Here’s a look at the latest platform upgrades that have been made to ShortStack. For more details on individual enhancements, check out our blog.
9/11/17
Collect Videos in your Twitter Feed
When setting up a hashtag feed to be collected from Twitter and displayed in a campaign, videos are now displayed. Previously, images would be collected, but videos would be left out of the feed.
8/14/17
ShortStack + UGC
Using User Generated Content to promote your brand is all the rage. ShortStack makes collecting UGC easy with hashtag feeds and rights management tools. Find a new “UGC” section in the Template Gallery.
8/1/17
ShortStack + YouTube
Did you know that ShortStack and YouTube work really well together? You may be missing out on valuable leads by not offering contest and giveaway links in the descriptions of your videos. Check out the brand new section dedicated to YouTube in the Template Gallery.
7/13/17
Hashtag Feed Improvements
Since adding the ability to curate a feed based on a hashtag, we’ve made a few improvements to the Feed set-up menu. Now, the feed’s dialogue will ensure the date range is valid, since you’ll need to include the current date’s range in your feed’s date range. Also, feeds will display the latest refresh date. Users can expect feeds to refresh every 5 minutes, and the entries will display about a minute after that.
7/7/17
We Added Grips o’ Tool Tips
It was time for a comprehensive overview of our tooltips. We updated old ones and even added new ones.
6/29/17
Pause Your Account
I mean, why would you want to do that?! But, if you aren’t going to run a campaign for a bit and were thinking of canceling, pause your account (for up to 3 months) instead.
6/1/17
A Cleaner Form
The form widget will no longer auto-populate first name and last name within the live preview. Published campaigns (that are linked to Facebook) will still populate.
5/30/17
More Action Options in the Action Widget
The action widget now supports a “video has ended” event. Users can use this to incentivize customers to watch a video to get a coupon or whatever.
5/25/17
We Hid the “Hide” Button
We removed the “Hide” button in Build mode so widgets with visibility settings will always be shown.
5/25/17
Better Previewing
We’ve made loads of upgrades to Preview mode. Now, you’ll see a new button in the upper left corner, just below the ruler, that, when clicked, will show the side toolbar and panels. A corresponding button appears to re-hide the toolbar and panels. You can click the space between widgets to select a container. When a container is selected, we hide all the labels/buttons for child widgets (which will reduce clutter). And lastly, when you select a widget in the Layers Panel, it will be selected in the Live Preview, too.
5/25/17
Pre-selected Country Based on IP
Filling out forms is never fun. Why not save your end-user some time? Campaigns will now automatically pre-select the user’s country (based on IP) in the form country select.
5/23/17
Efficient Exporting
When exporting a large number of entry images, previously, the export would fail if the file got too large. To help prevent this, we now break up the export into multiple files/emails (if needed).
5/23/17
Automatically Store Hashtag Feeds in a Voting Widget
When you choose to automatically create a form to store hashtag feed entries, an Image and Image Description field will be added by default allowing the feed to be displayed in a voting widget.
5/16/17
Hallelujah!
The rich text widget now has built in support for bulleted / numbered lists.
5/16/17
Hashtag Feeds and Digital Rights Management
For our higher-tiered plans, hashtag feeds and digital rights management is a thing. You will notice a new “Feeds” category in the ShortStack manager views. Use this to automatically collect user-generated content based on a hashtag. You can also request access to that content to use for further marketing via our rights management tools.
5/15/17
Pre-populated Test Entries
When a campaign is created from a template, we now automatically create 3 test entries for any databases in the campaign. These test entries will give you a preview of what your entries will look like in your Voting Widget. You can add more test entries (which aren’t collected in your database or count toward your entry allotment).
5/12/17
More Entries Display by Default!
If you’ve read the last two Changelog updates, you’ll know we’re on a limit-pushing kick! Why stop now? We’ve increased the limit of how many entries appear in your Voting Widget to 21 per page! (Before, the default was 5.) As always, you can still increase the number of entries displayed on your Campaign to up to 30 per page.
