ContentStudio Review 2024: Robust Scheduling + Content = Excellent Social Media Management

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What does ContentStudio do differently as a social media management tool?

This ContentStudio review will reveal all you need to know.

Today, there are tens of social media management tools.

But only a few can provide the platform to create and schedule high-performing social media content.

Is ContentStudio one of them?

I’ve explored this tool to help you answer that question.

By the end of this review, you’ll know if ContentStudio is the best tool for your social media management needs.

ContentStudio Review
  • Ease of use
  • Scheduling
  • Features
  • Collaboration
  • Customer support
  • Pricing
4.5

Summary

ContentStudio works for teams and individuals. You get robust scheduling and content curation feature. And for teams, you can collaborate efficiently on social media tasks.

Who is ContentStudio for?

ContentStudio works best for 3 groups of users:

  • A social media manager who manages a team and needs to publish a lot of social media content (both brand and curated).
  • A social media agency working with brands that need to publish a lot of content.
  • A social media consultant (or freelancer) working with multiple clients who need to publish content daily.

What I find unique about ContentStudio is that, in addition to publishing your brand content, it helps you uncover and publish relevant curated content to engage your audience.

ContentStudio homepage

However, if you want to explore a similar tool, consider Vista Social.

Now, let’s see important ContentStudio features and what they do.

ContentStudio key features

ContentStudio Dashboard

The ContentStudio dashboard provides an overview of your social media activities.

At the top bar, you can see links to sections like Compose, Planner, and Inbox.

But below that, you’ll see a shortcut to create a social media or blog post. There are also publishing statistics, including the number of Published, Scheduled, and Failed posts.

ContentStudio social media dashboard

Then, you can access customer support through the support icons.

The dashboard is organized neatly and links to the important sections.

ContentStudio Composer

You get 3 options in the ContentStudio Composer:

  • Social post 
  • Blog post
  • Automation recipes

In the social post composer, you can create your social media post. Your social accounts appear in the left section, the composer in the middle, and the post preview and other elements in the right. 

Apart from writing your social captions and uploading media files, you can use AI to create captions and images. The AI caption generator delivers good results if you need to shatter a creative block.

Then, you have the option to create images using Canva and Vista Create. Once you create an image, it stays in your media library.

ContentStudio social media post composer

ContentStudio supports all the major social media channels, and you can add social profiles while setting up your account.

Since post requirements differ across social platforms, ContentStudio shows unique settings for each social network below your caption box.

On the right side, you’ll see the post preview for each social platform. ContentStudio also lets you customize your post for each social media network.

Beyond the post preview, there are more icons, like comments and the assistant. With comments, you can tag team members and leave messages for them.

Meanwhile, the assistant lets you curate content in the composer. So, this lets you search content across sources and insert it into the composer.

After setting up the post, there are options to post immediately, schedule, save as draft, or send for approval.

The blog post option lets you create a blog post. 

You’ll see similar options available for social media posts. But the blog composer also comes with SEO tools and version history.

ContentStudio lets you publish on WordPress, Medium, Shopify, Tumblr, and Webflow sites.

Honestly, I wouldn’t use this blog composer to create my blog posts. It doesn’t have all the features I use in the WordPress dashboard. And this is why I think most people will pass on this feature, for now.

The last Composer option is automation recipes.

With automation recipes, you can set up automation rules to publish content automatically on social media and blogs.

The recipes include:

  • Article links to social media
  • RSS feed to social media
  • Evergreen
  • Bulk uploader
  • Article to blogs
  • Videos to social media
automation recipes in ContentStudio

While setting up these automation rules, ContentStudio provides controls to only publish the right content on your pages.

Automation recipes work best for regular content sources, like your blog RSS feed. Here, you can automatically share blog posts once they’re published and in the future.

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ContentStudio Discover

Discover is one of ContentStudio’s strongest features.

Discover has 2 sections:

  • Content feed
  • Influencers

The content feed helps you find relevant industry content to share on your social media accounts.

You only need to follow curated topics in ContentStudio or create custom topics. 

Beyond that, the search tab in the content feed lets you search for keywords, sites, and people. In return, you’ll find content related to the search term.

From this page, you can share posts to your social media accounts or save them to Pocket.

Why do you need this?

To stay in the minds of your audience, you need to feed them relevant content regularly. And with curated content on your side, regular publishing becomes easier.

I’ll explain in detail how you can use Discover later in this review.

The second aspect of Discover is Influencers.

