Webbed Marketing's Social Media Glossary

Welcome to the Social Media Glossary, brought to you by Webbed Marketing. Here you will find a valuable reference for any and all of the terms that are commonly used in the application of various social media tools. Whether you are a social media rock star or you haven’t the slightest idea what a ‘tweet’ is, you’ve come to the right place for terms related to social media.

You may also be interested in our Search Marketing Glossary

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #

A

Adsense
Google Adsense is a pay-per-click advertisement application which is available to bloggers and web publishers as a way to generate revenue from the traffic on their sites. The owner of the site selects which ads they will host and Adsense pays the owner of the site each time an ad is clicked.

Aggregator
Aggregators are internet based tools and applications which gather content provided via RSS feeds from many different websites and display the content in one central location. Google Reader is an aggregator.

Akismet
Akismet is an application for blogging platforms, such as WordPress, functioning as a filter for trapping link Spam and other forms of undesirable content contributions from visitors.

Alerts
Alerts can be set up for various terms or phrases to notify an individual whenever those terms appear on the internet in newly published content. Alerts are usually sent to an individual via email.

Archive
An archive is an online conversation which is no longer open for additional comment but is available for future reference. Most blogs keep an archive where visitors can view older posts.

Avatar
Avatars are graphical representations of real people. Avatars can be two dimensional images, representing the author of a blog or micro-blog; or, they can be three dimensional figures, occupying space in a virtual world, such as SecondLife.

B

Blip
A blip can refer to a music or video clip which a user has posted via the popular media hosting sites, Blip.fm and Blip.tv.

Blog
Blogs are websites hosting content that is self-published, typically by the owner of the site (blogger). Blogs keep a record of all content updates which are posted to the site in reverse-chronological order (thus the original term, web-logs). Visitors can view the updates on the site or on an aggregator, via RSS feeds.

Blogger
Bloggers are individuals who generate content for blogs, either as a pastime or professionally. Professional bloggers sometimes generate levels of esteem and prestige to that of journalists.

Blogroll
A blogroll is a list of similar or recommended blogs that a blogger will list on his or her blog.

Bookmarking
Bookmarking means to save a website address for future reference. This can be done individually on an internet browser, such as Mozilla Firefox. An address can also be bookmarked through a social bookmarking site, such as del.icio.us. Social bookmarking allows visitors to comment on and rate the content that is stored there. Other social bookmarking sites include Digg, StumbleUpon and Mixx.

C

Categories
Categories are ways to organize content on a site. Blogs often organize their archive into categories which group older posts by topic.

Collaboration
Collaboration is a Web 2.0 concept that the contribution of large numbers of individuals, using social media tools, is what drives quality content on the internet.

Collective Intelligence
Collective intelligence is the human idea that a community or group of individuals is capable of higher thought processes than an individual. Social media applications of this concept include online communities which provide user-created informative content, such as Wikipedia.

Comments
Comments are content generated by individuals who have read a blog and are usually posted below the blog entry. Comments can often be vehicles for creating advanced levels of discussion and increase the lifespan of blog posts.

Congoo
Congoo is a news sharing social network that offers free subscription content across hundreds of broad and niche topics.

Connections
See friends.

Content
Any text, image, video or other created material published on the interenet.

Crowd Sourcing
Crowd sourcing is the process used by many social bookmarking sites where individuals are allowed to “vote” on news stories and articles to determine their value and relevancy within the site. Crowd sourcing is driven by other social media concepts, such as collaboration and collective intelligence.

D

Dashboard
The dashboard refers to any area of administrative control for operating social media applications, such as blogging software or a social media user profile.

Del.icio.us
Del.icio.ous is a popular social bookmarking site which allows members to share, store and organize their favorite online content.

Digg
Digg is a popular social bookmarking and crowd sourcing site.

E

Entry
An entry refers to a post made on a blog or micro-blog.

F

Facebook
Facebook is a popular social networking site which is free-access. Facebook was initially limited to students with a college email domain but has since expanded to be available to anyone 13 years of age or older.

Flickr
Flickr is a media hosting network where users can upload and share image files.

Forums
Forums are areas on a website which are dedicated to facilitating conversation through comments and message boards.

Friends
Friends, or connections, are individuals who agree to link to one another’s profile on a social networking site, such as Facebook or MySpace.

