ShortStack Review

I used ShortStack for several years as part of a social media/community manager role for both brand awareness, product spotlights and related contests/givewaways

Pros

ShortStack makes it really easy for a guy like me with no design or coding background to manage social media contests almost 100% by myself. Designing, launching, monitoring and measuring the contests and their results was really easy thanks to the platform's intuitive workflow.

Cons

After a few years of using this software, the designer and I started to reach the limits of its abilities. Part of what makes it so valuable is how plug-and-play some otherwise complicated design/programming features. However, that templated framework has its limits, keeping you from realizing fully customized ideas outside that framework.

ShortStack is the Best, Free Contest Platform

We were able to use ShortStack in order to gather user images to use on social media. We ran a photo contest where the winner wins free product and we gather e-mail and contact information from entrants and voters to use in future e-blasts.

Pros

I love that I am able to use this software in full for free. For a simple contest, we have free use of the platform as well as free support from the company. If we need to add features, it is easy to upgrade without a contract.

Cons

The software can take a little getting use to when it comes to design. There are design options within design options which can make it a little confusing. But you can always preview your design to make sure it looks okay.

ShortStack is good, but has low limits on entries

Pros

-fairly easy to use -easy to scale up -the variety of ready made templates and the ability to customise them

Cons

don't like the fact that you are limited on : - views - entries i understand having a limit on the lower tier plans, but in the full plan, having limitations on the amount o page views and or entries on the account seems rather unprofessional to me. And this is a model i've seen to almost every software on the market that handles competitions ( i.e wishpond). They really should think about removing entry limits, at least on their full package, else if a company wants to create a high traffic competition and then replicate it, it will most probably mean it will need a new account..

Professional Look Without the Pricetag

Positive. A well-designed piece of software. I will definitely be returning if we do this promotion again.

Pros

I really loved how easy it was to build a professional looking giveaway. My giveaway was very unique (different clues appearing at different days) and I loved how I could set the entire thing up ahead of time and let it run, confident all the timing was correct. This took a lot of stress out of the giveaway week.

Cons

It was hard to track the entries through social media.

Effective marketing tool for tourism

Short Stack Customer Support is FIVE STAR. These guys are always there for me, and I usually make mistakes and have loads of tech questions, or functional queries. They are SO FAST to respond, the online CHAT feature has been the most beneficial, and the yearly Agency subscription has met our needs nicely.

Pros

The diversity of the campaigns has improved greatly since we used to only have to import with a widget into Facebook. We have had a lot of success in promoting our destination through easy-to-create trip giveaways, including a cool trivia contest we ran, so folks learned something new, had a chance to win a trip, and had some fun doing it.

Cons

Sometimes the templates are different (newer) than the tutorial videos, so I can get a little lost at times. Understanding the lingo, and in the editing panels what each Rich Text box applies to can be cumbersome. I am not a great fan that I have to be a Developer in order to customize campaign URLs, so for now I stick with the provided link Short Stack provides, and it works fine.