Here, you can search for relevant influencers in your industry on Instagram and Twitter. ContentStudio provides information about them, such as interaction per 1k followers, estimated costs per post, and audience demographics.

influencer search in ContentStudio

So, if you want to uncover influencers for an influencer marketing campaign, this section comes in handy.

After creating a list, you can take the next steps to collaborate with influencers.

Overall, Discover helps you find content and influencers across the web.

ContentStudio Inbox

The inbox lets you reply to post comments, mentions, and private messages on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Business.

The idea is simple.

Instead of navigating 5 social media channels to reply to messages, you can do that right in ContentStudio.

Apart from just replying, ContentStudio provides more features to make the social inbox suitable for a team.

ContentStudio social media inbox

For example, you can assign interactions to team members and leave notes for them.

Then, you can create tags to organize interactions.

Lastly, ContentStudio lets you filter interactions according to various criteria.

So, if individuals in the social media team are in charge of aspects of your business (customer support, sales, marketing, etc.), you can assign interactions and leave notes accordingly.

ContentStudio Planner

The planner helps to plan and manage your social media and blog posts effectively.

All posts created in your account will appear here. You’ll see the number of posts in status, such as scheduled, published, and draft.

But even more, you can apply a filter to see the posts for each social account.

ContentStudio social media planner

You’ll also have access to many planner views. For instance, you can see a list, calendar, Instagram grid, or TikTok grid view.

Finally, ContentStudio lets you edit the information displayed in  the post columns.

With the planner, it’s easy to see all post and their current publishing status.

ContentStudio Analyze

The Analyze section provides analytics about your posts and accounts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok.

Here, you’ll get engagement metrics like the number of comments, reposts, and reactions.

Then, there are profile metrics like the number of followers and engagement. These metrics let you understand your social media performance.

ContentStudio Analyze for social media analytics

But beyond that, you can analyze competitors on Facebook and Instagram. Once you add competitors, ContentStudio will provide detailed analytics about their posts, most engaged hashtags, top-performing posts, and more.

With competitor analysis, you can benchmark against competitors.

Finally, you can create and schedule analytics reports. If you deliver reports to clients, ContentStudio lets you add a business logo for more personalization. 

schedule analytics reports in ContentStudio

If you want to send reports, ContentStudio lets you set up the type, interval, and recipients.

This is useful as clients can see your results over a period.

ContentStudio Media Library

ContentStudio’s media library holds images, videos, and PDFs you’ve uploaded or used in your posts.

Once you use a media file in your post, it will automatically be added to the library. The amount of storage you get in the library depends on your subscription plan.

ContentStudio media library

The media library is helpful if you work with a team to create posts. So, a team member can create and upload media files, while another team member uses the files to create posts.

Again, the library helps if you want to reuse media files in future campaigns. 

ContentStudio mobile apps and Chrome extension

The ContentStudio iOS and Android mobile apps let you create and schedule posts from your smartphone.

While the mobile apps are light in terms of features when compared to the desktop version, they let you execute some tasks on the go.

Personally, I like using mobile apps to note content ideas (as drafts) and upload media files from my smartphone. Then, I can complete the post on the desktop version.

ContentStudio android mobile app

Another way mobile apps come in handy is receiving notifications to publish on Instagram (stories and IGTV).

ContentStudio also has a Chrome extension.

This lets you share web pages with your audience outside ContentStudio. For example, if you’re reading an insightful page, just click the extension to share the page on your social profiles.

Another thing is that when you hover on an image, you’ll see the ContentStudio icon to share the image.

How to manage social media with ContentStudio

How to create a social media post

To create a social media post on ContentStudio, hover on “Compose” at the top of your dashboard and select “Social Post” from the dropdown options.

Doing this will load the social composer.

Before you write your caption, select the accounts you want to publish on. I noticed ContentStudio also lets you publish on LinkedIn profiles, which is unavailable on some tools.

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Once you select accounts, ContentStudio will show unique settings for selected social platforms.

unique settings for social platforms in ContentStudio

Next, write your social media caption.

If you need help writing your caption, use the AI button below the caption box. It provides options to generate captions, images, and hashtags.

To illustrate, I selected the AI captions option, and the form popped up.

AI caption form in ContentStudio

Here, you’ll find settings to help the AI generate the right captions. 

First, select a prompt. The options include social media post caption, inspirational quotes, and summarizing key points from a URL or text.

Since the caption is to promote a post about collecting UGC, I tried the caption and URL options.

