

Show HN: Stacker – The Easiest way to Publish and Reply on Social Media - chrisdc
https://www.getstacker.com

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bencevans
Would like to see some screenshots on the frontpage. I don't want to give
access to my social profiles if I can't actually see what benefits something
gives me (text just doesn't cut it)

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chrisdc
Thanks! I appreciate the feedback, will be sure to forward this to our design
team. For the moment please accept a link to our Press Packet that includes
screenshots of the app
[https://s3.amazonaws.com/stacker_assets/press.zip](https://s3.amazonaws.com/stacker_assets/press.zip)

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mbesto
For some reason I just assume that HootSuite, TweetDeck, etc. all do this, no?
I use Buffer and don't see anything entirely compelling to switch. I also have
tried HootSuite and the rate limiting and interface bugged the hell out of me.

Also, up your pricing. I bet you'll get more customers. I'd recommend: Free
(for 30 days, no credit card), then $5/month, Amazing at $25/month and biz at
$100.

~~~
chrisdc
Buffer is a great tool, however it only supports Publishing while Stacker
supports both Publishing and Replying from one app.

I wrote a blog post on the core advantage we offer recently
[https://www.getstacker.com/blog/4/the-million-
problem](https://www.getstacker.com/blog/4/the-million-problem)

Excellent feedback on the pricing! Right now our main focus is to grow our
customer base.

~~~
mbesto
> _Right now our main focus is to grow our customer base._

Cool! Don't discredit raising prices with turning people away.

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chrisdc
As the founder of Stacker, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have

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computerjunkie
I don't have much to say, but your idea is something I also thought about a
year ago when it comes to managing social media accounts and being able to
publish posts simultaneously all on one platform. I'm happy to see that
somebody also had the same train of thought and made it a reality.

A couple of questions;

1\. Is there a desktop platform? 2\. Any Add-on for Chrome?

Great work by the way.

~~~
chrisdc
Thanks so much for the kind words!

We dont have a native desktop client at the moment, its a fully responsive
Web-app so you can run it in any modern web browser.

We do have a Plugin for Chrome that makes it easy to Share from any web page -
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stacker/bgckommphf...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stacker/bgckommphflbikdkkpheadpnjbmmkceb)

~~~
computerjunkie
Great, just another question, will you expand to other social media platforms
any soon?

Just a thought, your user base will likely consist marketers, promoters,
social media businesses and people who actively use more than 2 social
networks. Your pricing model is good, but if the service is as good as you say
its then you may want to price "business" model a little higher.

I guess whats important is to gain an active user base first and then decide
to slightly change the pricing model later on.

~~~
chrisdc
Great question!

Right now, we are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn (many more in the pipeline).
We want to be on all the networks as soon as possible and even go beyond just
social networks (think Tumblr, Disqus and others)

You are absolutely right, our focus right now is building up the user base. We
want to be as competitive as possible at this stage.

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thomasfromcdnjs
A lot like Buffer, but I like the inbox part too which Buffer doesn't have.

I can't believe Google Plus doesn't have an API, I would love to cross-post my
stuff, it's crazy!

~~~
chrisdc
You are absolutely right, the Inbox is Stacker's most used feature. We find
users coming back multiple times a day to respond to incoming requests from
their fans and followers.

We would be super happy if Google+ opened up their API. Its a great network,
just needs to become more open!

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ceejayoz
G+ is probably trying to avoid what happened with App.net - cross-posting
clients leading to seemingly active but entirely non-participating accounts.

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chrisdc
Could be, but I think at the very least they should open it up for G+ Pages.

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rbanffy
Am I the only one here old enough to remember
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stac_Electronics](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stac_Electronics)

~~~
chrisdc
Haha...super cool! Thanks for sharing

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anarchitect
Well done guys, this is really slick. Some feedback:

* The marketing site should have screenshots. The app looks fantastic - you should show it off!

* When I installed the Chrome plugin all my (many) tabs reloaded. Is this normal?

* I never saw any mention of price until I discovered MORE > BILLING, and was surprised I ended up on the "team" plan. This needs to be worked into the onboarding somehow.

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joekinley
Not a question, just a comment that this kinda reminds me of WUPHF. Also, how
come this hasn't been done earlier, or am I just missing out?

~~~
chrisdc
Stacker isin't so much of a "WUPHF" as it is a Central place for you to
Publish and Reply across all your Social Media accounts at once.

Typically, if you are a brand that posts to multiple Social accounts, you then
need to login to each account before you can Reply/Favorite/Like incoming
messages from fans and followers.

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bussiere
Nice , it's may what i 'am looking for.

But is there any way to export our data ?

If not will you make an app ?

It may be too specific but my dream is a thunderbird like program to compose
message offline / read them offline / search them offline and export my data.

My need may be too specific, but i will share your app in my circle btw.

