Mediaboss Marketing

Before we look into this data from CoSchedule, a quick disclaimer.

Yes, the best time to post is relative to your unique audience, so it may well be that none of this data is specifically useful to you in your planning. If you know your audience, and when theyre most active, thats more specifically applicable to your brand, as opposed to generalized overviews like this.

No, this info is not prescriptive. Reports like this are not designed to establish definitive rules, as such, and the days and times here are not intended as absolute guide markers for your strategy. Instead, they provide some additional insight into when people are currently active in each app, which could assist in your planning, if you were looking to experiment, as another way to potentially maximize your efforts.

With these notes in mind, the team from CoSchedule recently released their analysis of the best times to post to each social media app, based on insights from more than 37 million posts, from more than 30,000 organizations.

The study looked at when these organizations are seeing the most engagement with their posts (i.e. Likes, comments, shares), and from this, CoSchedule has come up with an overview of the best times and days to post to each platform.

That could provide some helpful pointers for your planning or at the least, some food for thought for your experiments.

You can read CoSchedules full overview here, or check out the infographic summary below.

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The Best Times to Post on Social Media in 2022 [Infographic] - Social Media Today

Another new report on teen social media usage, and another confirmation that TikTok is the dominant platform of the moment among the youth, while Facebook continues its downward slide in the broader relevance stakes.

Thats according to the latest data from Pew Research, which surveyed over 1,300 US teens and their parents between April and May this year, in order to glean more insight into which platforms are the main focus for young audiences, and how much time theyre spending in each app.

As explained by Pew:

[The survey] of American teenagers ages 13 to 17 finds TikTok is now a top social media platform for teens, with some 67% of teens saying they ever use TikTok, and 16% of all teens saying they use it almost constantly. Meanwhile, the share of teens who say they use Facebook, a dominant social media platform among teens in the Centers 2014-15 survey, has plummeted from 71% then to 32% today.

As you can see in this chart, YouTube still leads the way among teen users, with 95% of all teens regularly using the app. But TikTok is now the clear second in line, while Facebooks popularity has fallen off in the teen popularity stakes.

Thats no big surprise. Metas own internal research has shown that both Facebook and Instagram have seen declines among younger audiences of late, which has seen Meta put more of a focus on developing tools for younger audiences specifically. Thats why were now seeing a bigger push on Reels and Stories, which has definitely seen Reels usage increase, but its also seen the company go too hard on some elements, which it recently scaled back after poor user response.

Theres no doubt that TikTok is adding new levels of pressure on Metas development teams, and these stats further underline just how significant the platform has become, and highlight the scope of the challenge that Meta now has in keeping Facebook relevant, as younger users continue to turn away from the app in big numbers.

Because while older users will definitely keep Facebook going, it's younger audiences that dictate the next big trends and shifts. And while Meta doesnt necessarily need Facebook to be a top priority in this respect, it does need its metaverse push to take hold with the youth, in order to maximize adoption and resonance.

Part of the companys Meta re-brand is about distancing these two elements, so that even if Facebook itself isnt popular anymore, its VR tools can be viewed as separate. But inevitably, they will be linked, and its in Metas best interests to maintain Facebooks youth appeal, as best it can, to help usher in the next stage.

Which will be a challenge, based on these new figures.

The same trend is also reflected in the usage stats, with YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat seeing far more regular engagement than Facebook.

Of course, Instagram is still up there, and its still a popular platform in many respects. But the numbers for Facebook are pretty bleak:

Then again, Twitter is also pretty far down this chart, and really, it does seem that these legacy social media networks are losing their appeal with younger audiences, as video platforms gain more attention, and alter user attention spans and habitual behaviors in entirely new ways.

Thats why we now see so much replication between apps, because its not just that youngsters are spending more time on TikTok, its that the rapid-fire nature of media consumption in the app is changing expectations and approaches entirely, which renders other, more traditional content formats obsolete in some respects

In other words, the popularity of TikTok is essentially forcing other apps to play catch-up, because its evolving how people view what content should be. Those that dont look to move into line with these trends will eventually lose out so really, its likely less of a conscious choice to copy TikTok and other popular apps, as it is a necessary shift to keep up with changing user behaviors.

In terms of gender split, Pews data also shows that female users are more aligned with TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat, while male teens are more connected to Twitch, Reddit and YouTube.