G

Groups
Groups are micro-communities within a social networking site for individuals who share a particular interest.

H

Hashtag
Hashtags are placed in front of words to tag or categorize a post. Hashtags are used on Twitter to group tweets and more easily follow discussion topics.

I

Instant Messaging
Instant messaging is a service where individuals can communicate through a real time, text-based exchange over the internet.

J

Jaiku
Jaiku is a microblogging social network that is owned by Google.

K

Kaboodle
Kaboodle is a social shopping network where members find, suggest and share products

L

LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a social networking site. Much like Facebook, LinkedIn allows members to connect with other users on the network, although LinkedIn is geared more toward professional connections.

M

Micro-blog
A micro-blog is a social media utility where users can share small status updates and information. Micro-blogs combine aspects of blogs (personalized web posting) and aspects of social networking sites (making and tracking connections, or “friends”).

MySpace
MySpace is a social networking community. MySpace allows more freedom for users to personalize their profiles than other social networking sites, such as Facebook, which are more structured.

N

Ning
Ning is a hosting service with a set of community building tools that allows anyone to create their own social network.

O

Open-source software
Open-source software is computer software with a special license which allows users to edit and improve the source code. Open-source software is an example of the kind of collaboration that is encouraged under Web 2.0.

P

Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer refers to any type of interaction between two or more people within a specific social network. Oftentimes the term is associated with file sharing.

Podcast
A podcast is audio or video content which can be downloaded and listened to or viewed offline. Podcasts are often created to provide copies of radio or television programming, as well as to accompany internet press releases.

Profile
A profile is a personal page within a social network created by a user. The profile provides information about the user and often links to the profiles of the user’s friends.

R

Registration
Registration refers to the process of signing up to participate in an online social media network or community.

RSS
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication (or Rich Site Summary). RSS feeds allow users to subscribe to content updates on their favorite blogs and websites.

S

Second Life
Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents.

SlideShare
SlideShare is a presentation and document sharing social network

Sphinn
Sphinn is a niche social bookmakring website for online marketers.

Squidoo
Squidoo consists of easy to build, single page website, or lenses, created by members on a variety of topics.

Social Media
Social media refers to all online tools that are available for users to generate content and communicate through the internet. This includes blogs, social networks, file hosting site and bookmarking sites.

Social Network
A social network is a site or community on the internet where members can interact with one another and share content.

Subscribing
Subscribing is the process of adding an RSS feed to an aggregator.

T

Tags
Tags are a list of keywords which are attached to bookmarked content, a blog post or a media file. The tags are used to help categorize the content.

Technorati
Technorati is a leading blog search engine.

Teleconference
A teleconference is where a meeting takes place virtually and the attendees might be in completely different locations. Teleconferencing takes advantage of a number of different social media tools, including VOIP and instant messaging. GoToMeeting is an example of teleconferencing software.

Tweet
A tweet refers to an entry made on the micro-blogging site, Twitter. Tweets can be status updates, informative or even include links and can be up to 140 characters long.

Tweetup
A Tweetup is a meetup organized for friends and strangers on Twitter.

Twitter
Twitter is a micro-blogging platform which allows users to create profiles and follow other users as friends, much like a social networking site.

U

User-generated Content
User-generated content refers to any piece of content created intentionally for free distribution on the internet.

V

VOIP
VOIP is an acronym for Voice Over Internet Protocol. VOIP allows a user to make phone calls through a computer with an internet connection.

W

Web 2.0
Web 2.0 refers to the term used to describe the rise in popularity of blogs, file hosting and other social networking sites. Web 2.0 is a belief that the internet should be used as a public access platform and less as a vehicle for publishing. Principles of Web 2.0 include collaboration, crowd sourcing and open-source software.

Wiki
A wiki refers to any page or collection of pages on the internet that can be edited by visitors. Wikis are examples of collaboration.

Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia consisting of user-generated content. Wikipedia is administered by the Wikimedia Foundation, a not-profit group.

Wetpaint
Wetpaint combines aspects of wikis, blogs, forums and social networks so anyone can create and share online content.

Y

YouTube
YouTube is a popular video hosting site. Users can view, upload and comment on video content for no charge.

Yahoo! Answers
Yahoo! Answers is an online community where anyone can ask a question on any topics and get immediate answers from real people.

#

#
See Hashtag.