By Debbie Gregory.

Since social media is always changing, it can be very difficult to keep up with all the new social media definitions that emerge every month. Here are even more terms for you to know.  We hope we are not making your head spin.

Recommendation

A recommendation is a testimonial provided on LinkedIn. You can provide recommendations for your connections or ask them to provide a recommendation for you. Recommendations appear on your public profile.

Regram

To regram is to repost another Instagram user’s image or video. Make sure you have permission to do so, either through a branded hashtag or by asking the user directly.

Repin

To repin is to save another user’s Pin to one of your own Pinterest boards.

Reply

Reply is a social media function that allows you to respond publicly to another user’s comment, creating a comment thread. On Twitter, you reply by clicking the comment icon under a particular Tweet.  On other social networks, you’ll find a button or link marked Reply.

Repost

To repost is to share another user’s content on social media. This can include regramming, repinning, or retweeting. It also includes sharing another user’s Instagram post in your Instagram Stories.

Retargeting

Retargeting is an online advertising strategy that aims to re-engage website visitors who left a site without converting. Retargeting starts with a small tracking tag embedded in your website’s code. You can then target these prospects on other websites, including social networks.

Retweet

To retweet is to share someone else’s Tweet with your followers. When you click the retweet button on the Twitter website or app, you can opt to republish the tweet as is, or add a comment to explain why you’re sharing it.

Rich pin

A Rich pin is a Pinterest post that contains additional content from the original website. There are three categories: article, recipe, or product. For example, product Rich pins include real-time information about where to buy the product, pricing, and availability.

RSS feed

An RSS feed is a format for syndicating web content. It may be short for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication, depending on who you ask, but neither is an official acronym. RSS feeds are created in a standard XML format that makes them compatible with a variety of readers and aggregators that readers can subscribe to.

RSS reader

An RSS reader is a tool that allows you to collect articles from multiple RSS feeds in one place for easy reading.

Scheduling

Scheduling involves planning social media updates and content ahead of time using a social media management platform or other publishing tool. Scheduling saves time by allowing users to draft several messages at once, often as part of a publishing approval process or larger marketing campaign. It also enables posts to be timed for audiences in various time zones.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization is the practice of increasing the organic visibility of a web page in search results. Although businesses can pay for ads on search engine results page, SEO refers to “free” tactics that enhance the search ranking of a page.

Selfie

A selfie is a self-portrait photograph, usually taken with the front camera on a smartphone and shared on social media sites.

Sentiment

Sentiment is a way of describing the way people feel about your brand on social media. Rather than just measuring the number of posts or engagements related to your brand, it captures the feelings and attitude contained in those posts.

Sentiment analysis

Sentiment analysis is an examination of how an audience feels about a brand, company, or product based on social data. Sentiment analysis typically involves natural language processing or other computational methods to identify the attitude contained in a social media message. Analytics platforms—such as Hootsuite Insights classify sentiment in a variety of ways. For example, some use “polar” classification (positive or negative sentiment), while others sort messages by emotion or tone (contentment/gratitude, fear/uneasiness, etc.).

Share of Voice

Share of voice is a measure of how many social media mentions a particular brand is receiving in relation to its competition. It is usually measured as a percentage of total mentions within an industry or among a defined group of competitors.

Social Customer Service

Social customer service is when a company uses social channels to provide service and support to customers. Larger companies often have a separate social handle for customer support issues.

Social inbox

A social inbox is the screen for reading and responding to direct messages on a social platform.

Social listening

Social listening begins with finding and assessing what is being said about a company, topic, brand, or person on social media channels. Then, the social team acts based on what the analysis reveals. Taking action could be as simple as responding to a happy customer or as major as revising the brand strategy.

Social Media Management

Social media management involves managing social media accounts, engaging audiences, and measuring the business results of social media activities. Effective social media management practices implemented at scale across departments and regions allow everyone within the organization to collaborate and achieve measurable outcomes on social media.