These are some important demographic insights for your marketing planning, which could help to dictate your holiday campaigns and experiments to see what results you get.

Also, social media is now seen as a need for many:

That, in itself, is likely cause for concern, but the data underlines the critical, connective role that social media now plays in our modern interactive process, and conversely, why its now such a powerful medium for promotion and connection.

Its an interesting snapshot of the current market, and how young users align themselves with different social media apps. Which, again, could be great for your planning, and if you are looking to reach young audiences, you should definitely be taking note of these stats.

You can check out Pew Researchs full Teens, Social Media and Technology 2022 report here.

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New Report on Teen Social Media Use Underlines the Rise of TikTok, and the Fall of Facebook - Social Media Today

Just as the AR-15 rifle has become a sacred object for Christian nationalists in general, the rosary has acquired a militaristic meaning for radical-traditional (or rad trad) Catholics. On this extremist fringe, rosary beads have been woven into a conspiratorial politics and absolutist gun culture. These armed radical traditionalists have taken up a spiritual notion that the rosary can be a weapon in the fight against evil and turned it into something dangerously literal.

Their social-media pages are saturated with images of rosaries draped over firearms, warriors in prayer, Deus Vult (God wills it) crusader memes, and exhortations for men to rise up and become Church Militants. Influencers on platforms such as Instagram share posts referencing everyday carry and gat check (gat is slang for firearm) that include soldiers battle beads, handguns, and assault rifles. One artist posts illustrations of his favorite Catholic saints, clergy, and influencers toting AR-15-style rifles labeled SANCTUM ROSARIUM alongside violently homophobic screeds that are celebrated by social-media accounts with thousands of followers.

The theologian and historian Massimo Faggioli has described a network of conservative Catholic bloggers and commentary organizations as a Catholic cyber-militia that actively campaigns against LGBTQ acceptance in the Church. These rad-trad rosary-as-weapon memes represent a social-media diffusion of such messaging, and they work to integrate ultraconservative Catholicism with other aspects of online far-right culture. The phenomenon might be tempting to dismiss as mere trolling or merchandizing, and ironical provocations based on traditionalist Catholic symbols do exist, but the far rights constellations of violent, racist, and homophobic online milieus are well documented for providing a pathway to radicalization and real-world terrorist attacks.

The rosaryin these handsis anything but holy. But for millions of believers, the beads, which provide an aide-mmoire for a sequence of devotional prayers, are a widely recognized symbol of Catholicism and a source of strength. And many take genuine sustenance from Catholic theologys concept of the Church Militant and the tradition of regarding the rosary as a weapon against Satan. As Pope Francis said in a 2020 address, There is no path to holiness without spiritual combat, and Francis is only one of many Church officials who have endorsed the idea of the rosary as an armament in that fight.

Ryan Busse: The rifle that ruined America

In mainstream Catholicism, the rosary-as-weapon is not an intrinsically harmful interpretation of the sacramental, and this symbolism has a long history. In the 1930s and 40s, the ultramontane Catholic student publication Jeunesse tudiante Catholique regularly used the concept to rally the faithful. But the modern radical-traditionalist Catholic movementwhich generally rejects the Second Vatican Councils reformsis far outside majority opinion in the Roman Church in America. Many prominent American Catholic bishops advocate for gun control, and after the Uvalde school shooting, Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, lamented the way some Americans sacralize deaths instruments.

Militia culture, a fetishism of Western civilization, and masculinist anxieties have become mainstays of the far right in the U.S.and rad-trad Catholics have now taken up residence in this company. Their social-media accounts commonly promote accelerationist and survivalist content, along with combat-medical and tactical training, as well as memes depicting balaclava-clad gunmen that draw on the terrorwave or warcore aesthetic that is popular in far-right circles.

Like such networks, radical-traditional Catholics sustain their own cottage industry of goods and services that reinforces the radicalization. Rosaries are common among the merchandise on offersome made of cartridge casings, and complete with gun-metal-finish crucifixes. One Catholic online store, which describes itself as dedicated to offering battle-ready products and manuals to stand firm against the tactics of the devil (a New Testament reference), sells replicas of the rosaries issued to American soldiers during the First World War as combat rosaries. Discerning consumers can also buy a concealed carry permit for their combat rosary and a sacramental storage box resembling an ammunition can. In 2016, the pontifical Swiss Guard accepted a donation of combat rosaries; during a ceremony at the Vatican, their commander described the gift as the most powerful weapon that exists on the market.

