Social Report Review
Detailed Reviews
Dealing with multiple social media accounts is a necessity for every individual who wishes to maintain his online presence and every company wanting to grow their business.
Social Report seems to be a promising social media manager where you can manage multiple social media profiles, get insight about the growth, and engage with numerous users.
Pros
- Huge Number of Social Media Platforms: There are almost forty social media platforms to which social Report allows to establish the connection.
- Fast Synchronization: Whenever any change occurs on the social media profile, it becomes visible on the manager within a few seconds.
- Ease of Use: Although some improvements can be expected, the application has an easy learning curve due to its efficient segmentation.
- Link Frame: You can create a customized header which remains on the top of the visitors’ screen even after clicking on the link provided in your post.
- Good Filter Options for Calendar: You can filter the posts that you wish to view on the calendar according to the profile and the type of post.
Cons
- Can’t filter the Manager for exclusive websites: There are filters available under every section, but it is not possible to filter all the available content at once for some selected websites.
- Limitation websites for syndication: You get the option to syndicate the data but from a limited number of websites.
Overview
The company, Social Report was started in the year 2010. This self-sufficient social media manager is also an official Instagram and Facebook Marketing Partner.
This delivers credibility to the users, and even place high hopes in our mind regarding the product. Nevertheless, the review will be completely unbiased, and every aspect would be judged in a similar way how we judge other products.
In this review, two points are considered of high importance: first, how easy it is to use the application, and second how easy it is to optimize your social media profiles.
For the first point, we have described the powerful elements as well as the absent elements on the user interface.
To grade the efficiency, various tabs were researched, features were utilized, and conclusions based upon the results are drawn.
The application doesn’t offer a free trial without providing the credit card details. If you are not willing to give that information just for experiencing the product, it would be better to go through our review and learn whether using Social Report is useful or not.
User Interface and User Experience
Many social media managers are dedicated to handling a limited number of social media platforms such as Commun.it. As the platforms are limited, the job to handle them all is not sweat thirsty.
On the other hand, when the managers are committed to handle numerous social media platforms, it becomes challenging for them as well as for the user to keep the data arranged.
Social Report users perhaps face this issue when they are not aware of the hidden elements of the user interface.
First, let us go through the inputs that the application has made to keep the UI uncomplicated. That will provide us with the idea of absent elements and needed improvements.
After that, we will relate these unavailable features to the problem that users face. It will make you familiar with the drawbacks of Social Report. Also, you will know how to manage the accounts avoiding the drawbacks.
The user interface is guided by the traditional way of segmenting different attributes under different menu option shown as shown in the image.
The menu options will be described under their respective sections. Here we will only discuss how various options are placed under them.
When you are working on different social media profiles related to one individual or a project, Social Report treats it as a single entity, i.e., the data provided on the application cannot be filtered for a single profile.
For instance, if you want to see the information and performed activities only for your LinkedIn profile, you have no option to remove the project related to other content.
However, every time you post content, check the messages, etc., you can uncheck the other websites but MANUALLY.
That’s Tiring! So, not able to check a specific profile is a big limitation here which you need to face.
There is an alternative option which is not so helpful, but still, you can work with it when the number of profiles is limited.
You can pause the other profiles by going through the profile management option. However, you need to turn off all the profiles which you wish to exclude.
Users will face tough time is separating every profile’s data.
Another limitation that user interface has: it lacks sufficient tabs. There are many features such as Link Frames which deserves a separate section.
As these features are kept under a specific menu, they remain unnoticed sometimes. You will always know about the Link Frame feature as we have already told you about it.
If they had provided dedicated titles to these hidden options, users would take the benefit without struggling with exploration.
The reader must note that we are not concluding the user interface complicated. We are just suggesting the improvements which can make your experience better.
Note that, besides project settings, there are no dedicated settings for the features. Whenever you need to make changes, you will find them along with the feature.
This local distribution of setting is a smart way to enhance the user experience. If they had kept the settings separate, you would need to oscillate between the attribute and its settings.
This is hectic as well as time-consuming. For overcoming the disadvantage of limited tabs, you can visit each corner of the application.
