Social Media Glossary

ADDTHIS

AddThis is a bookmarking service that allows people to share a site on Facebook, Twitter etc.

AVATAR

avatar is an online image and username that represents a person

BITLY

Bitly is a free service that shortens URLs and provides statistics for the links that users share on the internet. The service makes sharing URLs much easier on social media sites.

BLOG

The term blog derives from “web log.” Blogs include entries of commentary and news stories on an individual or company’s web page. Blog can also be used as a verb.

CIRCLES

Circles are groups of a user’s friends on Google+, such as colleagues, other connections, family, etc.

CONNECTIONSA

connection is a friend or anyone that is in your group of contacts. This term is most commonly used with LinkedIn.

EBOOK

An eBook is merely a version of a printed book available to read on a screen. These are usually not available in printed form.

FLICKR

Flickr is an online picture sharing social network that allows users to store photos online and share them with others.

GOOGLE CHROME

Google Chrome is a web browser that integrates into Google’s online search system with other applications.

GOOGLE+

Google+ is a social network promoting social sharing and providing features that limit who you are talking to, as well as creating 1-on-1 conversations with others.

HASHTAGA

hash tag is used on the social network Twitter as a way to show that a tweet (a Twitter message) is in some way related to an event or conference, either online or offline.

INSTAGRAM

Instagram allows users to take photos, apply filters to their images, and share the photos instantly on social networks like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, etc. It is targeted toward mobile social sharing, gaining over 15 million users in its first year.

LIKE

A like is an action made by a user on Facebook indicating that the user shows approval to a post, picture or message. Clicking the “like” button also shares the message, post, or picture with others in the user’s friend group.

LINKEDIN

LinkedIn is the biggest social networking site catered to business and professional networking. It was launched in May 2003 and now has more than 70 million users.

MYSPACE

MySpace was the most popular social networking site in the United States until it was overtaken by its main competitor, Facebook, in April 2008.

NEWS FEED

A news feed is the homepage of Facebook users’ accounts where they can see latest updates and news from their friends. The news feed on Twitter is called “timeline” rather than “news feed.”

RSS FEED

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a group of web feed formats used to publish blogs and videos in a standardized format.

SLIDESHARE

SlideShare is a social network used for sharing presentations and other documents. Users of SlideShare can share them on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is any program that allows for social interaction online. It is generally created using easy to use formats for users to be able to connect and communicate with other users.

TIMELINE

Timeline is Facebook’s new format and layout.


ALGORITHM

Formulas used by Google and Facebook to perform certain functions, such as content sharing strategies.


BACKTYPE

BackType helps companies measure their social engagement on the web.

CHAT

Chat is any kind of communication conducted over the internet, but typically refers to conversation through a chat application, such as instant messaging.

COMMENT

A comment is a written message or response to a blog post or message on a social network.

CRAIGSLIST

Craigslist is a popular site where people can buy, sell, trade, post jobs, forums and connect on a variety of interest categories. It is a place where local communities can share information and find whatever they might be looking for from other people in a given city.

FACEBOOK

Facebook is a social networking tool that connects people with friends and others all over the world. Facebook has more than 800 million users.

FORUMS

A forum is an online discussion board that acts like an online bulletin board.

GOOGLE DOCUMENTS

Google Documents is a group of tools for word processing, presentations, and spreadsheet analysis. They are stored and edited online and allow people to collaborate in real-time on a document.

HANGOUT

A Hangout is a service of Google+ that allows you to chat with several Google+ users at a time. You can share YouTube videos during a Hangout, open a Google Doc, and much more.

HTML

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. It is a programing language providing content and structure for a web page.

INSTANT MESSAGING

Instant messaging is real time communication between two or more people online through a chat feature.

LINKBUILDING

Linkbuilding is a strategy of search engine optimization in which website owners generate links to their site from other websites. Blogging is one of the main methods of link building.

MASHUP

A mashup refers to content from pre-existing sources being put together to create a new work.

PUNCHBOWL

Punchbowl.com is a social site that is used for party planning, providing members with favors, gift registries, invitations, photo and video sharing, as well as other ideas.

PERMALINK

A permalink is the URL on a blog or website of a particular post.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

Search engine optimization is the increase of quantity or quality of traffic to a website from search engines through organic search traffic.

SKYPE

Skype is a program that allows users to chat with video, audio or text for free. Users can also pay for plans to receive phone calls through Skype.

STUMBLEUPON

StumbleUpon is an extension of a web-browser that allows for sharing web sites.