The militarism also glorifies a warrior mentality and notions of manliness and male strength. This conflation of the masculine and the military is rooted in wider anxieties about Catholic manhoodthe idea that it is in crisis has some currency among senior Church figures and lay organizations. In 2015, Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix issued an apostolic exhortation calling for a renewal of traditional conceptions of Catholic masculinity titled Into the Breach, which led the Knights of Columbus, an influential fraternal order, to produce a video series promoting Olmsteds ideas. But among radical-traditional Catholic men, such concerns take an extremist turn, rooted in fantasies of violently defending ones family and church from marauders.

Juliette Kayyem: A lone-wolf shooter has an online pack

The rosary-as-weapon also gives rad-trad Catholic men both a distinctive signifier within Christian nationalism and a sort of membership pass to the movement. As the sociologists Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry note in Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States, Catholics used to be regarded as enemies by Christian nationalists, and anti-Catholic nativism runs deep in American history. Today, Catholics are a growing contingent of Christian nationalism.

Helping unite these former rivals is a quasi-theological doctrine of what Perry and another sociologist, Philip S. Gorski, have called righteous violence against political enemies regarded as demonic or satanic, be they secularists, progressives, or Jews. The hostility toward liberalism and secularism inherent in traditionalist Catholicism is also pronounced within Christian nationalist circles. No longer stigmatized by evangelical nationalists, Catholic imagery now blends freely with staple alt-right memes that romanticize ancient Rome or idealize the traditional patriarchal family.

Daniel K. Williams: This really is a different pro-life movement

Some doctrinal differences and divisions remain. Many radical-traditional Catholic men maintain the hard-line position that other forms of Christianity are heretical, and hold that Catholics alone adhere to the one true Church. Christian nationalisms nativism and its predilection for Great Replacement theory alienate some radical-traditional Catholics who are not white or who were not born in the United States, and deep veins of anti-Catholicism persist among far-right Protestants.

Yet the convergence within Christian nationalism is cemented in common causes such as hostility toward abortion-rights advocates. The pro-choice protests that followed the leaked early draft of the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, led to a profusion of social-media posts on the far right fantasizing about killing activists, and such forums responded to Pride month this year with extremist homophobic and transphobic groomer discourse. Rad-trad networks are also involved in organizing rosary-branded events that involve weapons training.

Catholics are taught to love and forgive their enemies, that to do otherwise is a sin. But the extremist understanding of spiritual warfare overrides that command. To do battle with Satanwhose influence in the world is, according to Catholic demonology, real and menacingis to deploy violence for deliverance and redemption. The battle beads culture of spiritual warfare permits radical-traditional Catholics literally to demonize their political opponents and regard the use of armed force against them as sanctified. The sacramental rosary isnt just a spiritual weapon but one that comes with physical ammunition.

Original post:
How Rad-Trad Catholics Weaponized the Rosary - The Atlantic

Five years ago, 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va.

Heyer was part of a crowd of counter-protesters that filled a narrow, one-way street in downtown Charlottesville when an avowed white nationalist deliberately drove into the crowd. Heyer's mom, Susan Bro, recalls how it happened.

"He sat there a minute, he backed up, and then he sped forward across two speed bumps into a crowd of counter-protesters, Bro says.

The impact sent bodies flying. Several people were injured. Heyer died.

After her daughters death, Bro started the Heather Heyer Foundation, providing scholarships to high school students wanting to continue their education. She has since shut down the foundation to focus on her health.

On how shes doing, five years after Unite the Right

I have good days and bad the month before and I wrote a piece about grief a couple of years ago, how it comes in waves. And that's typical for everybody who's lost somebody. It's not just me by any means, but sometimes the waves are really high and sometimes the waves are shallow, and sometimes you're just aware of their lapping at your ankles. But when you've lost a child, you always have that sense of loss. But you do learn to live and go on despite it. I mean, it's either that or die. And I chose not to die. I chose to keep going.

On if the city has recognized Heather at the location of her tragic death

I don't want Heather recognized anymore than she is. She got too much attention as it was. Heather was just there to walk in support that day. She was not an organizer. She simply wanted to walk in support of the young ladies in her office that day who were also marching and way too much attention has been given to Heather.

