I’ve been playing with a new app. It’s called Pressgram. It’s basically an Instagram where you can share cool, filtered photos and connect with others.
But there’s one little difference:
You OWN the pictures because you can publish them (automatically) to your blog.
OK. So, remember when Facebook bought Instagram and everyone cried? Then Instagram changed their privacy policies and everyone freaked because it meant Instagram could use your pictures however they wanted? Then they changed them and assured us that we really own our own pictures?
Well. This is how Pressgram started. John Saddington (one of my he’s-so-smart-he’s-too-smart-too-even-be-one-of-my-hereos) began designing the app and fundeded it via Kickstarter. Apparently he wanted to make sure everyone has creative control over their own pictures.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Ugh. Another social media site? WHY? WHY?” But that’s not really what Pressgram is about–they don’t want you to add it to your list of apps and sites. They want you to leave Facebook and Instagram and marry them instead.
Why? Why would anyone want to do that?
Well, let me tell you what I think about Pressgram as a result of using it for five whole days. (That makes me an expert, right?!.)
1. It’s easy to use. It’s got all the functionality of Instagram and/or the Facebook apps. (It could use a scroll to top button and maybe a white background but that’s it.)
2. It publishes to your WordPress blog.
OK. Here’s how it works:
You publish a picture just like in Instagram. Take a picture, choose a filter and add a caption.
THEN, add a post title.
Add tags if you want.
Add a category. This category is one you’ve pre-determined and connected to the Pressgram Plugin. Whenever you use this category, your Pressgram pictures will be posted to your blog BUT not on your main page. They will only be available with a direct link to the post or category.
Under PUBLISH, click the button of whichever blog you want to publish to. (This is easy to set up. Just login with your blog credentials. You can have several blogs on there!)
Boom. Your picture has been published to Pressgram and to your blog.
Then! Here’s the best part! Go to your category URL. Mine is http://ohamanda.com/category/pics.
You can see all your Pressgrams looking just like a blog post with titles…
captions…
and a watermark.
A WATERMARK! (There is an option in settings to turn the watermark on. It’s not automatic.)
How awesome is that?!
Now that these adorable filtered photos of your day are on your blog you can:
- share them with non-Pressgram users on Twitter, Facebook or even via email. They will be able to leave comments and share via their favorite social media site. Think of it! Pinning your pictures! All with links back to your blog!
- beef up the published Pressgram captions with affiliate links, sticky links to your blog and even SEO stuff.Β
On top of that, the Pressgram posts do not show up on your front page or even in your subscribers’ feeds. They are really and truly just a part of your blog–your home base for when you need and want them.
3. It publishes to Twitter.
This is cool. When you tweet your Pressgram it shows up like a normal tweet but with TWO links. One link to the Twitter Pic and one with a link to YOUR BLOG. For example:
You know, just drinking kombucha out of a glass from Cinderella’s Royal Table. #disney http://t.co/ZlhgPjw9GE pic.twitter.com/kNuyaLgBnX
β oh amanda (@oohamanda) September 9, 2013
Anyone remember what happens when you click an Instagram link in Twitter? It goes to Instagram. For traffic alone, a Pressgram tweet is gold!
{Also, just saw this on the Pressgram forums–if you don’t want to tweet or Facebook direclty from the app, you can easily do it via your blog with Jetpack!}
4. It publishes to your WordPress blog WITH A WATERMARK.
Have I mentioned that?! Seriously, a watermark is the key to my bloggy little heart.Β (More onΒ my love for the watermark.)
So, what do you think bloggers? Is Pressgram worth the switch? I’m gonna try it for awhile. I’d love for you to join me–my handle is ohAmanda!
Not a sponsored post or a review. Just something I thought you’d wanna know about. π
Please tell me they have it for Droid phones?
I have taken an instagram vacation and looking for an alternative and this might be it!
Fun!
Stacey
When in the world did you get a Droid Stacey Thacker? Seems like I remember seeing almost every form of Apple devices available on the market today in your home π
Checking this out Oh Great and Insightful Amanda, keeper of all new fun secrets that bloggers should know about π
Flattery will get you everywhere, girlfriend!
π
I now have a Nexus 4 and I love it! We switched this summer!
They don’t have it for Droids but I’m sure they’d be working on it, right?!
a
Super bummer!
I wish they had a sign up for them to notify me when it hits the Google Play “shelves!” I would probably be all over it once my droid is welcome into the fold. I love the publish to the blog idea!
If any of you are interested in being notified about the Pressgram android app release, you can sign up for the newsletter here!
http://pressgr.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d9367e9b83de672f1aa53b59c&id=fc575aa568
There is an article about it here as well:
http://blog.pressgr.am/android-assemble/
I heard about this last week but have not had a chance to try the blogging features. Thanks Amanda!
Just joined! Going to play around with the blog feature. Do you send all yours pressgram posts to your feed, too?
My blog feed? No.
Wait. Do you mean like my RSS? or to my actual blog? I send them all to my actual blog. But it (the pressgram plugin) doesn’t send them to my feed.
Does that make sense?
I’m just now playing around with that. Found the plugin! Woohoo!
Darn it all. I thought I had it set correctly but it’s going to my feed! π
Doing more research.
Hmmm. Wonder why? Check the Pressgram Forums, they might have some info.
a
If you have any questions, you can go to the support page here: http://help.pressgr.am/support/home
This was great Amanda!
wow, this is an unbelievable review! thank you SOOO much!
