Social Media Marketing Glossary

A

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing strategy where an affiliate earns a commission for promoting another company's products or services. Affiliates can be individuals or companies that have an audience or following interested in a particular niche or industry.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI stands for Artificial Intelligence, which refers to the development of computer systems that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and natural language processing. AI technology involves designing algorithms and computer programs that can analyze data, learn from patterns, and make decisions based on that learning.

Average Response Time

The average response time is the amount of time (on average) that it takes a business to respond to a message from a customer on social media.

Ads Manager

Meta Ads Manager is a business tool which allows you to create, run and evaluate paid ads on Facebook and Instagram.

B

Brand Guidelines

Brand guidelines are a set of rules and standards that define how a brand should be represented visually and verbally across various platforms and channels. They encompass elements such as logo usage, color palette, typography, tone of voice, and other visual and verbal elements that contribute to the brand's identity. Establishing clear brand guidelines is crucial for SEO, as they ensure consistency in brand representation, which enhances brand recognition and trust, ultimately improving search engine visibility and ranking.

Brand Voice

Brand voice refers to the unique personality, style, and tone of communication that a brand adopts in its messaging and interactions with its audience. It encompasses the language, vocabulary, and overall expression used by a brand across various channels such as advertising, social media, website content, customer service, and more.

Buyer Persona

A buyer persona is a fictional representation of an ideal customer based on market research and real data about existing customers. It is a detailed description of a customer that includes information such as their demographics, behaviors, motivations, goals, and pain points.

BeReal

BeReal is an initiative that aims to promote authenticity and transparency in the influencer marketing industry. It is a global campaign that encourages influencers and brands to be transparent about their sponsored content, and to disclose any paid partnerships or collaborations. Additionally, BeReal aims to educate consumers about the influencer marketing industry and to promote fair and ethical practices within the industry. The campaign was launched by the Influencer Marketing Hub (IMH), a global resource for influencer marketing best practices and industry insights.

Brand Style Guide

A brand style guide is a document that outlines the specific visual and written elements that make up a company's brand identity. It includes information about the company's logo, typography, color palette, imagery, tone of voice, and other elements that are used to create a consistent look and feel for the brand.

Bottom of the Funnel

In marketing, the term "bottom of the funnel" typically refers to the final stage in the customer journey, when the potential customer is close to making a purchase decision.

Backlinks

A Backlink is a link from one website to another. Backlinks are often referred to as ‘inbound links’ or ‘incoming links’ and are an important part of SEO (search engine optimization).

Benchmarking

Benchmarking in social media is the process of comparing the performance of your social media accounts and activities to industry standards and competitors. This can help you understand how well your social media efforts are performing and identify areas where you can improve. Benchmarking typically involves collecting data on key metrics such as the number of followers, engagement rates, and website traffic, and comparing this data to industry averages and other businesses in your field. This can help you understand how your social media presence stacks up against others in your industry and can guide your strategy moving forward.

Business Objective

A business objective is a specific goal that a company aims to achieve. This could be a financial goal, such as increasing profits or revenue, or a non-financial goal, such as improving customer satisfaction or expanding into new markets. Business objectives are important because they provide direction and focus for a company and help to ensure that all of its employees are working towards the same goals.

Brand Messaging

Brand messaging is the term that describes how a brand communicates what it is, what it does and what it believes to its audience. It is the way in which a brand shows its personality and communicates its value proposition through both verbal and non-verbal messaging.

B2B Marketing

B2B marketing is when a marketing strategy or content for marketing is aimed at a business. It’s when companies sell products and services to other businesses through B2B marketing.

B2C Marketing

B2C Marketing aka business to customer is a type of marketing where a business is marketing to a customer rather than a company as a customer.

Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is how familiar an audience is familiar and recognizes your brand and your product and service. If your brand is recognizable enough, people will trust you and your brand enough to buy from you.

