The First Comment feature in Zoho Social allows you to automatically publish a comment on your post at the moment it goes live, without needing to manually add it afterward. This is primarily used on Instagram, where adding a large block of hashtags in the caption can look cluttered. Instead, the hashtags or additional information are placed in the first comment, keeping the caption clean while still benefiting from the hashtag discovery.
When composing a post in Zoho Social, you enable the First Comment option and enter the content for the comment. When the post publishes, Zoho Social automatically posts the comment immediately afterward, ensuring the hashtags or additional message appears before any organic audience comments. This automation eliminates the manual step of quickly commenting after publishing, which was previously required to replicate this workflow.
While Instagram hashtag strategy is the most common use case, First Comment can also be used to add a call-to-action link on platforms where links in captions are not clickable (such as Instagram), to acknowledge the original source of shared content, or to add a disclosure statement required by advertising standards without including it in the main post copy.
First Comment support in Zoho Social depends on whether the social platform’s API allows automated commenting at the time of posting. It is most reliably supported for Instagram Business Accounts, which is where the feature is most commonly needed. Check Zoho Social’s current feature matrix for the full list of networks that support First Comment, as API support can change when platforms update their policies.
The First Comment in Zoho Social is published as a comment from the social profile that published the post (i.e., from your Facebook Page, Instagram Business Account, etc.), not from a personal account. This ensures the comment looks native and is associated with your brand identity rather than appearing as an external or personal account comment.
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