Social Media Management Platform

A social media management platform is a secure, scalable tool that allows businesses to manage multiple social media accounts across departments and devices. Social relationship platforms are used for monitoring, posting, and tracking social media, and help manage everything from customer service to lead generation.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is the use of social media to increase brand awareness, identify key audiences, generate leads, and build meaningful relationships with customers. Social media marketing should be part of a larger social strategy that also includes social customer service, community management, and social selling activities.

Social Media Monitoring

Social media monitoring is like social listening in that it involves tracking what is being said about a brand on social media. However, while social listening involves analysis and action, social media monitoring is primarily concerned with finding and gathering data.

Social Media ROI

Social media ROI (Return On Investment) is a measure of how much you get out of the time, money, and effort you put into your social media strategy. It’s a way of evaluating which strategies provide the most value, and which areas of your strategy may not be delivering enough return.

We know you are waiting with bated breath for the final article in this series – ENJOY!

By Debbie Gregory.

With so many social media platforms, it is quite difficult to keep track of all the different new social media terms. Our long list of social media vocabulary continues to grow!

Messenger

Messenger is Facebook’s instant messaging app. Originally called Facebook Messenger, this app allows Facebook users to send direct messages to each other through a mobile device. Users can also use Messenger through a desktop web browser.

Metric

A metric is a quantitative measure of social media success. Put simply, it is a figure based on real numbers and can be tracked and measured over time. Vanity metrics include ego-boosting engagement statistics like comments, shares, and likes. Other metrics, like conversion rate, can help prove social return on investment.

Microblogging

Microblogging is the practice of publishing short content updates to platforms such as Twitter and Tumblr.

Mute

Mute is a social media feature that allows you to edit users out of your feed without unfollowing or unfriending them. They still see that you are connected, and you can still interact, but you do not see any of their activity in your timeline.

Native advertising

Native advertising is a type of social media ad that matches the style and format of an organic post. A boosted post is an example of native advertising. Ads are always identifiable by a label that says “sponsored” or “promoted,” but native ads look just like organic social content.

News feed

News feed is the Facebook term for the screen that shows all the latest updates posted by people the user follows. On other social networks, this is simply called the feed.

Newsjacking

Also known as trend jacking, newsjacking is the act of referencing a news story or trending topic in order to connect with the audience following that story. Hashtags are a common way to attach content to breaking news. Newsjacking only works if there is a close tie to the story in question.

Notification

A notification is a message or alert indicating new social media activity. For example, if somebody Likes one of your Instagram photos, you can receive a notification on your phone that lets you know.

Objectives

Objectives are the goals of an advertising campaign on social media. Each social network has its own set of objectives that ads can target. For example, Facebook advertising objectives are divided into three broad categories of awareness, consideration, and conversions. The objective you select determines which ad formats and payment structures are available for your campaign.

Organic reach

Organic reach is the number of unique users who view your content without paid promotion. People find social content organically through their own feeds—either from companies whose accounts they have liked themselves, or through content shared by friends or connections. If someone visits your social profile based on a search or any other non-paid referral, this is also organic reach.

Pay per click (PPC)

Pay per click is a type of advertising where an organization pays each time a user clicks on an advertisement. The costs incurred during a PPC campaign vary based on the competitiveness of the target keyword. The amount that you pay for each click in a pay-per-click campaign is your cost per click (CPC).

Pin

A Pin is the name of a post on Pinterest. Every Pin is made up of a picture and a description. When clicked, a Pin directs users to the source URL of the image. Other users can like or Repin your Pins. Users can also organize Pins by theme or event into collections.

Pinned post

A pinned post is a social media post saved to the top of your page or profile on Facebook or Twitter. Pinning a post is a great way to feature an important announcement or highlight some of your best content.

Platform

A platform is a social network or a component of a social network. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are all social platforms. However, some marketers may consider Facebook news feed and Facebook stories to be different platforms since they may have different audiences and use different marketing strategies. Platform can also refer to a social media relationship management tool. In this case it is called a social media management platform.

Post

A post refers to any social media status update, photo, or video, or an item shared on a blog or forum.

Private Social Account

A private social account or group is one that is shielded from public view. While the basics of the account or group, like profile picture and name, are visible to anyone, the content shared is accessible only for approved followers. On Twitter, a private account is referred to as “protected.”

