Farewell CoTweet, Hello Sprout Social!

February 16, 2012 | Posted by Tiffany Starnes

One of our favorite social media tools, CoTweet, officially ”sunsetted” (their word) their standard product on Valentine’s Day.  Too bad, as it was a great resource and, although they are selling premium model, the ability to update Twitter should not come with a hefty price tag (I won’t reveal the astronomical 6-digit potential price tag we were quoted for comparable service). Breaking up is hard to do, but there is a new platform in our life: Sprout Social!

Ashley: I have to say their timing was terrible. CoTweet officially broke up with us on Valentine’s Day. Of all days to get dumped  by anyone (or anything), Valentine’s Day is a tough one. Nonetheless, we’re moving on, moving up and exploring new programs to help our agency run smoothly. One of the new monitoring platforms we’re testing is Sprout Social. It’s similar to CoTweet in its user-friendly interface, but it has a lot more pizazz and a few extra bells and whistles, too. I really like the look and navigation of the site, and I’m particularly excited about the user search by keywords, which allows you to find people or brands who are engaging in conversations that you’d like to be a part of. I’m excited to dig deeper and see all the ways it can help us and our clients.

Sally: During my brief courtship with Sprout Social, I am taken with its aesthetics and cool graphics, plus all scheduled messaging and tasks are clearly laid out by day and are easy on the eyes. On a less superficial level, it’s logical and user friendly. I like that I can designate which of my channels I want to see or hide. For example, I could look at the Twitter streams from multiple accounts, or the Facebook and Twitter streams from one account, and so on. I’m looking forward to taking this relationship to the next level.

Brooke: As I’m not one for too much sap, I’m probably taking the breakup from CoTweet the best. Or maybe, it’s just easier when you’ve found something better to occupy your mind, time and talents with. For me that something is Sprout Social. The fact is Sprout Social is just plain sexier, what with its analytics, ability to multi-task over multiple social platforms and picture friendly platform. We’re a match made in heaven.

Noelle: I was pretty distraught about CoTweet’s breakup with us this week but with the end to any relationship comes new opportunities. I can’t officially say I’m in love yet, it has only been a day, but I’m excited by the prospect of a new long term relationship with Sprout Social. Not only is it prettier – always a plus – but it offers analytics, allows you to schedule photos (a favorite of mine) AND export data at one click of a button. I hope this will make CoTweet just a little jealous!

Tiffany: Monitoring several accounts in real time is imperative to keep up with conversations about your clients and industry. Not only does Sprout Social allow for real time monitoring of multiple streams, it pulls in Google Analytics, too, giving you a one stop dashboard to review several performance metrics.  Sprout also allows for collaboration across social media accounts and networks. It is easy to group separate profiles, review scheduled items, delegate important tasks and make notes on content or contacts, all of which can be viewed by any team member given access.  It also makes identifying, following and grouping contacts easy.

We will continue to dig into Sprout Social and share new tips and tricks. We’re also investigating a Meltwater product called Jitter Jam that is chock full of incredible bells and whistles. We’ll keep you posted!