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A dark post is an unpublished social post promoted as an ad to a specific audience.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.

By Debbie Gregory.

Social media has become more important than ever before, especially for your business as well as personally.  During this CoronaVirus Pandemic, it is a way to stay connected and not feel so isolated.   VAMBOA thinks it will be valuable to our audience to do this series of articles on social media terms to provide a better understanding for everyone.  We hope that you enjoy this series.

For many people, posting a tweet, hash tagging an Instagram caption, or sending out an invite for a Facebook event has become a very common and often a daily, practice.  People during this pandemic are spending more time on social media and online.  There are brand new social networks, software packages, and confusing words cropping up every day. Even the most seasoned social media users may find that the new terms and acronyms leave them scratching their heads.

In this 7-part series we have compiled a comprehensive list of the most commonly used terms along with their meanings.

AB Test

An A/B test is a method of comparing two variations of an ad, piece of content, or other material so you can see which version performs better. This is also known as split testing.  A/B testing involves changing one small element at a time (such as a headline or graphic) to refine your results. During A/B testing, only a portion of your audience sees each test. This allows you to create the most effective content before you release it to your entire following.

AMA (Ask Me Anything)

An AMA, short for “ask me anything,” is a type of interactive post in which someone answers questions, usually in real time. The AMA concept began on Reddit, but AMAs are now popping up in other social settings, like webinars, Facebook Live, or Instagram Stories. AMAs were originally text-based, but it can also be effective to answer questions using live social video or interactive stickers.

Algorithm

An algorithm is basically a set of steps a computer uses to accomplish a task. In the context of social media, an algorithm is how a social platform determines which content to display at any given time to a specific user. Social networks are notoriously secretive about how their algorithms work, but in general, they use clues based on a user’s social relationships and interactions to determine which content that user will find most appealing.

Analytics

Analytics is an umbrella term used to describe both social analysis tools and the information those tools provide. Most social networks include their own analytics tools to help businesses analyze how well their posts are doing for metrics such as reach, engagement, and follower growth.

Application Programming Interface (API)

An application programming interface (API) is a communication system that allows two applications or platforms to “talk” to each other. Social network APIs allow these platforms to integrate with other software providers and apps. For example, Hootsuite uses Twitter’s API to publish tweets, and Instagram’s API to schedule posts.

When Instagram wanted to shut down the shady “growth-hacking” apps people were using to grow their audience artificially, they shut down their old API and launched a new one with much tougher privacy controls.

Archiving

In the context of social media, archiving means creating an archive of your organization’s social media posts, messages, and associated metadata. Basically, it means keeping a record of absolutely everything. This is often required for regulatory compliance in industries like health care and finance.

An organization’s social media archive includes what was said, when, and in what context. It also shows how quickly customer messages are addressed. This data can be referenced during legal discovery, if necessary, or requested by regulatory bodies.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence is the ability for computers, programs, or machines to learn and adapt in ways that resemble human thinking. For example, chatbots use artificial intelligence to communicate and answer questions, while home assistants like Alexa use AI to learn to better respond to your requests over time. The more you interact with an AI program, the more “intelligent” it becomes, since it has more data to work with.

Augmented Reality (AR)

Augmented reality (AR) uses computer-generated effects to augment the reality we perceive with our own eyes and ears. Face filters on social apps like Snapchat and Instagram Stories are the most common examples. Your real face is augmented with graphics (and sometimes sounds) created by the social platform.

When used creatively, augmented reality provides new ways for potential customers to interact with your brand, such as seeing what your products would look like in their home or which glasses look the best on their face.

Avatar

An avatar is a visual representation of a person for use in digital contexts.  It is usually a computer-generated image, such as a bitmoji.  On social media, the term “avatar” also refers to your profile picture, the image that represents you on the platform. Most individual users choose a photo as their social media avatar, sometimes supplemented by a digital frame or filter. For brands, the company logo is usually the best avatar choice.

Bio

Your bio, short for biography, is the section of any digital profile that tells new or prospective followers who you are. All social platforms offer space to write a bio. It’s the   first thing users see when they discover your profile, and a good one can greatly improve how often you show up in keyword searches.

Bitmoji

A bitmoji is a customized avatar that can be added to Gmail, Messenger, Slack, and social media networks. The bitmoji app allows you to create this cartoon representation of yourself, then create different versions of the avatar in different situations. In addition to using your bitmoji as a profile picture, you can use it to create custom messages to share in messaging and social apps. Bitmoji is owned by Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, and is well integrated with the Snapchat app.

Block

When you block someone on social media, you prevent them from seeing your posts on that social network. Blocked users will also be unable to follow you, message you, or tag you in photos. Blocked Twitter users will not be able to add you to lists. Blocked users can still @ mention you in a post, but this will not count toward your engagement metrics. Keep in mind that it’s pretty easy even for blocked users to see content you’ve posted publicly. Use the privacy setting on each social network for better control over who sees each of your posts.

