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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Crowdbooster (discontinued)

    Score7 out of 10
    N/ACrowdbooster was a tool to measure the success of Twitter and Facebook posts, with visualizations to track retweets, and track potential impressions created, likes, comments, and how many shares a Facebook post has received. Crowdbooster is no longer available.

    $9

    per month

    Shorthand

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AShorthand enables the user to create interactive multimedia stories for any online audience — all with no code. The vendor boasts that Shorthand is used by hundreds of publishers, brands, non-profits, and more — including the BBC, Honda, Business Insider, and Doctors Without Borders.N/A
    Pricing
    Crowdbooster (discontinued)Shorthand
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Crowdbooster (discontinued)Shorthand
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    Crowdbooster (discontinued)Shorthand
    Content Creation
    Comparison of Content Creation features of Crowdbooster (discontinued) and Shorthand
    Feature
    Crowdbooster (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Shorthand
    9.0
    1 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Content collaboration00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    Content Publishing
    Comparison of Content Publishing features of Crowdbooster (discontinued) and Shorthand
    Feature
    Crowdbooster (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Shorthand
    6.8
    1 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Content hub00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    Embedded CTAs00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Content distribution00 Ratings6.01 Ratings
    Content promotion00 Ratings5.01 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Crowdbooster (discontinued)Shorthand
    Small Businesses
    Talkwalker by Hootsuite
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Contently
    Score9.9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Talkwalker by Hootsuite
    Score8.1 out of 10
    CoSchedule Marketing Suite
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    1-Social
    Score5.1 out of 10
    PathFactory
    Score8.3 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Crowdbooster (discontinued)Shorthand
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.0
    (11 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.5
    (9 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Availability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    2.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Crowdbooster (discontinued)Shorthand
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Discontinued Products
    Before recommending Crowdbooster, I'd want to know what goals they hope to accomplish with the software. Then I would want them to specifically identify what types of metrics would be most useful to their program. If they specifically need to report out on how many people in a certain location they reached, this isn't the right fit. If they are using other tools, there may be duplication. However, if they are currently using more budget-friendly solutions or just getting started with a new program, Crowdbooster is a perfect fit. It will help you to grow your program and is flexible enough to accommodate your needs.
    Read full review
    Shorthand
    Shorthand is ideally suited to visual stories where you have a good number of images and/or embeds or video to include. It is well-suited to long-form stories, where you wish to keep the readers' attention longer than usual. It can help to differentiate particularly important or intriguing stories from others on your website - and for this reason, it could be used as a premium content tool, perhaps for subscribers. It can also be used to showcase stories about awards you've organised, giving them special treatment. It is less suited to breaking news, or very time-sensitive news stories, as it can take some time to prepare, post or update shorthand stories. And it doesn't work well for stories with strong accompanying imagery
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Discontinued Products
    • Timed social media posts - Crowdbooster provides the opportunity to schedule social media posts allowing you to work on other important social media tasks.
    • Simply beautiful tracking - There are millions of ways to measure social media impact. Crowdbooster offers the most important and relevant measurements in simplified charts..
    • Great UI - Crappy UI = crappy experience. Crowdbooster's UI is easy to navigate. It won't take months to learn where all the buttons are.
    Read full review
    Shorthand
    • Enabling visual storytelling with multiple pictures
    • Embedding rich media within a story, including video
    • Engaging readers for longer than average dwell times
    • Making it easy to create striking article design without coding experience
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Discontinued Products
    • The ranked order of twitter followers and the number of "tweet impressions" did not help that much. Those "tweet impressions" were not really an estimate of how many people were actually reading my tweet. It was simply a sum of followers of the person retweeting a tweet and the sum of all followers from a subsequent retweet of the initial retweet. All this told me was the best case scenario I could expect if ALL followers of a person that retweeted saw my tweet. This is not a true measure of "twitter footprint" – since the “signal to noise” ratio in Twitter is very low.
    • There was no system in place to track "clicked links" for links embedded in tweets and/or facebook wall posts. Hootsuite did a good job of this – but only for twitter.