After selecting a prompt, describe your post. Then, you can set a voice tone, number of variations, and add hashtags and emojis.

Here’s the caption I extracted from the URL:

AI captions from summarizing a URL

Not great, but the AI captions can provide ideas if you’re stuck with writer’s block.

Another option is to create your post image with AI. For the image, you have to enter your prompt, image dimensions, and the number of images to create.

Here’s an image I created with AI on ContentStudio:

use AI to create images in ContentStudio

Apart from AI, you can upload images or use Vista or Canva to create images and videos.

What I like about this feature is that you can design your images without leaving ContentStudio.

design images in Canva in ContentStudio

Next, the right sidebar provides more options to compose your social media post.

You’ll see a preview for each channel as you add text and media to your editor. ContentStudio also lets you customize captions, images, and settings for each channel.

see post preview in ContentStudio post composer

But beyond the preview, you’ll find other elements like comments and tasks.

Then, there’s an AI assistant that lets you find content around the web to add to your social media posts.

So, if you just want to share a relevant blog post or video with your audience, this works.

assistant inside post composer

You can also see activities and team members. Then, you can label your post and add it to a campaign folder.

Once you finish these steps, you have options to publish, schedule, send post for approval, or save as draft.

If you want to schedule the post, ContentStudio lets you set a time for all accounts or a custom time for each. You can also view the best time to publish your post.

If you work with clients, you can send the post for approval. However, the client has to be a member of your account.

If this is an evergreen post you’d like to publish again, you can toggle on the “Repeat Post” option to select the number of repetitions and intervals.

How to find content to publish

Let’s start with the content feed, which has 3 tabs: topics, search, and feeds.

In the topics, you can follow curated topics or create a custom topic.

Click “Follow Curated Topics” to select relevant topics for your business and audience.

Once you do that, you’ll see a popup form to search and select topics.

follow curated topics in ContentStudio Discover

While I can’t speak to other industries, I found most of the marketing topics I searched for.

However, if a topic is missing, click “+” in front of custom topics to add your topic.

To set up this topic, you’ll have to provide information such as keywords, domains, and filters.

create a custom topic in ContentStudio

After going through these steps, you’ll see a few blog posts grouped under each topic you follow.

If you want to dive deeper into a specific topic, click on it at the left sidebar.

top stories from your topics

When I clicked on SEO, I found some good pages. But I also had to scroll through many irrelevant results.

In the search tab, you can search for keywords, sites, or authors. If you want to search for a combination like site + keywords, that’s possible too.

ContentStudio provides web, YouTube, and Twitter results.

Below each result, you’ll see the engagement score and sentiment. Then, there are action icons to share the post on social media or edit it for a blog post.

There’s also an option to add the post to Pocket or view influencers.

search top performing content in ContentStudio

Apart from the content feed, ContentStudio also provides insights about any site or term you search. Here, you’ll see the overview, top domains, and top authors.

The search option works if you want to find content from topics, sites, or authors beyond the topics you already follow.

The last tab in the content feed section is Feeds.

add new feeds in ContentStudio

Here, you can create feeds and add pages to follow in each feed. Sadly, I couldn’t find a way to add specific RSS feeds apart from the ones on ContentStudio. This option would make sense for most people.

That said, you can publish posts from specific RSS feeds in automation recipes.

Overall, the content feed gives you many options to share curated content on social media.

Now to influencers.

Hover on Discover and click “Influencers” in the dropdown to begin.

ContentStudio lets you find influencers on Instagram and Twitter. You can use a hashtag or username to narrow your search.

find Instagram influencers on ContentStudio

Once you find an influencer, click the profile to get more information about them.

First, you’ll see an overview that shows their interaction per 1k followers and estimated cost per post. Below that, you’ll see their interests, top hashtags, and languages.

overview of influencer detail in ContentStudio

You’ll also see accounts the influencer mentions in their posts.

These statistics help you decide if an influencer will be a great fit for your influencer marketing campaign.

Overall, Discover helps you find content to publish and influencers to collaborate with.

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How to collaborate with team members

To collaborate with team members in ContentStudio, you need to add workspaces and team members.

The workspace contains accounts and posts for each client.

To create a workplace, click on Workspace at the top left corner of your dashboard and then “+ Add New.”

add new workspace in ContentStudio

On the next page, you can enter your workspace name, time, and super admin. 

ContentStudio also suggests a logo based on the name you enter. I tried names from software products to football clubs, and the logo suggestions were accurate.

set up a new workspace in ContentStudio

Click “Save” to complete the setup.

