Social publishing, in plain words
The words you keep seeing around social posting, explained simply. No jargon, no sales pitch, just clear definitions you can trust, from scheduling and queues to the open social web.
Every field grows its own vocabulary, and social publishing is no different. Here are the terms that come up most, defined in plain language so you always know what people mean.
We kept these neutral and honest, whether or not you ever use Quillcaster. Where a word lines up with something we make, we say so and link across, but the definition always comes first.
ActivityPub (Mastodon)
ActivityPub is an open standard that lets independent social servers talk to each other, so someone on one server can follow and reply to someone on another. Mastodon is the best-known network built on it. Because the standard is open, no single company owns the network, and many separate servers connect into one larger web.
Alt text
Alt text is a short written description of an image that people using screen readers can hear, and that shows if the image fails to load. Good alt text describes what matters in the picture in a sentence or so. Adding it makes your posts easier to understand for people with low vision, and it is widely treated as a basic accessibility courtesy.
Approval workflow
An approval workflow is a review step where someone signs off on a post before it goes out. A writer drafts it, an editor or client checks it, and only then does it publish. Teams and agencies use this to catch mistakes and keep a steady voice. Tools like Quillcaster let you turn it on so a second set of eyes approves work before anything is posted.
AT Protocol (Bluesky)
The AT Protocol, short for Authenticated Transfer Protocol, is the open system that Bluesky is built on. It is designed so your identity and followers are not locked to one company, and so other apps can be built on the same network. Bluesky is the main app using it today. Like ActivityPub, it is one of the technologies behind the open social web.
Brand voice
Brand voice is the consistent tone and personality that runs through everything you post, so a caption sounds like you whether it is playful, plain, or expert. It covers word choice, rhythm, and the way you greet people. Keeping it steady across apps helps followers recognise you at a glance. Quillcaster can learn a voice from your own posts so drafts sound like you wrote them (see the features page).
Carousel
A carousel is a single post that holds several images that people swipe through one at a time. Instagram, LinkedIn, and other apps support them. Creators use carousels to tell a short story, walk through steps, or share a set of tips in one post. Each panel is usually designed to make sense on its own and to pull people to the next.
Connected account (OAuth)
A connected account is a social profile you have linked to a publishing tool so it can post on your behalf. The linking almost always uses OAuth, a standard that lets you grant access without ever handing over your password. Instead, the platform issues a secure token the tool uses, and you can revoke it at any time. Tokens can expire, which is why you are sometimes asked to reconnect an account.
Content calendar
A content calendar is a plan of what you will post and when, laid out across days and weeks. It helps you post steadily, balance topics, and see gaps before they happen, instead of scrambling for something each day. It can be a spreadsheet, a wall planner, or a visual calendar built into a scheduling tool.
Cross-posting
Cross-posting means sending the same message to several apps at once. It is quick, but the exact same caption rarely fits every place: what works on one app can fall flat on another, since each has its own length limits, tone, and norms. Many people now adapt a post for each app instead of pasting one copy everywhere. You can see how different tools handle this on our comparison pages.
Engagement
Engagement is the catch-all term for the ways people interact with a post: likes, comments, shares, saves, reposts, and clicks. It is often used as a rough signal of whether content is landing, since it counts actions rather than just views. Different apps weigh these actions differently, so a strong comment count can matter more than a high like count. Watch the trend over time rather than any single number.
Link in bio
A link in bio is the single web link many apps allow in your profile, since they do not let you add clickable links to every post. People use a simple landing page there to point followers to a shop, a newsletter, a latest piece, or several links at once. It is the main way to move people off a social app to somewhere you own.
Media library
A media library is a shared store of the images and other files you use in posts, kept in one place so you and your team can reuse them. Instead of hunting through folders each time, you upload once and drop items into any post. In a publishing tool it usually lives at the workspace level, so everyone working on that account draws from the same set.
The open social web
The open social web is the group of newer networks that run on shared, open standards instead of one company’s walled garden. Bluesky, Mastodon, and Farcaster are the best-known examples: your account and followers are not locked to a single app, and different apps can connect to the same network. People sometimes call this the fediverse. Many mainstream tools skip these networks, though interest in them keeps growing.
Post adaptation
Post adaptation means taking one idea and reshaping it into a version made to fit each app, rather than posting an identical copy everywhere. That might be a short, punchy version for one app, a longer, more discursive one for another, and a more professional reframe for a third. The aim is to respect each app’s format, length, and audience while keeping your core message. It is the idea Quillcaster is built around: one idea in, a different post per app (see our features page).
Queue
A queue is a list of posts lined up to go out automatically at set times you choose. You add posts to it, and the tool publishes them in order on your posting schedule, so you do not have to hit send each time. It is a simple way to keep a steady rhythm without planning an exact date for every single post.
Reach vs impressions
Reach and impressions both measure how often content is seen, but they count differently. Reach is the number of unique people who saw a post, while impressions count every time it was shown, so one person seeing it three times is three impressions but a reach of one. Impressions are therefore equal to or higher than reach. Looking at both tells you how many people you touched and how often they saw you.
Thread
A thread is a series of connected posts published in a row so a longer thought can unfold across several short messages. Each post links to the next, and readers follow them top to bottom. Threads are common on apps that cap how long a single post can be, and they suit step-by-step explanations, stories, or lists.
UTM parameters
UTM parameters are small tags you add to the end of a link so analytics tools can tell where your visitors came from. They record things like the source (for example a given app), the medium (such as social), and the campaign name, without changing where the link goes. Marketers use them to see which posts and channels actually drive clicks and sign-ups. They sit as a short string after a question mark in the web address.
Workspace
A workspace is a separate space that holds one brand’s or client’s accounts, posts, media, and team members, kept apart from every other. Agencies and teams use one workspace per client so nothing crosses over and each has its own settings and permissions. You can usually belong to several workspaces and switch between them. Quillcaster gives each client their own workspace with roles for who can do what (see our agencies page).
Bring one idea. We will handle the rest.
Turn any of these into posts made for each app, in your voice, on your schedule. Free while we are in early access.
Start free
Social media scheduling
Social media scheduling means setting posts to publish automatically at a future date and time, instead of posting live in the moment. It lets you write in batches, keep a steady presence, and reach people when they are most active, even outside your own working hours. Most scheduling tools also show a calendar of what is going out and when. Quillcaster schedules across apps and learns good times for your audience (see the features page).