Cross-Post

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What Does Cross-Post Mean?

The practice of cross-posting involves posting a single message or piece of content to multiple destinations. This can be to different threads or subsections of a common platform, or two different platforms. Cross-posting brings a single message to a wider audience by diversifying where that message is placed.

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A cross-post is also known as a cross-page post.

Techopedia Explains Cross-Post

Some technologies allow for cross-platform cross-posting. For example, an app might allow users to pose a message simultaneously on a proprietary site, and also on Facebook, Twitter or Craigslist. It is relatively easy to set up software with APIs that allow for cross-posting.

However, the practice has generated a wider discussion about the benefits and drawbacks of cross-posting. On one hand, as mentioned, that message makes its way to a larger audience. On the other hand, some argue that cross-posting tends to “devalue” a message in some ways – if it is all over the place, it is no longer unique or essential to a particular platform thread. Think of each individual message posted on social media as an opener to a conversation – if the exact same opener is seen in multiple places, there may be less of a chance for people to develop a conversation around it – they may ignore it, thinking that it is a kind of generic or automated message, rather than taking it as an individual instance of an online interaction.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.