Today I'm trying out +Fotostat, a new service currently in beta for posting your photos (but also text, this post was written on fotostat) as well as gather statistics about them. To copy the service's description:
– Save time by scheduling your uploads to multiple social photography sites, blogs and merchant facilities.
– Discover how well each photo is performing by seeing all available statistics from each of your networks.
– Interact with your followers by commenting across all your sites from one easy to use location.
The service works very nicely: you first connect to your networks and your existing photos are imported to the service so you already have statistics on your content so far. You then can post new content, selecting each time to which networks you want to post to.
Currently supported are Google+ (Publishing to albums only, no post creation as yet.), Facebook, Flickr, 500px, Smugmug, Tumblr and WordPress. The effort is headed by +Daniel Treadwell, developer of the G+ to WordPress plugin I have been using for over a year now, so I'm sure there are lots of improvements to come.
Try it out for free at http://fotost.at/
View Comments (7)
hello world, posting a comment via fotostat
We are getting closer to release each day +Markos Giannopoulos. Thanks for checking out the service. Be sure to let me know if you have any suggestions for the site.
+Daniel Treadwell that's good news! I just noticed that the comment I made through fotostat was also posted here. I thought the G+ api didn't allow for comment posting outside of G+!
Perhaps your G+ to Wordpress plugin could take advantage of this to transfer wordpress comments to G+ ?
A couple of comments (I sent you also a private message, not sure if it got through)
1) The title field isn't posted on Facebook: compare https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151532855510210&set=a.382183585209.197569.566580209&type=1 with http://giannopoulos.net/2013/04/03/social-media-cross-posting-with-fotostat/
2) It would be great to be able to choose how the tweet will be posted. When I had Tumblr and Wordpress enabled, the tweet was added with a link to Tumblr. When I had only Wordpress enabled, I expected that the tweet would link to Wordpress but instead the photo was uploaded on twitpic. So if there was some options there it would be great.
Thank you again! :)
I didn't actually get a PM - strange...
Good point about Facebook, I was aware of it but agree that it should display in the post as well. I'll likely just add a blank line between the title and content (though I do hate forcing formatting).
Upload options for networks like twitter are definitely under review. I'm still not 100% on how I want to implement this without making it too complicated. As you see the site has a strong focus on simplicity, something I believe is important. I hope when I come up with a solution everyone is happy!
Commenting is done in a kind of backwards way that takes advantage of the fact that G+ uses Picasa as the photo backend. It's not really possible to transfer comments made to wordpress though as there is no direct user link. I have come up with a couple of possibilities to add a G+ comment plugin but it is quite a hack and requires too many pieces to fall into place. I've chosen to patiently wait for G+ to open up their own commenting system much like Facebook does. They seem to be paving way for this but only time will tell!
Thanks for the feedback, it is much appreciated.
On the twitter question: perhaps the option "as tweet" (which is kind of redundant as you have just one choice) could be dynamic based on the other networks you chose:
- tweet with link to wp
- tweet with link to tumblr
- tweet and upload on twitpic
This way you don't add any extra steps. The tricky part would be if the user first chooses twitter and the another network.
Thanks for the insight on the comments situation. Patience is a virtue i guess with the G+ api ;)
Hi +Daniel Treadwell, how can I report specific issues about +Fotostat? I am having problems with scheduled posts to tumblr and facebook pages. Thank you in advance :)
+Markos Giannopoulos, if you can simply email through to info@fotost.at so I have it in the queue that would be great. Just give as many details as you can.
Thanks.