Tanya Ferrell is Passing Notes.

This post is dedicated to one of my favorite brands, Zoho.

I’ll start off with a few facts about myself. I write short fiction for fun. None of it is publish-worthy, but I find it’s an enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Between the desktop, laptop, and school computer labs I probably work on 10 different computers within one week. On a rare day, I can also be clumsy and forgetful. (Translation: I forgot my flash drive was on the floor and stepped on it.) I can also be cheap. (Translation: The thought of spending 20 bucks on a replacement is killing me.)

All that being said, I try to keep most of my work online.

I discovered Writely.com, the online word processor, the same month it was acquired by Google. Writely.com stopped accepting new members because it was slowly being converted to Google Docs. I didn’t have a membership at Writely, so I was out of luck. I began searching for another online word processor and discovered Zoho Writer.

I eventually did test out Google Docs for a few months and came to the conclusion that Zoho is better than Google Docs, period.

A list of all the things you can do with Zoho that you can’t do with Google.

1. View margins as you type
2. Pick one of 19 fonts, vs Google’s 11
3. View as page
4. Add Anchors
5. Insert HTML
6. Insert Layers
7. Create a table of contents
8. Insert emoticons

That may not be much, but Zoho also has a better design - usability wise. Google Docs requires you to use two windows or tabs. One with a list of your documents and the other your document. The more documents you open, the more windows/tabs you have open. Zoho is in one window. Zoho also uses small, recognizable icons so almost every feature is one click away. Subscript in Google Docs is two clicks. A simple page break is two clicks. Both are one click away in Zoho. Changes to the margins can only be made under the print menu in Google, while you can do the same visually by moving bars in Zoho, as you can in Microsoft Office.

Zoho seems like a pretty complex online application, but even with its constant background saves, it has never made Firefox unresponsive on my computer. And with my tiny 128MB of RAM, I can’t say the same for applications as simple as Gmail.

And how does this all relate to internet marketing?

Months ago, I wrote the following blog post in one of my writing communities:

30+ Online Tools for the Amateur Writer

Hey, I came across this post in one of the blogs I read: http://mashable.com/2007/10/25/30-tools-amateur-writer/

I thought some of the writers on my flist might find it interesting.

It’s a list of a bunch of tools. I haven’t checked many of them out yet. They listed Zoho Writer, which is cool. If you’re currently using Google Docs, formerly known as Writely, I would suggest switching to Zoho. Way more functionality.

Not a raving review of Zoho by any means, right? It’s actually a bigger pimp for Mashable, one of the blogs I read. Yet I still got this response from Arvind Natarajan, Zoho’s blogger:

Thanks for recommending Zoho to your readers!!

Isn’t that nice and simple? I just noticed the comment today, months later, but it did make my day. I’m guessing he saw the pingback in Mashable’s comments or used Google Alerts to find my post. He took the time to leave a comment, which made me want to write this post.

Many companies have this “build it, and they will come” attitude about blogging. They write a few posts, hear the crickets, and then ask their marketing guy “Why aren’t people commenting? Where are all those brand evangelists you keep talking about?” The answer: Your brand evangelists are doing their own thing. Creating a community around a brand takes work. It requires reaching out and finding people that will support you and your brand.

Arvind reached out to someone that had already written about his brand and his results were tri-fold:

1. I geeked out over his comment, and now I love Zoho even more than before and will recommend it to anyone who will listen.
2. I was so geeked about his comment that I had to share my love of the Zoho brand with all my (very few) readers.
3. The next time I fire up Zoho, I’ll probably check out their blog for updates and leave a comment or two.

If you’re a blogger, personal or corporate, and haven’t used Google Alerts before, I’d recommend it. Go to www.google.com/alerts, sign up for your company/brand/given name, and you’ll receive emails, at your desired frequency, listing links to where your name appears on the web. It’s like eavesdropping on what everyone is saying about you behind your back, good and bad. It’s a great way to find brand evangelists and maybe get a little feedback.