I had to fend off people who wanted a park named after her or a statue in her honor. I said, She wouldn't want it. I don't want it. I think naming the street after her is really all that needs to happen. And what we need to focus on going forward, and rightfully so, is to focus on the issues that led to her murder and that is to combat white supremacy, institutionalized white supremacy, to combat racism, to combat division [and] find ways to make life equitable for everyone.

On where Charlottesville stands in regard to equity and justice today

Struggling and struggling. I remember meeting people from Ferguson right after Heather was murdered, and I asked them, How was Ferguson doing? And they said, struggling. Ten years later, they were still struggling. And Charlottesville was doing some of that.

Housing is still a major issue for communities of color. Policing is still a major issue for communities of color. I just see all the same issues that they had before 2017 still being issues. But I will also add, I don't live here. I don't participate in government here. I read about it. I get the publications by email, but I'm not part of this community. I'm not involved.

On whether commentators who watch alt-right hate and extremism for a living are making it more mainstream

Oh, yeah fully intentional. And they make no bones about it.

On how she thinks Charlottesville fits into it the state of extremism in the U.S. today

Movements like these tend to arise when communities are frustrated economically and they start looking for excuses and people to blame. They start looking for scapegoats. We've seen this pattern again and again in history. And then people are all too eager to follow somebody else's solution.

On finding hope

Well, I'm hoping that this is the farthest that the pendulum swings. Moving forward, we've got to find a way to make it more equitable for everyone. We still have a long way to go with that."

On spending the rest of her life as Heather Heyers mom and if it comes with a burden

[Its]funny because when I taught school, she said I'm always Miss Heyer's daughter well, she's got it even now.

I have loved meeting people. I have loved traveling. I have loved being able to make a difference in the world. But it was the cost of someone so dear to me that I would rather have her back than have any of that happen. But I don't want to take away the good in the world that it caused to her murderer. It did serious harm to the white supremacy movement for a while, and in some aspects it's still doing that. Not just her murder, but the car attack and the whole weekend. You know, there are people still being sued. Heck, I've still got a lawsuit going. I'm not looking for any money out of it, just trying to stop people from doing stuff.

On what she sees when she looks at the world through Heather's eyes

Oh, she's always skeptical. She's always prodding people. Like I said, she's not quiet. She's not. She has a rest in peace. She rests in power. I often hear from people that they got this nudge from Heather or that nudge from Heather or they felt like something came together because of Heather.

James Perkins Mastromarino and Jorgelina Manna-Rea produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Catherine Welch. Welch also adapted it for the web.

Original post:
Five years after her daughter's death at the Unite the Right rally, Heather Heyer's mother reflects - WBUR News

Ahead of Wyoming's primary election on Tuesday, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) released her final campaign ad video, which sounds more like a concession speech. Cheney's numbers have been trailing in the polls, likely a symptom of her unrelenting pursuit of former president Donald Trump in the January 6 hearings.

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The incumbent has been in office since 2016, and she has served as the sole House representative from Wyoming. A poll from Thursday shows Cheney with 28% support from voters, while 57% support rival Harriet Hageman.

Her final campaign ad focuses on lies circulating since the 2020 election and the importance of upholding American democracy, somewhat reminiscent of her stance in the January 6 hearings. America cannot remain free if we abandon the truth, Cheney said. The lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen is insidious, it preys on those who love their country, it is a door Donald Trump opened to manipulate Americans to abandon their principles, to sacrifice their freedom, to justify violence, to ignore the rulings of our courts and the rule of law.

The New York Times pointed out that Trump won 70% of the vote in Wyoming in the 2020 election. Despite this, Cheney has left no room for doubt in her condemnation of the former president's inaction during the Capitol attack in the January 6 investigation, and was one of only 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump a second time. Consequently, Trump has made defeating Cheney a top priority for any and all politicians wanting his coveted alt-right endorsement.

If the cost of standing up for the Constitution is losing the House seat, then thats a price Im willing to pay, Cheney said earlier this month.

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That's A Price I'm Willing To Pay: Wyoming's Rep. Liz Cheney Emphasizes Role In Jan. 6 Investigation And Expected Loss Ahead Of Tuesday's Primary -...