ZOHO for business
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ZOHO applications: implementation, training and integration

The best alternative to HootSuit is Zoho Social

05.12.22 12:48 AM From Bohdana
Zoho Social vs Hootsuit

Coordinating and managing a social media marketing campaign while effectively managing all other aspects of your SMB can be a challenge. That's why so many companies use social media management software solutions to simplify interaction with their audiences and increase brand awareness. Fortunately, there are quite a few tools on the market that can do just that. But how do you choose the best one? In this article we will compare two of the most popular services - Zoho Social and HootSuite.

Zoho Social

Zoho Social is a complete social media management platform for businesses and agencies. It helps you schedule posts, track mentions, create customizable dashboards, and more. 

Zoho Social includes a powerful set of features, such as a publishing calendar, mass scheduler and republishing, to give you all the social media publishing tools your business needs.

Agencies can bring all of their clients to Zoho Social and effectively manage their social media presence. They can easily add new clients and assign them team members with a predefined role.
Zoho Social interface

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a software (SaaS) platform that connects a number of social media accounts to a centralized social media management console.

Using Hootsuite's social media dashboard, teams can collaboratively schedule updates across social media, integrate their existing marketing tools to streamline workflow, and track campaign results and industry trends to quickly adjust tactics.
Hootsuit interface

Pros and cons Zoho Social

Zoho Social is designed to cover all aspects of social networking strategy. In fact, it offers several additional features that are slightly ahead of Hootsuite. Its strongest feature is the social media listening function, which allows you to track mentions, reply to messages, and track user participation in real time.

Pros Zoho Social

Listening Dashboard: Create listening columns to systematize your social media listening efforts.

Different user roles and permissions: Zoho Social allows you to manage your team at a granular level by assigning specific roles with different access permissions.

Social Media Calendar for Publications: you can plan future publications, filter those that matter, and manage your content pipeline with the Publications Calendar.
Zoho Social advantages
Integration with social media advertising. Take advantage of social media integration for the website of your choice, such as LinkedIn or Facebook, to consolidate your marketing initiatives.

Additional integrations: Zoho Social also integrates with other TikTok cloud tools such as Canva and other business applications Zoho, such as Zoho integrationCRM.

Unlimited Reports: Zoho Social has a special "Reports" tab where you can look at statistics for a specific social network or dive deeper into analytics to learn more about your audience and how they interact with your content. But that's not all: you can also create customized reports that focus on the numbers that matter most to your business.
Zoho Social pros and cons

Minuses Zoho Social

Complex pricing structure: subscribing to the right plan for agencies can be quite expensive, but trust me, it's worth it.

Pros and cons of HootSuite

Many brands and social media agencies use Hootsuite because it has features tailored to specific business needs. But because these features are added gradually over time, their implementation is not the smoothest.

Pros of HootSuite

Employee Advocacy Tools: You can use Hootsuite Amplify to optimize your agency or brand's employee advocacy campaign.

Hootsuit
Reliable customer support: Hootsuite is one of the very few social platforms that can be contacted by phone, among other customer service channels.

Wide range of integrations: The popularity of Hootsuite has attracted third-party developers to create integrations that extend the functionality of the platform.

Cons of HootSuite

Too expensive for small businesses: Hootsuite's entry-level plan offers fewer features than other social media marketing tools, but still costs more.

No group access for entry-level users: the standard plan is only suitable for one user and a limited number of social accounts.

No review management: Despite the high prices, Hootsuite has no reputation management department.

Supported social networks

Social Channels HootsuitZoho Social 
 Facebook Page ++ 
 Facebook Group ++ 
 Twitter Profile ++ 
 LinkedIn Company Page++ 
 LinkedIn Profile ++ 
 Google My Business listing _ +
 Instagram Profile ++ 
 YouTube Channel+ +
 Pinterest Profile ++ 
 TikTok Business Profile ++ 

As you can see, these software programs support virtually the same social networking platforms. But still, Zoho Social supports one more social network - Google My Business.

Zoho Social social social channels

Price

Zoho Social has 5 different rates - 3 for businesses, and 2 for agencies. There is also a free version, and a 15-day trial period.

Prices for Zoho Social start at $10 a month for the Standart plan or $30 a month for the Professional plan. The best-selling plan is the Premium plan, which costs $40 a month. Then, when you get to the top levels Zoho, the Agency plan is $230 a month and the Agency plan Plus is $330 a month. All of these plans are billed annually, but can be billed monthly if you are willing to pay a higher price.

For small businesses, Zoho is a very sound investment. Even the lowest plan, the Standart, offers many features, and if you choose the Professional plan or Premium, you get more comprehensive analytics and flexible publishing options.
Zoho Social pricing
HootSuite has 4 rates for different numbers of users.

Many "advanced" features are not available in Professional and Team plans. If you need features such as content approval workflow, campaign reports, or a content library, to name a few, you must sign up for an advanced annual commitment on a Business or Enterprise plan.

Agencies can struggle to find value with Hootsuite because of the limitations of the tool's user/profile and advanced features. Agencies and companies that need to manage more than 20 social media profiles or need more than 3 users in their account soon find that they are doubling or tripling their costs to get the users, profiles or features they need.
Hootsuit pricing

Conclusions

Overall, when comparing Zoho Social to Hootsuite, Zoho Social is easier to use, configure and administer. It is also more profitable in terms of meeting business needs at a more reasonable price.

You can even start using the basic features of Zoho Social without spending a dime with a free plan. The choice is yours!