5/12/17
Increased Autoresponder Limits
Our users have sent over 2M autoresponders! Since this feature is so popular, we’ve expanded the threshold for characters allowed in the autoresponder email body. Now, you can include between 8k and 9k characters in your autoresponder, so you can really take advantage of the near 50% open rate those emails receive.
5/10/17
We’re Pushing the Limits for Photo Uploads!
By “pushing” I mean increasing… by a lot! You can now upload a photo up to 10 MB and 8000×8000 pixels in size. We’re pretty sure no phone can take a photo this size, but the intention was to act as a catch-all. Once uploaded, the photo will resize a bit, but to 1280×1280, so they’ll still be crystal clear.
5/8/17
Extreme Makeover: Campaign Builder Edition
The Campaign Builder got an overhaul and the finished product includes innovative updates and a clean new look. Enjoy an uncluttered workspace and new features that put building and testing in the forefront. There are too many Campaign Builder changes to list here, so read about them in this blog post.
4/28/17
Our new concierge is ready to help with all of your needs. #fyrefestival
4/5/17
Hashtag Your Instagram Videos!
‘Cause we support that now! Instagram Videos with a hashtag can be fed to a feed in a hashtag contest.
4/3/17
Import All the Images into Rich Text Editors
The Rich Text Widget image import now lets you choose if you would like your images to be mobile responsive or not. The default is set to mobile responsive, but can be changed in the event you need to use your own CSS to manage your Campaign.
3/29/17
Even More TLC for the Media Selector
The media selector now supports multi-select in all rich text editors, so, if you open a rich text editor, you can select and add all of the images you like from the media selector.
3/24/17
More Flexibility in ShortStack for Teams
In ShortStack for Teams, you can now configure the permissions granted to Team Members to tag resources. The Team members won’t be able to see the permissions granted to them.
3/21/17
The Media Selector Can Do It All
It can’t win at Jeopardy or make BBQ sauce (Google “IBM’s Watson”), but new updates to the media selector (the box that opens when you need to add an image to your Campaign) have certainly elevated its awesomeness status. Those updates include: 1.) You can now delete images from the media selector (if you like to keep things nice and tidy), 2. You can drag PDF files right into the selector, and 3. You can adjust the size of the thumbnails to make selection easier.
3/21/17
Create Custom Thumbnails for your Custom Templates
Now, when you create a Template, you can add a screenshot or image to the template’s settings which will display in your My Templates screen.
3/21/17
One. Million. Autoresponders. (In just 6 months!)
Since kicking off the autoresponder feature just 6 short months ago, ShortStack has sent over a million autoresponders on behalf of our users. [cough, gasp] “How many did you say?!” …over a million!
3/15/17
Add a Company Profile to Your Campaign
Company Profiles are used for CAN-SPAM compliance and can be selected or edited in the Copy Campaign dialogue, the Create New Campaign dialogue, and in the Campaign’s Settings in the general menu.
2/27/17
Adding Media to Rich Text is Easier Than Ever
Any Rich Text Editor within ShortStack (including the Rich Text Widget, rich text form fields, the autoresponder editor, and the form promotion rules window) will now navigate you to the Media Gallery when inserting a photo.
2/24/17
New (Better) Template Instructions
Our goal is to turn every new ShortStack user into a Campaign-building ninja. To realize this goal, we’ve created a pop-up that opens with each new template you open, complete with instructions and a link to these instructions within the Campaign Builder.
2/14/17
New (Better) Template Gallery
Everything you want when searching for that perfect template – including a description, live example, and “how to” video – is available to you right in the Template gallery.
2/3/17
In Skyrim, Ashley became the Arch-Mage of the College of Winterhold
2/1/17
New Mobile-Friendly Sign-up Process
Mobile users, rejoice! You can now sign up for ShortStack on your phone thanks to our new mobile-friendly sign-up pages.
1/31/17
Get a Prompt to Publish Changes
When saving a form, the Form Designer will show you all live campaigns using that form, so you’ll know you’ll need to Publish Changes to all those Campaigns.