Setting up a project
There are nearly forty social media websites to which you can connect your Social Report account. This is the initial step that you need to perform before start working on the growth of your website.
As it is dedicated to handle all the major platforms, we looked at the complete list to find out if they have missed any. In our opinion, they have smartly covered all the social media sites that require management.
However, if you think Snapchat requires a third-party management tool, Social Report can’t be the one.
The available social media profiles are set under various categories making it easier to find the required one. As you can see in the image added below, there are options to manage web analytic software and webstore profiles also.
After you connect to the accounts, the data will get imported instantly. This is an essential characteristic which is absent in the case of many managers. Even the Commun.it which is known as one of the best twitter managers requires a few minutes for synchronization. In the case of Social Report, synchronization occurs within a few seconds.
From one single account, you can handle five to twenty plus projects depending upon the plan. In case you have dedicated a person for a specific project, you can add him as a new user, providing him limited access.
You can choose whether you wish to provide him the access to a particular project or for all the projects.
The custom access allows you to select the information which you are willing to share with the new user.
Now when accounts are set, and the new user is added, it is time to have a look at the project settings.
The image houses all the changes that you can make to a project. The option to set the time zone may seem unnecessary first but be conscious about the fact that all the posts that you are going to schedule will be done according to the time zone selected.
The other options contain a possibility to enable or disable the features and set limits according to which a project needs to work. The option is not of much use but can come to action when you only need specific information regarding a project.
Is the link shortening options really required? No one likes to add long and ugly links to the posts. The shortener helps to decrease the length avoiding unnecessary decrement in engagement.
The project is set, and now you are ready to move ahead with various features that are going to help you in handling the accounts.
Dashboard
Dashboards are designed to compress a lot of information in a single view which helps the user to grasp all the data easily. Dashboards are especially helpful when the user who manages the social media profile need to make goals.
It also provides the owner of social media profiles with information on how the growth is taking place.
Dashboard doesn’t contain data of its own, but it takes the information from various other tabs, briefing what these tabs contain.
As the design matters a lot, we will review Social Report’s efficiency in segmenting the dashboard into various sections.
As you can see that on the top calendar is placed which informs us about the upcoming posts. This is an impressive way of prioritizing the content.
In our option, post matters the most when you work for the growth of a profile. This gives a chance to the user to review all the posts before it starts working on the other aspects.
If you wish to edit the post, you can click on the post. It will redirect you to the website from where you can do the edits. However, it is not possible to edit the post from the manager itself.
For editing it, you need to go through all the websites separately wherever the post was published.
But, when you want to delete it, Social Report has that capability. With the application itself, you can delete the post for different social media platforms.
The reader must note that one cannot choose to delete the content from specific platforms. If it is getting deleted, it will be deleted from all.
Moving down on the dashboard will provide you with information regarding increment and decrement in the number of followers.
Separate bars in a bar graph are dedicated for each profile. The graph acts as a medium of comparison which let you know that for which social media platform more efforts are required.
You can also check the engagements here. However, dashboard only shows the last three messages and to explore more, you need to go to Inbox option.
Similarly, for searches and reports, complete insight can only be rendered in their respective sections. Here, you will only get brief information.
Publishing content and its various tools
A calendar similar to the one which you found on the dashboard is available under the publishing tab.
We have discussed in the user interface tab that there are no options to filter out the other websites and view the project details only for the chosen one.
However, there are filter options present under most of the tabs, and you need to exclude or include the websites manually for each feature.
The calendar serves an important role in reviewing the content. Bearing that in mind, they have mentioned specific color for every specific category of the post. For detailed information, the image is added below.
The method of assigning a color to the post type causes visual impact, and a user will readily know which posts require attention.
That helps in reducing the time consumption which may take place if you go through each post. This method also saves your profile from getting filled with the posts containing multiple errors.
There is an option to place the post under a content group. For instance, if you regularly post about car performance, a category can be generated with the name car performance, and all the posts can be placed under this category.
There can be several categories created on this basis. With the filter option present on the calendar window, you can choose to view the posts related to certain categories.
