• Add This – refers to the embedded code on a website that allows the user to subscribe or share via social media in one step.  Analytics also allow the social media site to determine which pages are trending.
  • Application Programming Interface (API) – structured set of software tools that provides an interface to a backend software platform, such as a social networking platform.  See our posts on APIs.
  • Brandjacking – the act of assuming a target brand or company’s identity through fake accounts, hashtags, or marketing campaigns.
  • Canoe – the phenomenon whereby a dialogue between a few users gains so many participants that it spirals out of control and becomes unmanageable.  Example – a Twitter Canoe.
  • Checking In – the act of posting to one’s social media site one’s location.  A Check In can include not only the user’s location, but also a photo, description, and a list of other users who are participating in an event.
  • Clickbait – sensationalist headlines directed to drawing users to a website for the purpose of generating page views and advertising revenues.
  • Creeping – where a social media user spends an extended period of time reviewing a target’s profile, photos, videos, etc.
  • Crowdfunding – soliciting the online community for seed capital or investment in one’s business.  Examples are kickstarter.com and IndieGoGo.com.
  • Crowdsourcing – soliciting the online community to assist in creation of content, services, or ideas for one’s purpose or business.
  • Facebook Group – a Facebook page shared by a group of people for collaboration purposes, though Groups are often used by businesses as a place to share content with customers.
  • Flash Mob – an unexpected gathering of people in a public place, generally organized and driven by social media notifications.  Most flash mobs perform an unusual act in the public space before quickly dispersing.
  • “Generic” Top-Level Domains (gTLD) – domain names that can be names, words in the dictionary, the applicant’s own trademarks, etc.  See our posts on gTLDs.
  • Geotargeting – posting content only to followers who are geographically nearby.
  • Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) – a common Internet image format that uses efficient data compression and can support small animations.  See Memes and GIFs.
  • Groundswell – in the social media context, the phenomenon whereby companies lose control of their customer’s attitudes.  Groundswell represents the shift to customers controlling the conversation through social media posts, and driving companies to respond accordingly.  For example, through Groundswell, a tweet from an unhappy customer about a bad service experience can go viral and result in a company having to resort to damage control.
  • Handle – an online alias such as a user name, screen name or nick name.
  • Hashtag – words or phrases prefixed with the hash sign (#) and provide a means of grouping messages together.  See The Rise of the #Hashtag.
  • Inbound Marketing – a permission-based marketing technique where vendors generate attention for their products thereby getting social media users to Like or Share the product.  Along the way, vendors create leads that they later hope to convert into customers.
  • Influencer – a social media user with a large following.  The influencer can use her large following to create awareness about a product, service, or topic.
  • Lifecasting – the continuous broadcasting of one’s life events through social media websites.
  • Like – a feature in social media outlets that allows users to express enjoyment or support about certain content that is displayed by another user.  See Do you “like” it?, Chances Are, Companies Will ‘Like’ Facebook’s New Contest Rules posts.
  • Like-baiting – the act of explicitly soliciting Likes on Facebook to increase a vendor’s engagement with potential customers (or an Influencer with potential followers).
  • Lurker – a person who consumes content on social media sites but does not herself make any posts.
  • Mashup – an application that draws different types of content from multiple sources to create a new interface or display.  An example of a mashup is HousingMaps.com, which overlaid Craigslist apartment listings on Google Maps.
  • Meme – in social media, a Meme generally takes the form of an image with embedded text.  The Meme is generally intended to convey a cultural idea, such as humor or satire.  See our posts on Memes.
  • Mention – the act of identifying or tagging a user’s handle in a social media message.  An example is the @companyname used by Twitter.
  • Muting – the act of unfollowing a user without the user knowing.
  • News Feed – a near real-time broadcast of a user’s social media posts.  In Facebook, for example, the News Feed represents the user’s Facebook timeline or main page.
  • Newsjacking – a user inserting herself into a news story in order to connect with an audience or to gain followers.  This is usually accomplished by utilizing a trending hashtag.
  • OpenID – a third-party identification protocol that allows users to log on to multiple websites with only one username and password.  See our posts on OpenID.
  • Organic Reach – the extent of a user’s followers without the added benefit of paid promotion.
  • Profile page – a visual display of a social media user’s personal page with a collection of data and social media activities specific to the user, including posts, photos, videos, and online activities.
  • Response Rate – a metric signifying a company’s interaction with its customers.  Generally calculated by dividing the number of social media mentions replied to by the total number of mentions received.
  • Retweet – the act of sharing the tweet of someone with all of the user’s followers.  Similar to Share on Facebook.  The allows content to go viral. See The Legal Gray Area of Retweeted Content
  • Revine – the act of sharing a Vine video with all of the user’s Vine followers.  Similar to Retweet on Twitter and Share on Facebook.
  • RSS Feed – a way to provide users with frequent updates from a website, including through the use of a “Web feed.”
  • Selfie – a digital photograph of yourself (and may include others), which is usually taken with a cell phone held at arm’s length, and which photo is posted or shared via social media.
  • Share – the act of re-posting the content on one’s own social media page.  This allows content to go viral.
  • Tags – refer to keywords or links to other social media users that are added to photos, videos, blogs and other entries in order to find related topics and connect different users to tagged social media content.
  • Thunderclap – Thunderclap is a crowdspeaking platform, on which a user creates a campaign (a “Thunderclap”) and invites followers to support his campaign.  The campaign message is limited to 117 character, however, the user can tell a more detailed story on their Thunderclap page.  A campaign can be a link to a charity or online petition, an auction, a health PSA, a political campaign, a campaign to raise awareness regarding a certain issue, a book launch, or any other campaign.  If a  Thunderclap user chooses to support the campaign, the supporter allows Thunderclap access to their social media account and permission to share a message on the user’s Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr account.  If the number of campaign supporters rises to a pre-determined threshold prior to the end of the campaign, then Thunderclap will “blast out” the social media messages from the supporter’s social media accounts at the same time.  If the campaign creator does not recruit enough supporters by the campaign’s end date and time, no posts will be made.  According to Thunderclap, the platform is not just for non-profits and social causes and can also be used by brands to connect with its audience, promote an event or product launch, or more.  See our posts on Thunderclap.
  • Trending – the phenomenon whereby a topic, person, or event becomes popular on social media at a given moment.
  • Triage – a company’s process for identifying, categorizing, and assigning urgency to inbound social media messages about the company’s product or services.
  • Tweet – a Twitter message that can include 140 characters of text including a Hashtag or Mention. See Beware of the threatening tweet
  • Vine – Vine, a social media application owned by Twitter, allows users to record and share looping videos that are six seconds or less.  A video can be a full six-seconds, or can be separate, short videos, that are compiled together into a six-second video.  A user’s videos that are published on Vine can also be shared on Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr or embedded onto a website.  Users can also share other Vine users’ content with their Vine followers by “revining” a video, which posts Vine videos taken by users directly onto the user’s feed.  Vine is used by individual users, but has also been used by numerous companies and brands to promote its products or services. See our posts that include Vine.
  • Viral – the phenomenon whereby content posted by one person is quickly shared with, and by, millions of social media users.