Blog

Originally a contraction of the phrase “web log,” a blog is a type of digital publication in which one or more authors regularly post content, generally on a specific topic. Many brands use a blog to share engaging content with their audience and establish their industry expertise. The Hootsuite blog, for example, shares up-to-date content about social media marketing and how to use social tools. “Blog” can also be a verb: When you write for a blog, you are blogging.

Blogger

Blogger a free blogging platform owned by Google. Blogs using this platform are usually hosted on a blogspot.com subdomain, but the platform can also be used with a purchased domain name. Blogger supports single or multi-user blogs. The word “blogger” can also simply mean a person who writes and publishes a blog.  Many high-profile bloggers are categorized as influencers because their content reaches many people.

By Debbie Gregory.

We all realize just how important it is to have top-quality, clean, clear, images as well as entertaining video or gifs to accompany our business messages. Part one of this blog article provided you eight very cool sites to help you create and share images, gifs, videos, templates, and more on your business social media accounts. These next eight free or inexpensive tools are ones you should also bookmark and consider using to create your next social media campaigns.

iStock

iStock is a collection of royalty-free photos, illustrations and videos. They offer a lot of great, less mainstream, items that can be collected into boards for easy retrieval or organization. Royalty-free doesn’t mean that the images are free however, this service does cost money to use.

Over

Over is a popular free mobile app (for phones only) that allows you to add text, overlays, and blend colors on images.

PicMonkey

PicMonkey offers easy-to-use tools to create attractive social posts, cover photos, ads, and more. Boasting over 6,000 graphics and textures, hundreds of fonts, thousands of design templates, and even collages. They currently do not offer a free version.

Piktochart

Piktochart is another place where you can create infographics, presentations, and printables. You can begin this service for free of charge as well, which allows you to create a limited number of items, or choose one of their paid packages.

Placeit

Placeit helps you generate mockups or demos of your website or product being used in real life as well as logos, videos, and other designs. They currently do not offer a free version.

Skitch

Skitch is an Apple-only mobile phone app that allows you to add comments to any visual. Basically you take a snapshot of your screen and use arrows, text, stickers, and a handful of other tools to make your point.

Stencil

Stencil is another image creation/editing site that has both free and paid options. They currently boast of over 2,100,000+ photos, 1,000,000+ icons and graphics, 100,000+ quotes, 2,500+ fonts, and 730+ templates that users can access.

Venngage

Venngage offers a large library of social-media-ready templates and has a great user-friendly editor that is easy for just about anyone to use. The site is free for all basic functions and also has a paid version with access to select features.

Words are great but a high-quality image will get noticed and shared more than text alone. Bookmark, download, and utilize these great tools to help your social media posts make more of an impact.

By Debbie Gregory.

Millions of social media images are posted daily.   Unfortunately, very few of the images are interesting enough to make people to stop and notice them. Most of them go completely unnoticed often because the images are low-quality, unappealing, not worth sharing, too sales-pushy, or just plain boring.

As a business you need to stand out and grab people’s attention. If your posts aren’t captivating your customers, it is time to change what you are sharing. We have compiled a list of some of the most popular free or inexpensive online tools to help you build a library of quality images, gifs, videos, templates, and more to boost your business’ social game.

Adobe Stock

Adobe Stock is a huge marketplace for stock imagery. They currently have a collection of over 90 million high-quality assets that you can choose from including photos, illustrations, videos, and templates. They offer a free pack of items when you sign up, however, there are fees to use the Adobe collection.

BeFunky

BeFunky offers a lot of graphics tools, layouts, and templates for just about any need. You can get 125 effects for free or sign up and pay for access to their entire library of high-resolution image effects and templates.

Canva

Canva is pretty versatile and offers preset image sizes and ready-made layouts for Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest which adhere to their specific size guidelines. You can also use it for larger projects as well. They offer both a free limited version and a subscription version that provides you many more features.

Creative Market

Creative Market offers fully finished and ready to post graphics, fonts, website themes, photos, mockups, and a lot more. Everything has been assembled from tens-of-thousands of independent creators that submit new designs on a regular basis. They do offer some of their creations for free, six new free items every week, but most of their downloads cost money.

Easel.ly

Easel.ly is a source for infographics and reports; including charts, maps, graphics, and dashboards. They offer a much different set of visuals than either Infogram or Piktochart (both discussed below). You can start for free or choose their paid option.

Giphy

Giphy is a giant, growing collection of free animated gifs that are great for adding some movement to enhance your social posts. Motion makes things more memorable and posts with video or gifs are more likely to be shared.

Hootsuite Composer

Hootsuite Composer is a social media image editor and library that helps you create and prepare images that are appropriate to post across different social networks. Composer is a feature within Hootsuite that provides you access to a large library of images to enhance your posts with all of the usual functions including resize, crop, rotate, transform, filters, and more. You can even add your own logo. It comes with whichever Hootsuite package you’ve signed up for.

Infogram

Infogram is a great source for infographics and reports; including charts, maps, graphics, and dashboards. You can start for free which allows you to create a limited number of items or choose one of their paid packages.

The second part of this article will provide you eight more free or inexpensive tools you should consider using to create better social images.