Regards

~~~
chrisdc
Very interesting. I will be sure to forward that to our development team.

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bussiere
if you add an export report like csv file or excel for the stats, the pdf is
not enough i think.

Even for the online version

il will interest all the CM manager or public oriented account.

i will pass the word on my cm friend in september i'am off the social network
for one month...

Regards

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chrisdc
I like the idea of a CSV export. It shouldn't be too difficult to do since we
have all the data with us. Our PDF reports are very detailed though. Will be
sure to pass this on to our Dev team. Thanks!

~~~
bussiere
yep when you will do that you'll be one of the best tool for CM ... :)

And for the export of the data as inbox or etc ....

Why not a paid api ? Instead of having an offline version i could build mine
on the top of your. Just calling your api.

Like 10$ or 20$ per month for accessing the api.

This is my need only i don't garantee that i could be a viable business model
(i am not sure that cm need that).

Regards

~~~
chrisdc
We will consider that although I'm not sure the economics would work out.

Our API will go live soon(possibly as early as next week). It will be Free and
you will be able to access all the data under your own account or any account
that gives you permission to do so.

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jamesone
The inbox feature is great! Makes a good addition to Buffer[1] and
Polarbear[2] to reach and manage all networks.

[1] [http://www.bufferapp.com](http://www.bufferapp.com) [2]
[http://www.polarbearapp.com](http://www.polarbearapp.com)

~~~
chrisdc
Thanks!

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durmphoto
As a pro photographer, this could very useful. Is it possible to post to my
business page on FB and not my personal page? They have the same sign in, and
I simply switch back and forth from the FB menu. I have never found a social
media manager that can handle this.

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chrisdc
Yes absolutely! With Stacker you can post to.. * just your Personal Profile or
* just your Business page or * to both your Personal and Business page(s) at
the same time :)

Stacker is also the first Social Publishing tool that lets you create Photo
Albums on the fly, which should be very helpful for pro photographers like
yourself.

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cavemanklaus
This is very nice. I'm curious about your technology stack for putting this
all together, if you wouldn't mind sharing some behind the scenes I'd be most
grateful.

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chrisdc
I'm happy to share. I'll do a blog post on this down the line, but here's the
outline....

Node.JS at the core. Redis and AWS SimpleDB for the Database. Major caching at
all levels (frontend/backend). Response times of less than 50ms for most
calls. Web Sockets(SocketIO) for real time communications.

The frontend is built entirely in AngularJS with a few jQuery integrations. We
write all our CSS in LESS and compile it using Grunt.

We used PHP (LAMP) for our last major Project and I can say that for what we
are trying to achieve, NodeJS is much much much faster(10x) and leaner(we
manage the same traffic with 20% of the server resources used on our last
project with PHP)

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sjs382
Very cool. When I compare free [http://circular.io/](http://circular.io/) to
any product like this though, free always wins.

~~~
chrisdc
Stacker has a very well featured Free-for-Life plan (everything that Circular
offers and more)!

We love Circular, but it only posts to Twitter. Stacker posts to Facebook
(Profiles/Pages/Groups), Twitter, LinkedIn (Profiles/Pages/Groups) and we are
in the process of adding in many more networks.

With Stacker you also get a Universal Inbox that displays and lets you
Like/Favorite/Reply-to incoming messages from across all your Social Media
accounts in one place.

~~~
sjs382
Which is probably great for your audience, but isn't right for me. That said,
I'm probably one of the worst customers for a social app—I'm cheap and I
derive only a little bit of value from social networking/marketing.

What I get from Circular.io (and Stacker doesn't seem to offer in the free
plan?) is the ability to schedule posts for X twitter accounts (currently, X =
8).

~~~
chrisdc
You are right, but with our Amazing plan you can have 2 way communication with
your Twitter followers for just $10/month and upto X = 12 Twitter accounts
with in-depth click tracking and lots lots more :)

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strict9
Looks nice. Is this useable without shortened URLs? That has kept me away from
similar service offerings.

~~~
chrisdc
Yes, you can turn off link-shortening if you like. If you do choose that
option, the only thing you wont see is the Click tracking under Reports.

Stacker also supports using your own Custom domain to shorten links. Drop me a
note at chris@getstacker.com once you've signed up for an account and I'll be
happy to help you set it up.

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aembleton
Can I get a combined timeline of my twitter and facebook 'walls'?

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chrisdc
Yes you can! The Stacker Inbox does just that :)

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ljsocal
love the idea and I know I'd use it extensively but there's no way I'm giving
such broad FB profile/activity access. Eliminate that and you have a winner.

~~~
chrisdc
Hi ljsocal, unfortunately we require every single permission we ask for in
order to provide all the functionality we currently do. If its a specific
permission you have issue with, I'm more than happy to elaborate on exactly
why Stacker needs it.

You can rest assured that we encrypt all sensitive information before storing
it in our databases.The security and privacy of our customers is our number
One priority. The Only non essential field we ask for is your Date of Birth,
and we only do that so that we can wish you on your special day.

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athomas001
Great tool. Simply Awesome.

~~~
chrisdc
Thanks so much!