Promote

Promote is a term used in different contexts by the various social networks, but it always indicates some form of payment to gain access to a wider audience than could be achieved through organic content. Facebook uses the term “boost” for promoting a specific post, but “promote” to describe promoting a Page. Twitter offers promoted Tweets, promoted accounts, and promoted trends. There’s also Promote Mode, an automated ad program on Twitter.

Reach

Reach refers to the total number of people who have been exposed to a social post or ad. This metric does not necessarily indicate that all of these people have actually seen your content. They could have scrolled right past it, for instance. Reach simply indicates that the content appeared in the user’s social feed at least once.

Social media analytics tools usually report organic reach and paid reach as two separate metrics.

Reaction

Reactions are a form of engagement on Facebook. In addition to Likes, reactions include Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, and Angry. Each of these reactions is indicated by an emoji. Facebook users can access the reaction option by hovering over or holding the Like button.

Real-time marketing

Real-time marketing is the practice of using a current event or popular trend to connect with an online community. It can be tricky to strike the right balance between jumping on a trend, maintaining your brand voice, and speaking to your target audience. A “right-time” strategy of focusing on your audience’s current needs and wants may be more effective.

VAMBOA hopes you are enjoying this timely series.  Stay tuned for the two final articles in this series, Part 6 & Part 7.

By Debbie Gregory.

We all know the pain of too many terms and acronyms, especially on the web. What’s the difference between impressions and reach? A Profile and a Page? A Follower or a Fan? Here are even more of the most common social media buzzwords, keywords, terms and phrases…and their definitions.   We are creating your own personal glossary.

Geotag

A geotag is a specific location added to a photo, video, or other social media post. Geotags can expose your posts to more people, since content is often searchable by location.

GIF

GIF is an acronym for Graphics Interchange Format, a file format that supports both static and animated images. GIFs rose to popularity to react on social media without words. Facebook and Twitter both support animated GIFs.

Google Ads (Google Adwords)

Google Ads are a form of online advertising, previously known as Google AdWords. Google Ads appear at the top of the Google search listings for your target keywords. They can also appear on other websites through the Google Display Network.

Group

A group is an online community within a social network. Groups can be public or private. Within a group, community members with a common interest can share information and discuss relevant topics. Both Facebook and LinkedIn offer groups on their platforms.

Handle

Your handle is your username on social media. It is usually noted as @username. It can also be used in your personalized URL for each social network.  It is a good idea to use the same handle across social networks to make it easier for potential followers to find your accounts.

Hangout

A Hangout is a video or voice call with one or more people using the Google Hangouts service. In 2019, Google Hangouts was divided into two products: Google Hangouts Chat and Google Hangouts Meet. Google Hangouts Meet is designed for video conferencing and includes features such as screen sharing, enabling video presentations to groups of up to 30 people.

Hashtag

Hashtags are used on social media to tag posts as part of a larger conversation (A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by the “#”. Clicking a hashtag reveals the latest posts that include the tag. Hashtags are searchable and serve a similar role to keywords.

Header image

A header image is the picture that appears at the top of a social media profile. Also known as a cover image or cover photo, it provides a chance to showcase your products, your team, or any other aspect of your business that will make people want to explore your profile.

Impressions

Impressions is a metric that counts how many times an ad or promoted posts is fetched from the server and displayed on a social network. It is not a measure of how many people have seen the ad. For example, one social media user might have the same ad appear in their newsfeed multiple times over a certain period. Each of these instances is counted as one impression.

Inbound marketing

Inbound marketing is a strategy that involves creating valuable content and resources that attract potential clients to your business. It is called “inbound” because the resources you create help people to discover and learn about your company themselves, rather than reaching out to them with a sales pitch. Your team can then nurture these new contacts until they are ready to become customers.

Inbox

An inbox is the screen on which you read, organize, and respond to messages. Email inboxes are a common example. Social messaging services also use inboxes.

Influencer

An influencer is a social media user with a significant audience who can drive awareness about a trend, topic, company, or product. From a marketer’s perspective, the ideal influencer is also a passionate brand advocate.

Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is a strategy involving collaboration with an influential person on social media (an “influencer”) to promote a product, service, or campaign.

Instant message

An instant message (IM) is a real-time text message sent using an online platform.

Key performance indicator (KPI)

A key performance indicator (KPI) is a metric tracked over time to determine progress towards a valuable business goal. Social media KPIs might include audience growth rate, amplification rate, and customer satisfaction score.

Klout

Klout was a social tool that gave social media users a “klout score” out of 100 to define their level of online influence (or clout). Klout shut down in 2018, but other services have emerged to fill this data gap, including Hootsuite Insights and Followerwonk
Lens

Lens is the term used on Snapchat to identify augmented reality face filters. Anyone can create a custom lens through the Snapchat Lens Studio.

Like

A Like is a form of engagement on social media. It is a quick way of showing that you like the content posted by simply clicking a button. On Facebook, the Like button is a thumbs-up, while on Instagram and Twitter, a Like is indicated by a heart. Liking content also works like bookmarking, since you can go back later to view the content you have Liked.

Link building

Link building is a marketing strategy to boost traffic and search engine rankings by getting other websites to link to yours. Common techniques for acquiring links as part of a link-building campaign include guest blogging and offering valuable content to repost.

Listed

If you are listed, that means you have been added to a Twitter list. Twitter lists are a way of organizing content to make it easier to keep up with a large number of Twitter connections. Being added to a Twitter list may increase your chances of being followed by the list creator’s followers.

Live stream

A live stream is a real-time video shared over the Internet. Most social networks now offer live streaming options that include the possibility to interact with viewers, who can submit written comments and questions throughout the broadcast.

Lurker

A lurker is someone who watches a social media feed or belongs to a social media group but does not engage with the content with a like or reply.

Meme

An online meme is a joke or comment made for sharing on social networks. It usually appears in the form of a graphic or GIF with text above the image or superimposed.

Mention

A mention is the act of tagging a user in a social media message. Sometimes called @ mentions, these usually trigger a notification for that user and allow your audience to click through to their bio or profile.

Hope you are enjoying this seven part series – stay tuned for the rest!

By Debbie Gregory.

New terms, phrases, and acronyms are constantly popping up across every social network. It can be difficult to keep up without drowning in all of the new digital jargon. Below are even more terms to help you understand and become more online savvy.

Crisis management

Crisis management is the art of addressing a crisis to minimize the amount of damage caused and get things back on track as quickly as possible. Every organization should have a social media crisis management in place to manage social media risk and be prepared to respond quickly if crisis strikes.

Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing involves tapping into your online community for new ideas, suggestions, information, or content. User-generated content is a prime example of crowdsourcing. Asking for ideas through interactive features like polls is another.

Dark post

A dark post is an unpublished social post promoted as an ad to a specific audience. It is a post that cannot be found organically and does not appear on your brand’s timeline. Dark posts can help with split testing and help prevent your timeline from becoming flooded with promotional posts. While the term “dark post” may make this content seem secretive, remember that any user can now look up all your Facebook ads through the Page Transparency feature.

Dark social

Dark social is social sharing that cannot be traced back to the original source. This means the content has been passed on through private channels like email or messaging apps, rather than public channels like timelines and newsfeeds. Dark social shows up in analytics programs as “direct traffic.”

Dashboard

A social media dashboard is a tool that allows marketers and social media managers to manage all their social platforms from one screen. A dashboard allows its users to schedule, post, view, and respond to both organic and paid social posts, and to create analytics reports. A dashboard is also an important tool for social listening.

Direct message

A direct message (DM) is a private message sent through a social platform. By default, DMs from non-followers are blocked or filtered into a secondary inbox. However, brands who wish to use DMs to interact with customers can change their settings to receive DMs from anyone.

Disappearing content

Disappearing content, also known as ephemeral content, refers to a social post that vanishes after a set amount of time, usually 24 hours. Facebook Stories, Instagram Stories, and Snaps are all examples of disappearing content.