C

CPC (Cost Per Click)

CPC, or Cost Per Click, is a pricing model used in online advertising where advertisers pay a fee each time a user clicks on their ad.

CapCut

CapCut is a popular video editing app that offers a wide range of features for creating and editing videos on mobile devices.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT is a large language model developed by OpenAI that is designed to engage in conversational interactions with humans. It is based on a deep learning algorithm called the transformer model, which has been trained on a massive amount of text data to learn the patterns and structures of natural language.

Clickbait

Clickbait is a type of online content that is designed to entice readers or viewers to click on a link or advertisement, often by using sensational or misleading headlines or images. The goal of clickbait is to generate clicks and traffic for the content or website, often with the intention of generating ad revenue.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It refers to the strategies, technologies, and practices that businesses use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle. The goal of a CRM system is to improve business relationships with customers, help the business better understand its customer base, and find ways to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. This can be done through a variety of means, including personalization, automation, and analysis of customer data.

Carousel Ads

Carousel ads are a type of advertising format on social media platforms that allows businesses to showcase multiple images or videos in a single ad. This format enables businesses to tell a more immersive and engaging story about their products or services by using multiple images or videos that can be swiped or clicked through by users. Carousel ads can be an effective way for businesses to increase engagement with their target audience and drive traffic to their website or other online platforms.

Call-to-Action (CTA)

A call to action is a short phrase prompting your audience to take action. These can appear as written captions on social media posts, buttons on a webpage, links in a marketing email and more.

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

In digital marketing, a click-through rate or CTR is a metric that measures the number of clicks you receive on an ad or campaign.

Community Manager

A community manager is someone who acts as the voice between an organization, brand or business and the audience it serves. A community manager is the one who sets the tone, voice, and moderates the brand’s social media pages through support, content on social media, and engagement. The community manager builds the community and trust of the brand online.

Content Curation

Curated content is content from other businesses, brands, or people that you then share on your own social media pages. Being able to curate relevant and interesting content for your audience is an effective content strategy for your brand.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is when you plan, create, distribute, share, publish, and promote content through social media, blogs, podcasts, video content and more. With content creation, brands and businesses are trying to increase brand awareness, sales, and engagement.

Content Pillars

In social media marketing, content pillars are set of themes/ topic that your content is centred around, specific to your brand.

Cost Per Mile (CPM)

CPM in marketing is something in paid advertising where a company or business pays an amount for every 1,000 impressions an ad receives.

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate is a popular metric that is tracked on social media. It refers to the percentage of people who take a desired action. For example, if you run an Instagram ad which asks followers to sign up to your mailing list, the conversation rate would reflect the percentage of people who actually took action and signed up.

D

DTC Marketing (Direct-To-Consumer)

DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) marketing refers to a business model where products or services are sold directly to consumers, bypassing traditional retail channels.

Doxxing

Doxxing is the practice of researching and broadcasting private or identifying information about an individual or organization on the internet, typically with malicious intent. This information can include things like the person's home address, phone number, email address, or other personal details. Doxxing is often used as a form of online harassment or cyberbullying, and can be a serious invasion of privacy. It is illegal in many jurisdictions, and can result in criminal charges if the person responsible is caught.

Digital Content Strategy

A digital content strategy is a plan which focuses on utilizing content (visual/written or audio) to achieve business goals.

Deindexed

In SEO, deindexing is when a search engine temporarily or permanently removes a website from its index and search results. Website owners can also make a request to the search engine directly, to have their website or webpage deindexed.

Direct Marketing

Direct marketing is when you advertise to achieve a specific action from a very specific and select group of people. This type of marketing comes in various different ways with the information presented leading to action from the customer.

Direct Message (DM)

A direct message, or DM as they are often called, is a private message or conversation that occurs within social media apps. Messages within ‘the DMs’ can generally take place between any account types (business and personal) and are only visible to the sender and recipient.

E

Embed

Embedding refers to the process of integrating or inserting one type of content within another type of content, such as a video, image, or code, into a web page, document, or other digital medium.