1/25/17
Clicks in Autoresponders are now tracked
Clicks are an important indicator of engagement. Understand how your autoresponders are performing by knowing their click rate and open to click ratio.
1/16/17
Quickly Access “My Themes” From the Campaign Builder
Create a theme with the Style Panel, save it, and access it fast and easily with a convenient link.
1/16/17
The Comment/Like Importer Now Has a Search Option
Search up to 500 Facebook posts to import the Likes and/or Comments from.
1/13/17
Style Panel is Live!
The new Style Panel feature is a big deal because it allows you to style the look and feel of your Campaign without having to know any code. You can adjust colors, text, borders, padding, and pretty much any style element you can apply with CSS. This feature update is also a big deal because we’ve completely updated all of our templates to be Style Panel friendly.
1/12/17
New and Improved Chat Client for Customer Support
We’ve upgraded the chat client we use, which now allows you to search for help docs and videos right within the chat window. while simultaneously chatting with one of our super-star support agents.
1/11/17
Override Pop-up Titles
Now, you can override the popup title of widgets that are configured for popup visibility. By default, the title will still display the Widget’s title.
1/9/17
New Builder and Rich Text Defaults
When building a Campaign in the Campaign Builder, the default width will be fullscreen, whereas before, the default was 960 pixels wide. Also, when adding a URL to a Rich Text editor, the link will open in a new window by default.
1/5/17
Save the Post URLs from Your Hashtag Campaign
If our Design Team builds you an awesome hashtag contest, the URL of the Twitter or Instagram post is included in the database and viewable when exported.
1/4/17
“Save and Activate” Your Autoresponder in One Click
We updated the Save function in the Autoresponder builder to allow you to save and activate it all at once.
1/2/17
See Analytics for Sent Autoresponders
If you’re a sucker for data, then you’ll love that we’ve added Autoresponders to the analytics dashboard. Now, keep tabs on every aspect, including, how many autoresponders have been sent from your Campaign.
12/20/16
The Media Selector Now has Stock Images
ShortStack has always been no-designer-skills friendly, but now, the ShortStack platform is even more equipped to help you build a truly eye-catching Campaign all on your own. Stock Images are now available in the Media Selector!
12/19/16
Jane Won the Muscle Hustle
The Muscle Hustle is our inter-office health/wellness-goal challenge. Jane won because she went full badass.
12/12/16
Edit “You Already Voted” Poll Widget Text
We’ve always touted ShortStack Campaigns as being 100% customizeable. This was 99.9% true, because, until now, you weren’t able to change that “You Already Voted” text in the Poll Widget. We’ve now fixed this to make our Campaigns 100% 100% customizeable.
12/5/16
Add a ‘Reply To’ Email to your Autoresponder
If you’re on a Business/Full Stack or higher plan, add a “reply to” email address to your autoresponder and open up the channels of communication with your users.
11/30/16
Media Selector Make-over
We rebuilt our Media Selector. We made it better… faster… stronger. If you were born in the last 20 years and don’t get the reference, click here.
11/21/16
Autoresponder Templates
The autoresponder feature keeps getting better and better. Now, select a template to start with to keep you from having to set up your autoresponder email from scratch.
11/15/16
Analytics Default View is Now 7 Days
When viewing your analytics, the default view was set to “in the last hour.” Realizing you may want to see a more comprehensive display of your Campaign’s results, we changed this to show you analytics for the last 7 days. As always the view can be changed to a wide range of settings including “Last Month”, “Last Year”, etc., but now, you’ll be able to see what’s happened over the last 7 days without having to touch a thing.
11/9/16
ShortStack Can Send Autoresponders!
This is a biggin’! Before now, setting up an autoresponder to trigger when a user entered your Campaign’s form required a somewhat complex workaround that included a form integration and third party software. Not any more! Now, set up autoresponders to trigger right from ShortStack. We’ve even included merge fields for dynamic content as well as email templates to help save you time. Learn more.
