Social Media Glossary

Jason Wolf, Jon Ostrower, Josh Mesinger and Paula WIlliams discuss social media at the NBAA convention.

This is the “Social Media Glossary” we distributed at the Social Media Panel Discussion at the NBAA Convention.  I had a great time discussing social media topics with Patrick Dunne, NBAA; Jason Wolfe NBAA Airmail; Josh Mesinger, Mesinger Jet Sales; Jon Ostrower, FlightBlogger.

Great group of very knowledgeable gents.  Film at 11. (We’ll publish the video of the forum discussion on this blog in the next day or so, stay tuned. .)

Bio – A short personal description used to define who you are. Most social media sites encourage or require a bio. This is a good place to provide links to your website or your company’s website for additional visibility.

Blog Post/Entry – Content published on a blog. Entries may include pictures or embedded videos and links URLs for online sources used.

Blogroll – An assembly of blog URLs – blogs that the blogger reads regularly – displayed at the sidebar of the blog

Blogs – A website where individual(s) provide entries of any type of content from video and podcasts to traditional text and photos in order to inform or create discussions; presented in reverse chronological order

Comments – Replies or opinions in reference to the topic at hand; usually left on blog posts

Cyberbullying/Cyberharassment – Common terms used to describe name-calling and harassment online

Direct Message – Most commonly used in Twitter, although LinkedIn  and Facebook have a similar feature. Also called a DM, these messages are private between only the sender and recipient. Tweets become DMs when they begin with “d username” to specify who the message is for

Follow – To follow someone on Twitter means to subscribe to their Tweets or updates on the site.

#followfriday – Every Friday (and sometimes other days), it has become a Twitter “tradition” to recommend users that others should follow by including their username and #followfriday or #FF in a tweet. Sometimes you’ll see a tweet full of usernames with no specific reason for the followfriday recommendation whereas other times you’ll read a “why” as well as names. Looking at the recommendations of people you enjoy on Twitter is a good way to find new people to follow. Likewise, recommending tweeters you enjoy helps them get more followers.

Geolocation / Geotagging – The use of location data in Tweets to tell us where you are in real time.

Hashtags (#) – Use the sharp or number sign (#) as part of a “hashtag” to organize and categorize your information. For example

new chapbook “skittling and fiddling” is available online today! #poetry

would be grouped in searches with any other tweets labeled #poetry, as well.

Whether or not you’ve got an account, Twitter hashtags are an easy way to follow conversations about different topics. You can follow them via Twitter Search, RSS, Friendfeed, or clients (see below) like twhirl and Tweetdeck. Wild Apricot’s article “An Introduction to Twitter Hashtags” has more information about this very useful Twitter convention.

Influencer – A person specialized in a specific subject matter and highly recognized in an online community that has the ability to sway others’ thoughts; key influencers are seen as references or for assistance on specific subject matters

Instant messaging: (IM) is chat with one other person. using an IM tool like AOL Instant Messenger, Microsoft Live Messenger or Yahoo Messenger. The tools allow you to indicate whether or not you are available for a chat, and if so can be a good alternative to emails for a rapid exchange. Problem arise when people in a group are using different IM tools that don’t connect. One way around this is to use a common Voice over IP tool like Skype that also provides IM

Meme/Tweetmeme – “Meme” is a term believed to have been coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976, as a “cultural theme” such as fashion, concept or melody that gets repeated in different forms in the popular culture.  TweetMeme is actually a piece of software (a plugin) that helps social media participants perpetuate this phenomenon by adding a “Tweet this” button to their blog posts. Some people refer to a tweetmeme as a “theme” or popular topic that is used in many tweets. Also see “trending topics”

Message Boards/Forums – An online discussion site; people looking to discuss particular issues or needing support post threads (a message) on the forum or message board in hopes to gain more information or start a conversation

Micro-blogging – A form of blogging where the entries/posts are limited to a certain amount of characters or words, i.e. Twitter.