    • The list of recommended times to tweet were always "on the hour" (i.e. 10 a.m, 1 p.m.). Never were the times ever at "half past the hour" etc. An independent study that I did on my own using Google Analytics (and campaign links using google's URL builder) helped me determine that my optimal "Tweet time" during the week is 3:30 p.m. ET. More importantly, the recommended times seemed to be roughly the same on the weekends - which I find strange given that social media behavior does change on the weekends.
    • Occasionally, in my facebook ranked table of "loyal fans", I would see people in there that had not "liked" or "commented" on a post for months at a stretch and the "look back" period of the table was only around 7 days or so. Hence, I occasionally had to question the accuracy of that table.
    Read full review
    Shorthand
    • Additional flexibility in how text is overlaid on pictures would be welcome so that there are more choices on what images to use with particular layouts
    • Enabling users to control the path of text - for example, enabling runaround - could enable some excellent designs
    • Adding additional section templates could speed up design
    • More flexibility in caption placement would be helpful
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Discontinued Products
    Simple to use and a great value for what it offers. It has a simple but clean interface and it provides fantastic historical data you can use to measure your efforts online. By using a tool like Crowdbooster, you can see what is working with your audience and what isn't. From there, you can start tweaking your strategies
    Read full review
    Shorthand
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Discontinued Products
    I found it fairly intuitive and easy to use. The information is laid out cleanly, and the most important information appears at a glance on the home page. However, I have worked with other users who had a hard time switching between platforms and identifying where other information was buried. It's not always clear that something is a clickable button! The option to export results is also a bit buried, and not integrated with the date range option.
    Read full review
    Shorthand
    No answers on this topic
    Reliability and Availability
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Shorthand
    I have never known it to be down during my use of it. All you require is an internet connection to log in and you can use it on multiple devices. Adding ease of accessibility, there are simple ways to log in. I've also never known a Shorthand story to go down once live on our site.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Shorthand
    Due to the integration with our content management software, there is a short delay on our site while it loads, which may cause some readers to drift away. However, I've seen other sites where it instantly loads articles, so I believe this to be down to the content management software behind our site more than Shorthand itself. Once that brief initial period is over, it doesn't require additional loading time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Discontinued Products
    I do not think it is as supported as it once was when it first arrived on the social media scene. It is an older platform whose main functionality may have already ran its course.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Shorthand
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Discontinued Products
    If you can demo a free trial, that is definitely the best way to see if this will fit your program's specific needs.
    Read full review
    Shorthand
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Discontinued Products
    It is a platform that is singularly focused. It does not have a lot of the additions that come stock with other platforms such as robust reporting or deeper insights past schedule times. It is also a stand-alone platform and a lot of its primary functionality can be found in more encompassing platforms.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Shorthand
    No answers on this topic
    Scalability
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Shorthand
    As a web-based service, it is easy for users to log into from anywhere. Content can easily be shared, as you can set up teams that enable access to each other's work as required. And content can be reviewed by others before publication using the sharing function. You can also view how an article will look on different devices.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Discontinued Products
    • Increased efficiency. I am able to generate useful snapshot reports in seconds. Particularly useful when you need answers fast (such as on a phone call).
    • Peace of mind. I am able to compare the data in Crowdbooster to what is exported from Facebook and Twitter.
    • Quicker, simpler evaluation of results. I am able to more easily compare impressions with engagement data to see what is working, and what should change. Particularly useful in day-to-day analysis.
    Read full review
    Shorthand
    • Helped us create one of our top 10 most-read and most-shared stories in the last year
    • Enabled us to elevate key pieces of content, boosting dwell time on our site
    • But can also be time-consuming to adopt for some stories, meaning you need to choose well what stories really deserve the investment in time
    • Boosted collaboration between teams via its ability to share, including offering the chance for others to preview content prior to publication
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Shorthand Screenshots

    Screenshot of Easily add sections and adjust styling.