10/19/16
Export Refer-a-Friend URLs
Refer-a-Friend is a great way to incentivize users to share your Campaigns. Now, all Refer-a-Friend URLs will be included when you export your database, which you can then send on to the end user for further sharing.
10/4/16
Easier Navigation to the “Full Screen” Form Designer
We recently pushed a feature update that opens the Form Designer in a pop-up right in the Campaign Builder. But if you need access to the Manage Integrations, View Entries, or the Edit Email Template screens, navigating to the “full screen” Form Designer still took a lot of clicks. So, we included a navigation link right in the pop-up. You’re welcome. : )
10/3/16
New Name Display Options in the Voting Widget
When displaying entries through the Voting Widget, you now have lots of options for how you’d like to display the entrant’s name. Choose from any combination of first and last name and first or last initial.
10/1/16
ShortStack Can Hashtag!
Let our team build you a hashtag contest in which vote-able entries are curated via hashtag on Instagram and/or Twitter. Hashtags are a great way to promote your brand and engage your audience. Check out our #shortstackcanhashtag contest and even enter to win a custom-built Hashtag Campaign worth $3,000 plus a $1,000 advertising budget. (Contest ends 10/14) Check it out!
9/30/16
Jim traded his MG Midget for a Honda Gold Wing
And that thing is suh-weet!
9/30/16
Now you can use a Captcha Field in your Form!
If the plot of Terminator ever comes to pass, rest easy knowing that none of those evil robots will be able to enter your contest. Easily add a Captcha field to your form from the Form Designer and verify that every form submittal is coming from an actual human and “not a robot”.
9/26/16
Personality Quiz and Holiday Calendar Templates gated to Paid Plans
We know this may be a bummer for some of our Free Plan users, but in an effort to continue to give outstanding support throughout the holiday season (when our support agents are stretched the thinnest) and all year long, we felt this change was necessary.
9/23/16
Better Mode Visibility
Have you ever submitted a bunch of entries to your vote-only contest, only to realize your Campaign was set to Test Mode the whole time? Now, the mode of your Campaign will be represented in the Campaign Builder’s ruler to help you see if you’re campaign is in Test Mode, Live Entry Mode, or Builder Mode.
9/12/16
New and Improved Resources Page
The new ShortStack Resources Page is like having your very own ShortStack genie. You just type a request in the search bar, say a few magic words (optional), and a list of answers and resources will magically appear. Try it!
9/1/16
Edit Your Form Right in the Form Designer
Now, there’s no need to toggle back and forth from Campaign Builder to Form Designer when building your Campaign. Just click on the “Edit Form” icon and the Form Designer will open in a pop-up window right within the Campaign Builder. So easy!
8/18/16
We Changed Our Plan Names
You may have noticed that your ShortStack plan is now called something that isn’t pancake related. As much as we loved relating the level of plan you were on to an appropriately-sized stack of our favorite breakfast food (i.e. Short Stack, Double Stack, etc.), we found that plan names that better described the plan itself (i.e. Starter, Agency, etc.) is better for business.
7/25/16
New Cold Coke Policy
If you take a cold coke from the fridge, you have to replace it with a warm one. This way, everyone can have a cold Coke.
7/19/16
Toggle the Manage Publication Panel’s Visibility
Zen-out your workspace by clearing the clutter! Now you have the option to “close” the Manage Publications Panel in the Campaign Builder.
7/7/16
Set up Bulk Actions with the Action Widgets
The Action Widget is great for setting up event-based actions, for example, triggering a pop-up based on a form submittal. Now you have the option of including multiple widgets in your if/then event, for example, trigger a pop-up based on the submittal of any form in your Campaign.
6/28/16
The CSS Editor is Now Gated to Pro Plans
In order to provide the best customer support to our users, we had to scale back what we’re able to offer to those on our Free Plan. Although Free Plan users will no longer be able to access the CSS Editor, all of our paid plans will continue to enjoy the platform’s customizing flexibility.
6/22/16
Facebook API Update Notice
We updated ShortStack to use the latest Facebook API version (v2.6), so you may safely ignore any notifications received from Facebook claiming your campaign is using an old version of their API.