The calendar can be filtered on the basis of the type of status, and social media platforms. These are sufficient filter options to review the content which is published or going to be published.
Under the same tab, you can find various other features added to deliver ease of use. Separate windows for the posts which are under review and saved as drafts are also present. That delivers the user with better content management.
Social Report has some remarkable features such as syndicating the content. That helps the user to easily find out the relevant content from the external sources.
But it is only possible to syndicate the content from a limited number of websites. That places a restriction on the inflow of the content.
Creating and scheduling posts every time through the application is a tedious job. To make it easier, Social Reports has made a good number of attempts resulting in a solution: bulk scheduling by importing a .csv file.
Other options such as media library and link frames (visit the pro section) help a lot in enhancing the online presence.
Social Report’s publishing section contains features which work effectively to deliver ease and enhancing presence at the same time.
Report for growth insight
In Social Report, whenever you visit the Report section, you will find some common menu options for all the social media websites.
When you are working to enhance multiple profiles present on multiple sites, the comparison is required. These menu options also work as comparison tools.
Here, you can judge the engagements on various sites. You can also get the stats about the day of week and time when a higher number of engagements take place.
The details obtained as visual data under reports impressively help users to find out the social media platform where growth is not up to the mark.
The possibility of studying graphs and charts also aid users to detect where they are lacking, and how the pace of development can be increased.
In the image added above, you will find the different menus for the most prominent websites. As you know, there are forty different media sites to which we can connect, there must be forty different menu bars available.
It is required as all the websites work in a different manner. It is not possible to keep the menu bar the same for every website. Even if the manager does that, it will make the handling complicated.
Use of these devoted menus comes after the comparison. When you want to work on a particular site, you can get its complete insight from this part of the Report section.
Inbox content and filtering
When a follower directly gets involved in setting up communication with our profiles, we need to reply him back. At least, we must know about the activities that our followers are conducting which are related to our online presence.
For that Inbox tab is introduced by Social Report where you get the information about the followers, direct messages, mentions, comments, and replies.
Smart options such as automated replies, filtering content for a specific user, etc., are found missing.
That means the application has a very simple inbox that only delivers information in an arrangement. How you wish to use that information to enhance the profile completely depends on you.
There is an option to filter the content according to the need- custom filter permits to view specific content for a specific connected profile. You will get a better idea about the custom filter from the below image.
You can also choose to hide the content about the connected profiles which you have: Read, Completed (taken action), and Assigned.
Overall, it can be improved by adding automated actions to reduce tasks of users. A filter option to identify the important engagements can also be included.
For instance, Commun.it separates the activities conducted by influencers (having huge following) which are treated as important. If such features are included on Social Report, it will become easier to attract more audience.
Conducting searches through keywords
Searching the relevant content manually may take hours of research. When it is done using a keyword, you can easily find what you can share or use in your own posts.
Social Report houses the keyword search features along with multiple options that make the search more powerful, i.e., directed towards required results.
You can add as many as keywords you want and choose whether the search results should contain all the keywords or is it fine if the results even contain one.
The option to include a specific keyword makes the search more specific and helpful. You can even restrict the results provided by a particular location.
There is obviously a room for adding more filters, but that may decrease the number of results obtained. In our opinion, with the help of proper keyword research, the user can easily find out the appropriate content.
Do we recommend Social Report?
After discussing every attribute of Social Report, we must say that it offers smooth learning. Even for delivering ease, they have not compromised with the features.
In spite of that, they have worked for placing the features under the correct tab. With impressive diversification of tools, it is facile to go through the complete manager.
Some of the highlighted features are bulk scheduling, link frames, report filters, etc., which must be mentioned here. These features offer multiple purposes: making it easier for the user to maintain profiles, and at the same time growth can also be improved.
Some necessary improvements are still required- they offer a live chat option which is not active half of the time and automated actions can be added.
We would surely recommend the product, but if you have gone through the review, you will know about the limitations of the product.
If these drawbacks affect the growth of your social media profiles, it would be better to test the application first with the standard plan which has a money back guarantee, and then you should go for higher plans.