The next thing to do is add team members. To do this, click the 3 dots at the top right corner and then “Team Members.”

access team members in ContentStudio

On the next page, click “+ Add New Team Member.” After this, you’ll see a popup to enter the team member’s email address and roles.

First, you can select administrator, collaborator, or approver. The administrator has the highest number of permissions, while the approver has the least.

Then, you can select whether this person is a team member or a client. A team member can view internal posts and comments, while a client can’t.

After the setup, click “Save.”

add a team member in ContentStudio

Once you do that, an invitation will be sent to the person.

After creating workspaces and adding team members, you can collaborate on some tasks.

For example, to send a message to a team member in the post composer, click the comments icon at the right sidebar. Here, you can tag the team member and drop comments or instructions about a social media post.

comments in ContentStudio post composer

Apart from this, you can send a post to a client or team member for approval.

Then, you can assign interactions to team members in the inbox. You can also leave a note to a team member about specific interactions.

assign interaction to team member in ContentStudio

With these options, you can communicate effectively and assign tasks to team members.

ContentStudio pros and cons

ContentStudio pros

  • Extensive social media management features
  • Affordable pricing
  • Easy to use
  • Robust post composer
  • Content curation
  • Competitive analysis

ContentStudio cons

  • Software is sometimes slow to respond
  • No listening feature
  • Connecting Twitter is complicated

ContentStudio customer support

ContentStudio offers customer support through:

  • In-app prompts
  • Knowledge base
  • Contact form
  • Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
  • Video tutorials
  • Chat AI
Chat AI for customer support in ContentStudio

With the available support options, you’ll get most of the information you need without reaching out to the support team.

ContentStudio pricing

ContentStudio has 3 pricing plans:

  • Starter: This plan comes with 1 workspace, 5 social accounts, 1 user, 10GB storage, and 10K AI-generated words per month. The ContentStudio Starter plan costs $25 monthly ($20 if you pay annually).
  • Pro: With this plan, you get 1 workspace, 10 social accounts, 2 users, social media inbox, team collaboration, and content approval workflow. The ContentStudio Pro plan costs $49 monthly ($40 if paid annually).
  • Agency: This plan comes with 5 workspaces, 25 social accounts, 5 users, client management, competitor analytics, and live training. The ContentStudio Agency plan starts at $99 monthly ($80 if paid annually). The bigger agency plans come with more features and cost more.
ContentStudio Pricing page

You can visit the ContentStudio pricing page to see all the features available on each plan. 

This way, you can easily decide which plan fits your needs best.

And whatever plan you want to go for, you get a 14-day free trial to assess it. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about ContentStudio

Does ContentStudio have a free plan?

No, ContentStudio doesn’t have a free plan. But you can try the paid plans for 14 days before paying.

How much does ContentStudio cost?

The cost of ContentStudio depends on the plan you go for. For example, the Starter plan costs $25 monthly, the Pro plan costs $49 monthly, and the Agency plan starts at $99 monthly.

Which social media platforms does ContentStudio support?

ContentStudio supports Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, Tumblr, and Google Business.

Which blogging platforms does ContentStudio support?

ContentStudio supports WordPress, Medium, Shopify, Tumblr, and Webflow sites.

Can I cancel my ContentStudio account subscription?

Yes, you can. To do that, you can initiate cancellation from your ContentStudio account. For refunds, you have to reach out to the support team through chat or email. However, a refund will only be offered within the first 30 days of paying for the tool.

Is ContentStudio suitable for social media teams?

Yes, ContentStudio is. With the social media collaboration features, you can assign tasks, send notes, and request approval from team members. You can also create workspaces for different clients.

Is ContentStudio suitable for individuals?

Yes, ContentStudio works for individuals. You can create content, reply to messages, or curate content from sources around the web.

ContentStudio Review: Conclusion

Whether you’re a freelancer or run a social media agency, ContentStudio is one of the best social media management tools you can use.

It especially works great if you need to share a lot of curated content on your social media profiles.

But that’s not to say ContentStudio lacks in terms of content creation. You can write captions, design images, create videos, and use AI right in the composer.

Plus, this tool lets you collaborate effectively with team members.

Personally, I find it a robust tool that will work for most people.

So, try ContentStudio for 14 days to see if it works for your business.

Samuel writes long-form guides to help businesses and entrepreneurs achieve better results from their marketing activities. He also writes for marketing and SaaS companies that want more leads and customers. Get in touch with him to discuss your content needs.

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