I shared this morning on my personal blog how it has helped with traffic: http://john.do/pg-30/
And… if you have any ideas for features, filters, etc, i’ll take them! thank you!
Thank YOU, John! I’m super excited about the whole thing and am hoping for super-great things for PG! Like I said, my only suggestions were a scroll to top type button and the black isn’t easy on my eyes. But maybe I’m just old. π
Thanks again!
a
So funny! I just joined this this morning! Thanks for this post. It helped! I’m on there – amyjbennett
Yay! Looking for you now!
a
Looks cool, but we’re anti-Apple Droid-lovers here… Is WordPress the only type of blog Pressgram will post to?
Thanks for the info!
anti-apple. *sniff*
I think it does WordPress.com and .org. Not sure about the rest. Click around the pressgram site, tho’. It’s got lots of good info.
a
hahaha! I’m an old-school school teacher who used Apple2E when student teaching… Now I’m married to a network consultant who doesn’t allow a Mac in the house (not really π )
Looks like they’ve had lots of Android & WindowsPhone requests. Perhaps by the time I dump my Blogger completely into my WP blog Pressgram will be ready for me to use.
I do hate using Instagram for my blog — such a pain. (I usually just offload all my phone pics to the PC then post them the way I like.) Being able to upload a recipe pic instantly via Pressgram sounds like a dream!
I am one of the Pressgram Community Managers: http://blog.pressgr.am/com-team/
If any of you are interested in being notified about the Pressgram android app release, you can sign up for the newsletter here!
http://pressgr.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d9367e9b83de672f1aa53b59c&id=fc575aa568
There is an article about it here as well:
http://blog.pressgr.am/android-assemble/
You can be notified about android phone development here!
http://pressgr.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d9367e9b83de672f1aa53b59c&id=fc575aa568
There is an article about it here as well:
http://blog.pressgr.am/android-assemble/
Ok. So I had downloaded it a week or so ago but haven’t done anything else. 1) I didn’t understand the blog part – your post makes sense, thank you very much;). 2) Facebook – are you able to post to your page or timeline? I want both. Do you know if that’s possible. Or at minimum I want it to go to my page. 3) Twitter – same as number 2 – can you post to multiple accounts. So short of me asking support … do you happen to know these answers my dear one?!?
Oh yes. I meant to say you can post from Twitter AND Facebook above. But as I hate Facebook I haven’t even done that yet.
Can you post to multiple twitter accounts? So you want to send the same Pressgram to each of your twitter accounts? I dunno. BUT you can easily do it directly from your blog, you know? (Look at that Jetpack info I linked to above. That might help.)
I am SO helpful. π
a
I was able to link it to my Facebook page via Jetpack – otherwise, it just links to your Facebook profile. π
I saw that, too, Jolanthe. But Jetpack was acting weird and I couldn’t get it. I’m gonna try again today.
a
Mine has still been touchy actually posting to my blog. Half of the posts that I shared yesterday went immediately to my blog, but a few didn’t. I did create a special username just for Pressgram to log into my blog {not my admin – just in case}, and it worked fine for a bit, but then decided to quit working. Nutso.
But boy – the possibilities of this are super!
The part about the watermark ‘had me at hello!’ I will defintely be doing this. Girl, thanks so much for taking the time to share all about it!
Too funny. I just decided to reopen my Instagram account today, and now I see your post. So many choices, but I do like what you’re saying about Pressgram.
It’s really a great concept–worth checking out!
a
In.Love. Thank you!!!! I am heading there right now π
THANK YOU For this!! I made the switch late last night when I couldn’t fall asleep (from Instagram, that is). I will share this with the CMB crew (aka, #intentionalblogger) because they need to be in the KNOW! I was going to write up my own post, but WHY since you have already done the hard work! SO, how cool is it that you can add to your blog WITHOUT it sending out your feed? Love this! Thanks Amanda!
I seriously had a window open on my laptop last night for Pressgram and was going to look more into it this morning. Downloading the app now, but LOVE the whole concept and off to experiment with it! π
And trying to figure out some of it {having trouble linking it to Twitter for some reason} – but according to the plugin page, it does post the pics to your RSS, but will take the pictures off your main page.
My pics haven’t shown up in my RSS feed. I’m glad, I don’t want them to!
a
Well they should pay you. ???? I’m gonna check it out and see how it works on weebly… I don’t use WordPress so we’ll see. Thanks for explaining!
I am loving it so far! Can’t wait to use it more for my blog! But how do I keep it from posting to my main blog page? IE when I go to my blog the top post is a photo I just posted from pressgram :0/ I don’t mind one or two but what if I do a whole bunch?! I don’t want them taking over my whole blog, haha. Is there some way to set up a page/feed they go to or is that what you outlined above?
Check out that Pressgram Plugin tutorial I linked to above. It’s easy peasy.
a
This sounds wonderful – BUT – will there be a “Windows App”? I have a Windows 8 phone, and Instagram will not make a Windows app.
I am willing to beg “Pretty Please?”
Thank you in advance!
~B
Thanks for this write up. I downloaded a few weeks ago but just need to customize it with the plug in. Trying my hardest to get people to sign up! ????
Wow! Thank you for this. Just started a second blog with a friend and I was planning to sign up begrudgingly for instagram! this was great! so helpful and I already downloaded the app! Thank you!!!!
Oh my goodness! Impressive article dude! Many thanks, However I am having
problems with your RSS. I don’t know why I am unable to subscribe to it.
Is there anybody else having similar RSS issues?
Anybody who knows the solution will you kindly respond? Thanks!!
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