Ephemeral Content

Ephemeral content is content that is only available for a limited time, and then it disappears or is no longer accessible. This type of content is often used in social media, where users can share photos, videos, or other types of media that will only be visible for a certain period of time before it is automatically deleted. Ephemeral content is also sometimes called "ephemeral media" or "temporary content."

Engagement Rate

Engagement rate is one of the most popular metrics when it comes to social media. It measures the level of interaction that your audience has with your content comparing your number of likes, comments, shares, saves with the number of people who are following you, to determine the rate at which your followers are engaging with your content.

Evergreen Content

Evergreen content is content that doesn't go out of date or need updating.

F

Facebook Retargeting

Facebook retargeting, also known as Facebook remarketing, is a type of advertising that allows businesses to show ads to people who have previously interacted with their website or mobile app. This is done by placing a tracking pixel on the business's website or app, which collects data on visitors and sends it to Facebook. Facebook then uses this data to create a custom audience of people who have visited the website or app, and targets ads specifically to that audience.

Finsta

Finsta is the word that describes a person’s ‘fake insta’ – a secret or hidden Instagram page separate to their main account which is often used to post content that is either too personal or deemed inappropriate for their main account.

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking platform owned by Meta. It is a free website/app where users can connect, share status updates, photos, videos and more.

For You Page (FYP)

The ‘For You Page’ is a personalized feed of content on TikTok. This page is curated by TikTok’s algorithm and features content that it feels a user will like based on their past interactions on the app.

Facebook Ads Manager

If you're a small business or brand and want to advertise on Facebook or Instagram, you're going to need to utilize Meta's Ads Manager. From here, you'll be able to create and check metrics for your ads for both Instagram and Facebook quickly and easily.

G

Geotargeting

Geotargeting is a way that advertisers deliver personalized ads or content to a user based on their geographic location. Technology such as IP addresses, GPS data and other location-based information is used to help advertisers target users in a specific location or radius. For example, a local café may choose to use geotargeting to target people in their local area.

Geotag

A geotag is a piece of metadata that is added to a digital photo or video, which includes information about the location where the photo or video was taken. This information is usually stored in the form of latitude and longitude coordinates, and it can be used to identify the exact location on a map. Geotags are often added automatically by smartphones and digital cameras, and they can be accessed and viewed using photo-sharing and social media websites, as well as specialized geotagging software.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free web tracking tool that collects data from your website, analyzes how visitors interact with it, and provides reports which offer insights into your online presence.

H

Hashtags

A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by the pound sign (#) used to categorize information and make it easily searchable for users. Hashtags help social media platforms know exactly what your content is about which then helps the platform suggest that content to people who are interested in it.

I

Instagram Notes

Instagram Notes is a feature on Instagram that allows users to create and share long-form content on the platform. Notes are similar to blog posts, and they allow users to share text, photos, and videos in a single post.

Instagram Reels

Instagram Reels is a feature on Instagram that allows users to create and share short, entertaining video clips set to music. Reels can be up to 15 seconds long and can include a variety of creative elements, such as edits, filters, and effects.

Instagram

Instagram is a free social media platform that allows users to share photos and videos with other users and interact with them online. Instagram is known for its emphasis on visual content. The platform is owned by Meta.

Inbound Links

An inbound link (also known as a back link) is a form of SEO where you try to gain links to your website from another website. This is a way to direct readers or potential customers to your website.

Impressions

In marketing, an impression is a metric that tracks how many times an ad is ‘fetched’ and displayed on a social media platform.

Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is all about growing your customer base by helping potential customers find your company and building meaningful, lasting relationships. Inbound marketing are SEO (search engine optimization), PPC (pay-per-click advertising) and content creation (blog posts/how-to guides/ social media)

Instagram Analytics

Instagram analytics is a free tool within the Instagram app which gives you insights into your followers/ audience and key metrics/data around your performance.