6/21/16
In-app Chat Support
When available, a support agent will be standing by to help with your support questions in real-time. Just look for the blue chat button in the Campaign Builder.
6/20/16
Picking Winners is Better than Ever
The random entry picker has been optimized to handle large databases. We also now allow you to pick up to 1000 entries.
6/16/16
Campaign Publish Info is Now More Accessible
The Publish Panel will automatically stay open once a Campaign is published and remain open until it is completely unpublished.
6/15/16
Mobile Login Feature is in Beta
Mobile Login helps brands establish entry restrictions and protect their promotions from voting and entry fraud by linking participation to individual devices. Mobile Login is also available as a Widget, allowing you to display specific content to logged in or logged out users. Read More.
5/12/16
Setting up Instagram Campaigns is Easier than Ever
You no longer need to authorize your Instagram account when adding the Instagram Photo Upload option to your Campaign. To make this update even sweeter, the end-user will now be able to submit photos that are “private” whereas before, only “public” photos could be submitted.
4/28/16
Tags and Permissions Settings Transfer to Templates
When creating a Campaign from a custom Template in ‘My Templates’, or when creating a custom template from a Campaign, you now have the option of also copying your permissions settings and tags from your Campaign or template.
3/25/16
We No Longer Offer a Salesforce Integration
As of now, we no longer allow new Salesforce integrations and existing integrations will stop working after 4/30/16.
3/21/16
Search the Template Gallery for “Getting Started” Templates
New users will be able to find simple templates to help them hit marketing goals faster and easier with the new Getting Started category in the Template Gallery.
3/17/16
Prevent Entry Fraud by Banning Gmail Aliases
The email field in the Form Designer has a new option named “Disallow plus signs in email addresses”. Enabling it will stop entrants from using gmail email aliases – e.g., “user+alias@gmail.com” – and keep entrants from circumventing your entry restrictions.
2/24/16
Short Stack Plan Users Get More Features
Short Stack users now have email notification templates, field points, and can configure a custom subdomain.
2/11/16
Copy Permissions Between Campaigns
When copying a Campaign, users can now choose to copy the Campaign and database permissions as well.
2/4/16
Forms More Mobile Friendly
Phone and email fields now have field specific keyboards making it easy for users to input information when on a mobile device.
1/28/16
Create Custom Team Members
Grant custom access like creating, editing, deleting, publishing, exporting, and approving Campaigns for your team members. Available to All You Can Eat and higher paid plans.
1/5/16
Create a Copy of Database(s)
When copying a Campaign, users can now choose to copy connected databases as well.
11/18/15
Preview Campaigns in Dashboard and Campaign Manager
Easily preview your Campaign in the Dashboard and Campaign Manager by hovering over the Campaign Name.
11/17/15
ShortStack for Teams
Add coworkers to your account as “Team Members.” Your team members can create Campaigns, manage databases, and monitor analytics, without having to purchase their own account. Team members can be granted full account access or restricted to certain campaigns, assets, or clients. Learn More.
10/23/15
New Monitoring Dashboard
Track how your top Campaigns and forms are performing and instantly access analytics in our new monitoring Dashboard. You’ll see the Dashboard each time you log into ShortStack.
10/15/15
Easily Access Holiday Templates
When navigating in the template gallery select the “holiday” category to see all of our most recent holiday templates.
10/10/15
Set Campaign Entry Limits
Set a Campaign entry limit on your promotions and/or trigger a specific action after a certain number of entries have been received. Learn More.
9/21/15
Increased Max Number of Random Entries that Can Be Selected
Users may now randomly pick up to 300 entries when using the random entry selector. Learn More.
9/03/15
Export Only Visible Database Fields
When exporting data from your database, you can choose to export only the fields your users have entered data into or you can export all fields.
9/03/15
Added Hot Key Support in the Designer
Use your keyboard’s hot keys when you’re building within ShortStack’s designer. To enable hot keys use Alt-s or Option-s. You can access the keyboard menu in the upper right corner of the designer for a complete list of hotkeys.
