iTunesArtwork

Postcard is coming to The App Store February 19th February 11, 2014

I’m thrilled to announce today that Postcard will be available on iOS worldwide on February 19th. It has come a long way since the idea first started forming just over a year ago but I’m incredibly happy with
final result. A huge thanks to everyone who encouraged me and helped me test and improve Postcard to where it is today.

As of today the new launch page has been posted and you can see a video preview of the app sending a message out
to several networks including, of course, my own website!

So what makes Postcard special? Well,

  • It’s a write once, share everywhere authoring tool that gives you post-by-post control of where you share
  • It lets one network serve as a ‘host’ and the remaining networks share a link back to that ‘host’ network’s content
  • The ‘host’ feature can be used to effectively overcome message length and media type limitations of some networks i.e. Host a video with a long message on Facebook and share it to Twitter
  • It allows any prepared website to also receive the posted content
  • There is already a WordPress plugin available for download

While posting to one’s own website may not be the first feature that I’m advertising, it is the one I am personally most excited about because it represents most strongly why I first started building this app in the
first place – to help people solve content ownership and control issues I see prevalent in the shape of social media today. There is a big opportunity with this app to make sure your website doesn’t go stale as
you post regular short form content to social networks. Furthermore, if advertising revenue or lead generation are important aspects of your website, there’s all the more reason to take advantage of the ‘host’ feature and draw traffic from networks to your website.

Postcard and its API Protocol are my attempts at moving toward a more open and standardized model for the way we use social networking. For those of us who are active content creators, I think this marks a very important change in the way we use social media.

This week I’m preparing for launch next Wednesday and am happy to answer any questions about the app and how it might help empower the way you use social media.

Cheers,

Kyle

  • Kerry Harrison

    Any plans to add support for other social networks like Google+ and Meetup?

    • bitwit

      Hi Kerry,

      Thanks for messaging. I haven’t looked at Meetup’s API yet but will make a note to investigate. Do you have an ideal use case you can provide? It always helps me make sure I understand the desired feature.

      Regarding Google+, I actually implemented and removed it before release because Google+ does not provide an elegant posting experience. They want my app to boot you to the Google+ app where you confirm the message and then return to my app. I felt that wasn’t in line with the simplicity of experience I wanted Postcard to be. That said, I REALLY want Google+ in this app too, because I hate missing out on posting there. However, I want Google to make a better more respectable API for developers first. Right now they might as well be saying “don’t bother” in their documentation.

      I’m super open to implementing as many social networks as possible in the future but I think that we, as users, need to expect certain open standards from these services. It’s the reason both Pintrest and Instagram aren’t implemented yet either.

      Please feel free to reach out to me any time at [email protected] if you ever want to discuss or request more features.

      Cheers,

      Kyle

  • Ben Perry

    I couldn’t find a support page, so I thought maybe a blog post comment might help… I am trying to post photos using my website as a host, but once the post in done, the photo doesnt load to my wordpress blog? Am I doing something wrong?

    BY THE WAY! This is the app I have been looking for for years. It is perfect. Thank you so much. Anyway we can support you?

    • bitwit

      No worries. You can reach me at [email protected] any time or @postcardsocial on twitter.

      Re: the photos; when you add new social content it does not automatically create a new standard WordPress blog post, because ‘postcards’ are considered separate from posts (in order to allow for feeds/galleries to be embedded inside).

      So, there’s a ‘Social Archive’ page created on installation that acts as your primary ‘feed’ page for permalinking to any piece of your social content, as well as filtering.

      However, I’m hearing a few requests from people to auto-post a new blog entry on every piece of content added so I will be looking into adding more customization settings in the future.

      Does that solve your issue? Let me know and I’m always happy to give you private support by email.

      Cheers!

  • cherrysu

    That’s looks really coo. how long it takes for you to create this one? and how much it cost? thank you!