Perfect solution for SMB
February 04, 2021
Perfect solution for SMB
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Zoho Social
We use Zoho Social across the whole organization. We use it to publish and schedule posts, manage our social media publishing calendar, listen to conversations and participate in those conversation as needed. It enables us to pause scheduled posts if an emergency arises or there is some other reason to change our plans.
Zoho helps us use social media more effectively and efficiently. We don't miss out on mentions about our business or miss conversations we should participate in. Social media can take a lot of time and Zoho helps us minimize how much time we spend on social media so we can focus on the rest of our business.
Zoho helps us use social media more effectively and efficiently. We don't miss out on mentions about our business or miss conversations we should participate in. Social media can take a lot of time and Zoho helps us minimize how much time we spend on social media so we can focus on the rest of our business.
- Scheduling posts. We can bulk schedule posts so we can still be active on social media without it consuming our work activities
- Organize posts. Everything is in one place and along with analytics we can see the total picture of our social media publishing. This enables us to make adjustments as necessary.
- Listening to our mentions on social media and our direct messages are in one place. This means important posts don't slip through the cracks and we can respond in a timely manner whether it's on the desktop or mobile.
- I wish they had auto hashtag generators but it isn't a deal breaker
- The integrations with the Zoho apps are great but I wish it integrated with some other CRM solutions
- We only use a few social media platforms and Zoho meets our needs for those platforms. If we ever used one of the less popular social media channels Zoho wouldn't support us.
- The free version is excellent so hard to measure the ROI, the trial period for the paid versions is generous by the time you've upgraded to paid plans you have already capture a lot of the ROI. You need the paid plans because you need more of the same, better analytics, better scheduling features and better targeting.
- Because everything is in one place and even the least expensive paid plan includes multiple team members and there is an excellent mobile app, we are able to respond to direct messages and social media posts immediately. We can have constant coverage because multiple people can post.
- Some of the features in Zoho are only available in far more expensive products. Some of their competitors can cost hundreds of dollars a month for the same feature as Zoho.
We either trialed, did extensive research on these other products or talked to people who use them. Some of them may have better analytics and targeting than Zoho for large enterprises, but we are not a large enterprise. We are also a B2B company so we are less concerned about having the most comprehensive tools for consumer marketing. We use our website for marketing and lead generation so there is no ecommerce on our web site. So those features aren't important to us.
When it comes to value for the price, none of Zoho Social's competition is close.
When it comes to value for the price, none of Zoho Social's competition is close.
Do you think Zoho Social delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with Zoho Social's feature set?
Yes
Did Zoho Social live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of Zoho Social go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Zoho Social again?
Yes
Zoho Social Feature Ratings
Using Zoho Social
2 - The CEO uses it as necessary to communicate with prospective partners, customers and journalists. We also have a marketing person who can handle routine social media activities.
- We use it for branding on social media
- We use it to monitor when we are mentioned in social media so we can respond
- We use it so all of our direct messages on social media are in one place. That ensures we respond in a timely manner to people who take the time to contact us.
- We're launching a webinar series and social media is very effective for promoting them
- We have had articles published about/by the company and we are able to monitor when they are released and communicate with journalists directly on social media
- We're experiencing first hand that press releases are optional
- New product announcements
- Know the best times to post to our audience
Evaluating Zoho Social and Competitors
Yes - It replaced Hootsuite. Hootsuite has continuously gotten more expensive and is no longer cost effective for our organization. We use Hubspot CRM but upgrading to the features that Zoho Social has is cost prohibitive. Our use of social media is for selling to other businesses. We don't need the features of that a more consumer centric business needs. We don't have a dedicated social media team so we need to minimize the time we spend on social media without being invisible or non-responsive on social media.
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
- Prior Experience with the Product
The most important was features. There are more powerful social media platforms but if bought them we would be paying for features we neither want or need.
I don't know what I would change. Sometimes you need to use a product in a production environment for a long time to accurately evaluate it. Zoho pricing has stayed competitive while some of their competitors are no longer cost effective for our business needs.
Zoho Social Implementation
- Implemented in-house
Change management was minimal - We already had a social media tool, Hootsuite. We were just changing solutions so we didn't have to change our culture or implement any business process changes.
- How much time would we allocate to using social media was our biggest issue. We didn't experience any technical or usability issues.
Zoho Social Training
- no training
You can use it right away. You can focus on the best strategy for social media, not how to use the tool.
Configuring Zoho Social
Not much to configure. You almost don't need to read the documentation to set it up. Using the product is intuitive.
No - we have not done any customization to the interface
No - we have not done any custom code
No additional configuration or customization.
Zoho Social Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
None | None |
I left the evaluation section of support services blank. Zoho works, is easy to use and well documented (not that you need to refer to the documentation very much). We don't use Zoho Social support or support for any Zoho product we use enough to evaluate it.
Never needed support. It works and it's easy to use. Because the documentation on how to use Zoho Social is excellent, we don't call support. Smart move Zoho.
Using Zoho Social
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Publishing and scheduling are very easy to use
- Tracking your mentions are very easy to use
- It's very helpful to see all posts across multiple channels in one place
- None
- The issue isn't difficulty. Some of the analytics could be better but what they have is good for most use cases.
Yes - It works well. Not quite as comprehensive as the desktop app but it gets most of the basics. The mobile app does what we need it for: read posts by others in one place, publish posts, schedule posts while on the go. The interface is appealing and the navigation and usability are easy.
Zoho Social Reliability
Integrating Zoho Social
- Integrates well with Zoho products and can be used as part of Zoho One
If by integration you mean using it with other solutions like another sales, marketing or support CRM, forget it. We didn't find viable integration options outside of the Zoho product family.
- Mailchimp
- Eventbrite
- Hubspost CRM
I am not aware of any of these vendors supporting or planning to support this integration. I can understand why. They have products that overlap. In some cases they aren't as comprehensive and in other cases they are price prohibitive. But for us these integrations are nice to have but not requirements.
We have used none of these with Zoho Social but we have used API and file import/export with other Zoho products.
If integration with your company's social media solution is important to you and you want to integrate with solutions outside of the Zoho product family, find another solution
Relationship with Zoho
There wasn't a negotiation. We aren't big enough to negotiate a customer price. That's fine, the pricing is low enough and easy to understand so there was nothing to negotiate.
No, I don't the pricing for all of their products readily available on their web site. We're not big enough to need to negotiate a custom price with a sales person.