Falcon.io has recently become part of the Brandwatch product portfolio meaning for anyone looking for the best social media marketing tools (opens in new tab), it just got better. The good news is that if you are an existing customer you can easily log in to your existing Falcon products, but if you are a new customer there is much more opportunity to join.
The social media management platform comes with a full suite of tools that can be used for everyday tasks such as publishing social posts on all major platforms. Falcon.io can therefore also be used in combination with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram, with the possibility of using an interface that is both user-friendly and powerful.
While there are many other competing social media management tools, some of which may be a cheaper option compared to Falcon.io, it certainly has potential. Especially if you take a deep dive into how it works.
Subscriptions and Prices
It’s probably better to think of Falcon.io as just another part of the Brandwatch product range. Look at the pricing page and you’ll find little reference to Falcon.io itself. However, this may be a good thing as it may open up your business to many new tools to increase your success.
Brandwatch is launching three core product suites, including one for researchers and analysts called Consumer Intelligence (opens in new tab)† Meanwhile, a Social Media Management (opens in new tab) product is available to social media managers and provides a total solution for teams that need to collaborate on tasks.
Finishing everything is a Full suite (opens in new tab) option, which as the name suggests comes with everything needed to take social media and its associated analytics to the next level. However, the price is not fixed and in order to form a package around your needs, you need to make an appointment with the sales staff.
Fortunately, Brandwatch also offers a package that is heavily targeted at small business owners. This is called Necessities (opens in new tab), and comes with the ability to schedule content, monitor, and rate results. This currently costs from $108 per month, with the option to try it for free to get the ball rolling.
Basic features
Now that Falcon.io is part of the Brandwatch portfolio, it is potentially more attractive to larger companies. This is especially true because there are tools in the collection that not only cover social media management tasks, but also help you tackle consumer information.
However, in terms of the main social options, there’s still a lot to get excited about, including the ability to publish content and manage everything within one calendar. You can create automated ad campaigns and measure subsequent performance across all social channels as well.
Having the ability to benchmark content and see how it performs against competitors is also a boon, while being able to manage everything through one interface and inbox adds to the simple yet effective nature of this package.
Essential Features
Brandwatch thinks the Essentials package is ideally suited for one or two users, which sounds like a fair price considering the price. The basics are certainly all there, with the ability to pan and schedule social media posts. This allows you to have one social media content calendar, manage all your assets in one central library and also perform campaign management.
Another important feature of Essentials is a central inbox. It allows you to manage all your connected networks and social profiles in one place. The centralized inbox means it’s much easier to do community engagement, send messages using a template system, and set up automated rules for the sake of simplicity.
Finally, Essentials offers the possibility to measure how well your social media management activities have been going. This includes detailed analysis through a customizable dashboard system. It makes creating and sharing reports on how things are going very easy.
Interface and in use
If you’re a small business owner, the Essentials package not only comes with tons of tools for performing social media management, it’s great to use. There’s a relatively simplistic interface, which still offers a wealth of options for getting the best out of your campaigns. If you’ve ever used something like Hootsuite, there’s a similar vibe here. Overall, the look and feel is friendly and inviting.
support
Now that Falcon.io is part of the wider Brandwatch portfolio, it has gained a lot more power in the support department. This means that there are employees who are multilingual, English, Spanish, German and French, enabling them to serve customers all over the world.
Customers can make use of online help and guidance, but there is also the possibility to submit a question via the site. Brandwatch states that the answer will depend on the type of package you have, although customers should get a response within 4 to 24 hours.
The competition
The Essentials package from Brandwatch and Falcon.io gives great insight into smaller businesses, while also taking into account those in need of more substantial options. As for the competition, there’s a lot out there, including Cloud Campaign, SocialPilot, Buffer, eClincher, Sendible, Statusbrew, Loomly, Hootsuite, and Zoho Social.
Final verdict
If you’ve been wanting to get your hands on the Falcon.io social media marketing toolkit and worried you’ve missed your chance, think again. Now that this is part of the Brandwatch portfolio, there is plenty available to help with those campaigns. Fortunately, not all are things that are aimed at companies and large companies. Indeed, the Essentials package seems to be of great value to anyone running a small business with a strong desire to take on the world of social media.