9/03/15
Create Your Own Country List
Users may now choose which countries get shown in the country list in their forms.
9/01/15
Easily Access the Video Library
When logged into ShortStack easily access our tutorial videos from the help menu in the designer.
8/13/15
Specify Multiple Hashtags for Instagram Campaigns
Users can specify multiple hashtags to require for entry as well as use a defined search start date. Learn More.
8/11/15
Add Form Field Placeholders
Users can now configure placeholder text for most of their form fields.
8/03/15
Require a Verified Facebook Profile for Voting
When running a voting promotion, you can require entrants to login with Facebook before being allowed to vote. This helps prevent fraud. Learn More.
7/30/15
Drag and Drop Images
Users can now drag and drop images straight from other browser windows or other websites directly into ShortStack’s media manager. Once dropped, it will automatically upload, creating an image widget. Learn More.
7/27/15
See Errors in Share Widget Dialogues
The share widget will now highlight each platform that has a validation error. This will make it easier for you to find and correct these errors and continue building your Campaign. Learn More.
It also allows for per-platform title, description and link color configuration. This makes it easier for you to customize what your fans see based on the social network that is being shared to/from. Learn More.
7/21/15
Added Features to Plans
Free users may now test ShortStack’s external embed feature. Users will be able to embed their Campaign on their website (the Campaign will include a ShortStack logo). In addition, we’ve added embed capabilities to the list of features for our ShortStack users. Learn More.
7/14/15
Perform Bulk Actions
Users can tag and delete their Campaigns, assets, forms and templates in batches. In addition, ShortStack’s forms will support bulk copy and you can bulk copy/paste your Campaigns and Templates.
To bulk edit your Campaigns simply use the check box’s located to the left of each Campaign in the Campaigns and Forms/Entries Managers. Select the Campaigns you want to edit and choose from the Action’s dropdown. Learn More.
7/10/15
Copy and Paste Widgets Between Multiple Campaigns
Using ShortStack’s icons or your computer’s hot keys you can copy and paste widgets or containers of widgets from one Campaign to another. Select the widgets you wish to copy, then click the copy icon. Open any other Campaign and click the paste icon. Learn More.
7/09/15
Add Domains to Blacklist
We’ve added an option in Campaign Settings for users to add domains to a “blacklist.” This will help reduce the number of entries from people who clicked on links from contest-aggregated sites. When a site is on the blacklist, visitors will see a Page Unavailable when they visit your Campaign from the spammy site. Learn More.
7/07/15
Easily Access Public Templates
New “link” in the Template Page to take users to the Public Template Gallery.
7/07/15
More Data About Your Plan
Plans and accounts pages now show the user’s current view count for the previous 30 days.
7/06/15
Upgrades to Embed Codes
New responsive embed support lets users choose the responsive version, the old fixed version, or WordPress embed. Extra options added to the responsive embed popup include “automatically scroll to popup” and “vertical offset.” Learn More.
6/11/15
Streamlined Publishing Process
Once you’re done building your campaign you don’t want to mess around with a complex publishing process. That’s why we streamlined the steps you take to publish your campaigns to be a one-click process. Once you’ve completed a campaign, click “publish,” and your campaign is live so you can immediately start promoting it to your followers. Learn More.
6/09/15
Enhancement to Customer Support
We’ve made it easier to see when you have gotten a response from a support ticket right from within ShortStack. If you’ve submitted a ticket, you’ll now receive a notification when someone on our support team has answered your question. Learn More.
6/08/15
Additional Options for Device Visibility
By default tablet users are treated as mobile users and will see a compressed, mobile version of your campaign. Now you have the option to force tablet users to see the desktop version of a campaign. This setting exists in Campaign Settings -> Mobile. Learn More.
6/02/15
Added Search Features to CSS and Code Editor
We’ve made it easier to find a specific spot in your custom cody by adding search features to our CSS Editor and our Code Editor. To search within ShortStack editors, use Cmd-F on Mac and Ctrl-F on a PC. Learn More.