheduled posts, which would be more intuitive than the current list format.
Analytics and Advanced Reports
Initially, one of the features that intrigued me most about SocialPilot was its ability to provide analytics beyond what LinkedIn offers directly.
However, I discovered that for LinkedIn, access to analytics is limited to company pages and not available for personal profiles.
For company pages, SocialPilot provides insightful metrics such as followers, growth, impressions, and likes.
These analytics can be downloaded as a PDF summary, which is beneficial for comprehensive analysis but is only available in more advanced plans and team plans, not in the smallest plan.
Additionally, the dashboard includes a "publishing trends" section under the publishing summary, which shows trends in your published content and identifies what performs best.
Analyzing this data is crucial for refining your LinkedIn content strategy.
But if you haven't started yet, you can begin by viewing analytics directly on the platform of interest or directly on LinkedIn itself.
External Integrations
External integrations are a significant advantage for an app that encompasses various social media platforms.
SocialPilot offers URL shortening capabilities and visual content creation extensions like Canva, along with direct media uploads via Dropbox.
These integrations are conveniently accessible from the toolbar, making it easy to utilize them while creating content or materials.
Pricing
SocialPilot offers a variety of pricing plans tailored to different needs. These include Agency, Agency+, Small Team, and Professional plans.
The Agency+ plan, priced at €161.50 per month, offers full access to all features, making it ideal for larger teams and agencies.
On the other end, the professional plan, priced at €24.65 per month, is perfect for individuals or small teams needing basic social media management capabilities with 1 user and up to 10 social media accounts
Overall, SocialPilot offers a range of pricing options tailored to different needs, and despite the higher cost, the platform includes access to a wide array of social media networks.
The Verdict
In conclusion, SocialPilot aims to be the go-to platform for managing all your social media accounts, making it particularly valuable for teams and community managers.
However, for individuals, the platform falls short in some areas.
While the pricing is attractive, it includes limited features, and accessing comprehensive analytics requires a dedicated business page. This limitation may hinder personal branding efforts for those without such a page.
Overall, SocialPilot has its pros and cons, tailored more towards corporate digital communication management.
I encourage you to try it out and share your thoughts in the comments below.