Doxing

Doxing is the (very frowned-upon) practice of searching for and publishing the personal information of a private individual. Doxers use these attacks way to threaten or intimidate their targets.

Ebook

Ebook is short for “electronic book.” This is a digital file, such as a PDF or EPUB, for reading on a computer, mobile device, or dedicated ebook reader.

Embed

An embed is a social post or other digital content displayed within another piece of content using digital embedding tools. Most social networks offer native tools to embed their content in blog posts or webpages using a piece of code. Properly embedded content retains the original content of the post, as well as links to the original post and the creator’s profile.

Emoji

Emojis are a set of tiny graphics used in digital channels from text messages to social media. They evolved from emoticons (such as the smiley face) made using characters on the standard keyboard. Emojis first appeared in the late 1990s. In 2010, the Unicode Consortium approved Google’s proposal to standardize emoji characters. iOS and Android both have built-in emoji keyboards.

Employee advocacy

Employee advocacy is what happens when employees share their passion for their workplace on social media. This can take several forms. Employees might share specific details about a new product launch, or they might give a behind-the-scenes look at company culture. An organized employee advocacy program can help employees to promote your brand effectively while maintaining company guidelines.

Endorsement

An endorsement is a form of recommendation on LinkedIn. A fellow LinkedIn user can endorse you for specific skills simply by clicking an endorse button. These endorsements then appear on your profile and help demonstrate credibility in your areas of expertise.

Engagement

Engagement is any form of interaction with your brand on social media. Likes, comments, and shares are all forms of engagement.

Engagement rate

Engagement rate is a measure of how many people interact with your social media content. There are several ways to calculate engagement rate, but all aim to calculate what percentage of people who were exposed to a post chose to engage with it in some way.

Evergreen content

Evergreen content is content designed to last for the long term. It’s not tied to any specific event or promotion and can bring traffic to your website for years to come.

Fan

A fan is someone who likes your Facebook Page. “Fan” is sometimes used more generally to refer to someone who follows you on any social channel, but only Facebook officially uses this term.

Favorite

Favorite was the term Twitter originally used to indicate Likes. Favorites were indicated with a star icon. However, Twitter now uses a heart icon and and uses the term likes, in line with other social networks.

Feed

A feed is an updated list of all the new content posted by the accounts a user follows on social media. Rather than being purely chronological, most social media feeds are controlled by an algorithm.

Filter

A filter is a photo effect that can be applied to images before publishing them, from simple black-and-white or sepia to flower crowns and puppy ears. Filters are available on Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, and many other apps with camera integrations.

Followers

Followers are people who have liked (or “followed”) your accounts on social media.

Follow Friday (#FF)

Follow Friday is a hashtag used to highlight some of your favorite Twitter accounts. Including someone in a #FF post is a way of recommending their account to your followers.

Friend

A friend is a person that you connect with on Facebook. Unlike a fan or follower, a friend is a two-way connection—both you and your friend have to endorse the relationship. Facebook business pages cannot have “friends,” only fans or followers.

Stay tuned for Part 4 of this series and print your glossary!

By Debbie Gregory.

Are you still hung up on the difference between a mention and a reply on Twitter? Do you just want to brush up on your social knowledge? Continuing our ultimate glossary of social media marketing terms with more information to keep you in the know.

Boost, boosted post

A boosted post is a form of social media advertising in which a brand pays to show a social post to people who do not already follow the brand’s social accounts.

Brand advocate

A brand advocate is a customer who loves your brand so much that they promote your products or services without being asked. However, brand advocates can become even more valuable if you connect with them directly to engage and empower them.

Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is a social media metric that captures how likely people are to be aware of your brand. You can measure brand awareness for any given period by tracking the amount of attention your brand gets online in the form of mentions and engagement. The more people are talking about you online, the greater your brand awareness.

Caption

A caption is a description that accompanies a photo on social media. Captions can include text, hashtags, @ mentions, and emojis. Captions are an important part of telling your photo’s story on social media and a key driver of engagement.