Multimedia – Media and content in different forms such as videos, pictures, etc. Examples include YouTube and Flickr

Podcasts – Online audio or visual recordings syndicated on the Internet and available to download to portable media players such as an iPod

RSS Feed – Really Simple Syndication; a system that generates frequently updated information from a site (i.e. blog posts, online articles)

Retweeting (RT) – Retweeting is the act of sharing someone else’s tweet with your followers – spreading the word wider. To identify a retweet, the Twitter convention is to put RT at the start of the retweet and to include the Twitter username of the person you are retweeting like attributing a quote. In fact, it is a violation of Twitters terms of service to present others’ material as your own, so attribution is key. As an example:

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – Is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs). According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, SEM methods include: search engine optimization (or SEO), paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion (Wikipedia, Search Engine Marketing)

Social Bookmarking – A method for people to search, organize, store and share items (i.e. blog posts, online articles, pictures, etc.) of interest using the item’s URL

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. (Wikipedia, Search Engine Optimization)

Social Networking Sites – Large sites that host multiple communities comprised of people with profiles who have with similar interests. These sites offer a place where people engage with one another online and share content. Example communities include:

  • Facebook – An online community for people to connect or re-connect with others. Enables people to share videos, pictures and information about themselves. One of the fastest growing social networks of the past two years.
  • LinkedIn – A professional online community used to network with fellow professionals; an online resume sharing site
  • MySpace – A site where people can meet others with similar interests, creating online communities by sharing videos, photos, and personal information
  • Friendfeed – enables you to keep up-to-date on the web pages, photos, videos and music that your friends and family are sharing. It offers a unique way to discover and discuss information among friends
  • YouTube – An online site for uploading and discussing videos; Videos can also be embedded from YouTube onto other social media sites such as blogs or social networks
  • Flickr –Online site for storing, sharing and commenting on photos
  • Twitter – A micro-blogging community where posts and links are 140 characters or less

Tweet – The post/entry made on Twitter

Hashtag – Similar to regular tags, these are keywords associated and assigned to an item of content with a hash mark (#) attached to the front of the word. Hashtags make it easier to follow a topic of interest discussed on Twitter

Twitter Search – A search engine that filters out real-time tweets

Tags – a keyword or term associated and assigned to an item of content (i.e. blog post, video, photo, etc.). Usually added to an item of content to enhance search engine optimization and make it content easier to organize and find

Trackback – : some blogs provide a facility for other bloggers to leave a calling card automatically, instead of commenting. Blogger A may write on blog A about an item on blogger B’s site, and through the trackback facility leave a link on B’s site back to A. The collection of comments and trackbacks on a site facilitates conversations.

Trending Topic – A subject algorithmically determined to be one of the most popular on Twitter at the moment.

URL – A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a web address that points to a unique page on the internet.

URL Shorteners – Because of the 140 character limit of each tweet, it can be difficult to include full URLs in a message. Even this page has a URL that contains 45 characters… or nearly 1/3 a full tweet! Luckily, there are many services that can take a long URL and give you a shorter one, usually under 20 characters, to use instead.

Two of the best known sites are Bit.ly and tinyurl. To use either, you go to their site, paste your long URL in a box, click the “shorten” button, and get a new, shorter URL that you can then paste in your tweet or in e-mail or wherever you want. As an example of how it looks and works: http://bit.ly/8w5VR is a shortened link to the original wiki page containing this information.

Web 2.0 – Is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as a platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform – Tim O’Reilly

Widget – A mini application that performs a specific function and connects to the Internet

Compiled from

The Buzz Bin – A Social Media Glossary – http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/2009/02/24/social-media-glossary/

The Happy Accident – Basic Twitter Terms – http://www.thehappyaccident.net/basic-twitter-terms/

Twitter- The Twitter Glossary – http://support.twitter.com/groups/31-twitter-basics/topics/104-welcome-to-twitter-support/articles/166337-the-twitter-glossary

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