Have you ever pondered on what the word ‘post’ means?
Well when you use WordPress as your website, you get more than just ‘pages’ of your site. You also get the blog ‘post’ feature.
Each WordPress post is tied to a specific time, and can be organized by categories and tags. You can let people comment on your posts, which is a fantastic way to engage your blog readers. Using blog posts also helps your website to have meaningful, fresh content, which is great for marketing and for the search engine optimization.
Now, you could keep things simple, and just create a website with pages only. That would be considered a CMS (Content Management System) site. Fancy words for ‘just a simple straightforward site’. People typically use WordPress ‘pages’ to create web pages with static content that doesn’t change often. Pages are not time-specific, and you can organize them in a hierarchical way with parent pages and sub ‘child’ pages. But don’t get caught up in that jargon now, as we are talking about blog posts today.
This blog post article you are reading now is created using the ‘post’ feature.
So, what does the word ‘post’ mean?
We’ve seen so many new terms become our everyday words as the online world expanded dramatically especially over the past couple of decades. One of such terms is ‘post.’ That’s the term we hear all the time especially on social media, but I noticed that there are still people who are not very clear about what it means and how it’s used.
You can use ‘post’ as a verb and also as a noun.
‘Post’ as a Verb
‘Posting’ means you are adding content online. The content can be an article, comment, message, and more. That can be done on a website, social media, an online forum, and so forth. ‘Posting’ simply can mean the action of creating a blog post and publishing it, too.
Example: “Did you post a comment on my blog?”
Example: “I just posted a funny photo on Instagram.”
‘Post’ as a Noun
When used as a noun, a ‘post’ refers to online content. A blog article is typically called a blog ‘post.’ When somebody add a message to social media, that message can be called a ‘post’ as well.
Example: “Where is the post?”
Example: “There were so many silly April Fool’s Day joke posts today on Facebook!”
Hope my explanation is helpful in demystifying how the term ‘post’ is being used everywhere these days. You can also read more WordPress tips blog posts here .
So are you creating blog posts and posting them to social media yourself? (if not I can help you with that in the next Website Creation Workshop Class!) If you still have any questions or comments, please go ahead and ‘post’ a comment below!
(this article was first published Nov 3, 2009)
Good Job! Sometimes we overlook the basics of something common like the word “Post”. It helps to understand the terminology when we jump into this often confusing world of technology!!
Have a Great Day,
Rusty Lee
Rusty,
yes, I’ve been talking to people about a ‘post’ and realizing that sometimes the terminology is not clear
By thinking of it as a verb AND a noun, it makes it easier to understand
Thanks always Christina. You keep giving it all and super appreciated. To me this “post” is very clear to understand. Thanks for never assuming I know it all so keep them coming as someone probably doesn’t know the WEALTH of GOLD you have stored up for us. I believe we never can get too much from your wisdom, use and apply to our own benefit. Thanks for saying it in “baby, simple talk” ways. It helps millions!!
I think of a “post” as a way to tell everyone through a “feed” broadcasting method or someone to read when they come to my site. So, they get it the post information both ways, but firstly and quicker by broadcasting it. Sometimes I don’t always see others posts unless I go to all their blog sites.
carol giambri
Carol,
Yes I think of ‘posting’ as ‘broadcasting’ a message out.
The post sends it out through the RSS, and from there any number of channels can pick it up and re-distribute it!
Glad I’m helping make it easier to understand
Hello from beautiful Montana:
Thanks so much for the “post” It is always a challenge to post a post daily, but I love reading posts from those posters who do a good job.
Judy H. Wright aka Auntie Artichoke, family relationship author and speaker
http://www.AskAuntieArtichoke.com
Yes, I’d love to post to my blog daily, but with my Website Creation Workshop going on right now, I don’t have much time.
I do 3 calls with them a week. But I’ll be posting more once that wraps up for the semester
🙂 Christina
Christina:
A good point made. Until a few months ago there were many terms I didn’t know the meaning of. Including ‘blog’. I had to Google that to find out what it was. So it’s better to assume people don’t know what these terms mean that assume they do and leave them trailing way behind you.
Diane
Very clear explanation.
i thought this was a great great posting. I will be definitely awaiting your next post.
This explanation was clear, thanks a lot
Christina your post makes me think and confused for a while. There’s a lot of explanation about post but your definition is the most meaningful, post is definitely a noun and a verb! by the way what is Content Management System?
Carmie,
WordPress is a Content Management System, also known as a CMS. I will write an article in the future on that to help flesh it out