Chat

A chat is an online conversation with one or more people. Whether one-on-one or in a group, chats are usually private and text-based, although they may incorporate GIFS, photos, and even audio recordings. Common chat platforms include WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. “Chat” can also be used to mean a moderated public conversation on social media, organized around a hashtag. Twitter chats, like the monthly #HootChat are a prime example.

Chatbot

A chatbot is a type of bot that uses artificial intelligence to answer questions and perform simple tasks in messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger. A chatbot can be used for customer service, data and lead collection, shopping recommendations, and more.

Check-in

A check-in is a way of location tagging a social media post to indicate where the user is, or where the content in the post was created.   It is a way of showing followers that you have physically visited a geographical location or event. It can be particularly useful to check in at large, high-profile events, since it can help people connect in the real world while also providing credibility and demonstrating that you are an insider in your industry.

Clickbait

Clickbait is web content with a misleading or sensationalist headline designed to get readers to click through to the full story, which is generally a disappointment. Clickbait’s goal is usually to generate pageviews and advertising revenue. All social networks have taken a stance against clickbait, and algorithms are designed not to surface clickbait posts. In other words, it’s a practice to avoid.

Click-through rate (CTR)

Click-through rate, abbreviated CTR, is a measure of how many people who view a social post, ad, or other piece of content click through to read more, buy, or take some other action.  It is a useful metric because it measures how effectively your social content drives people to your owned web properties. The formula to calculate CTR is number of clicks divided by total impressions. CTR is usually expressed as a percentage.

Comment

A comment is a form of engagement in which a user replies to your social media post. Comments can offer praise, ask a question, express disagreement, and otherwise contribute to the online conversation about your social content. Comments can include text, hashtags, @ mentions, and emojis. Many comments show that your post is engaging and may boost its position in the newsfeed based on a social network’s algorithm.

Community Manager

A community manager is a social media professional who nurtures relationships among a group of social media users so that the community acts on behalf of the common interest. Community managers help develop professional and brand-focused social relationships by monitoring and engaging with fans and followers.

Compliance

Compliance is the practice of understanding and following the rules, regulations, and law. Social media compliance is particularly relevant to organizations in regulated industries like healthcare and finance. These businesses face strict rules governing how they can use social media and how their social content must be archived.

Connection

A connection is someone you or your brand is connected to on social media. LinkedIn specifically uses the term “connections” to refer to professional social relationships—LinkedIn connections are the equivalent of Facebook friends.

Content Curation

Content curation involves collecting relevant content from credible sources and then sharing it with your social followers by linking to the original post. It is a way to create value for your audience beyond sharing your own original content. Sharing resources can also be a good way to build relationships with thought leaders in your field.

Content marketing

Content marketing is the practice of attracting and retaining customers through the creation and distribution of original, valuable content such as videos, whitepapers, guides, and infographics. Consistently providing valuable content gives followers a reason to stay tuned to your social channels while building rapport and establishing your industry expertise.

Conversion

A conversion occurs when a social media user or visitor to your website takes a specific, desired action. Making a purchase is often the desired conversion, but it is not the only one. Other conversion examples include lead-generation actions like opting into a newsletter, registering for a webinar, or downloading a whitepaper.

Conversion rate

Conversion rate is the number of conversions divided by the number of visitors. It’s a social media metric that allows you to measure how well your social media efforts are working to achieve specific business goals.

Cost per click (CPC)

Cost per click (CPC) is a metric for how much each click costs in a pay-per-click advertising campaign. Cost-per-click and pay-per-click are sometimes used interchangeably, but they are actually two sides of the same coin. Pay-per-click is the type of ad model, and cost-per-click is the fee per click.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that provides licenses and other legal tools to allow photographers and other content creators to share their work. There are more than 1.6 billion works in the Commons, which can be shared in various ways. The six levels of Creative Commons licenses restrict how an image or other content can be used, and whether attribution is required.

Creep

To “creep” is essentially to stalk a person or a brand on social media, especially without engaging with any of their posts. Despite the negative word, it is not always a negative thing. Creeping can also be a form of online research, for instance, when screening potential new employees.

VAMBOA hopes that our audience is enjoying this series. Stay tuned for part 3.   You might want to print this out as a glossary.