Instagram Automation

Automation on Instagram refers to using third-party software and apps to manage your Instagram account – just like Flick!

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K

Keyword

A keyword is a specific word or phrase that people type into search engines or social media search tools to find what they are looking for. Using keywords in digital marketing can improve a website’s search engine ranking. When relevant, keywords that relate to your business or service are placed strategically on parts of your website, the more likely search engines are to pull up your web pages when a user is looking for something specific.

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

A KPI (key performance indicator) is a metric tracked over time to help you measure progress towards your business goals

L

LinkedIn Analytics

LinkedIn Analytics is a built-in feature within the LinkedIn platform that allows you to track key metrics to measure the effectiveness of your posts and content.

Link Building

Link building is an SEO technique that consists of getting links to your website, from other websites, to help increase your search engine ranking. Links that appear on other websites, linking to your website, are called backlinks.

M

Machine Learning (ML)

Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) that involves the development of algorithms and models that enable computers to learn from and make predictions or decisions based on data. Instead of being explicitly programmed to perform a specific task, machine learning systems use data to improve their performance over time. The focus is on allowing computers to learn patterns and relationships from data, enabling them to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed for every possible scenario.

Monetization

Monetization is the process of earning revenue or generating income from a product, service, or asset. In the context of digital media, monetization refers to the process of generating revenue from online content, such as websites, social media platforms, and mobile apps.

Micro Influencer

A micro influencer is someone who has a smaller following on social media, typically in the thousands or tens of thousands. These individuals are often considered experts in a specific niche or industry and have a highly engaged audience. They may be considered more authentic and relatable than macro influencers, as they often have a more personal connection with their followers.

Macro Influencer

A macro influencer is a social media user that has a large following (over 100,000 followers) and is considered to have influence over the people that follow them. Celebrities, athletes and TV personalities are examples of macro influencers.

Mastodon

Mastodon is a free and open-source social networking service. It is similar to other social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, but it is decentralized, which means that it is not controlled by a single company or organization. Instead, Mastodon is made up of a network of independently-operated servers, each of which is owned and managed by a different user or organization. This decentralized structure allows users to have more control over their data and their privacy, and it also makes the platform more resilient to censorship and other forms of control. Mastodon was created in 2016 and has since grown to have millions of users worldwide.

Meta Description

A Meta Description is a snippet of text that summarizes a webpage’s content and appears under your page title in search engine results.

Metaverse

The Metaverse is considered the next evolution of the internet. It has also been described as a network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social interactions where people live, work, shop and interact from the comfort of their couch (in the real/ physical world). It is essentially the idea of ‘cyberspace’ made real.

Meta Business Suite

The Meta Business Suite is a centralized system that allows businesses and creators to manage their Facebook, Instagram and messenger accounts in one place. It includes a series of management tools allowing you to post across Facebook and Instagram, manage your inboxes, create ads, track insights, analytics and more.

N

Natural Language Processing

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a field of artificial intelligence (AI) that focuses on the interaction between computers and human language. The goal of NLP is to enable computers to understand, interpret, and generate human language in a way that is both meaningful and useful. NLP involves the development of algorithms and models that allow computers to process and analyze text and speech data in a manner similar to how humans understand and use language.

News Feed

On social media, a news feed is usually the screen on a platform that is constantly updating to show the latest posts by people, brands and news publishers that a user is following.

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P

PPC Campaign

A PPC (pay-per-click) campaign is a form of online advertising where the advertiser pays a fee each time that their ad is clicked on when it is displayed on a SERP (search engine results page).

Pinterest

Pinterest is a visual social media platform and discovery engine for users to find, save and share inspirational content.

Q

Qualified Lead

In marketing, a qualified lead is a prospect who fits the profile of an ideal customer who has the intention to buy. This person has likely interacted with content, downloaded offers, and clicked on CTAs making the marketing team deem them as more likely to become an actual customer compared to other leads.

R

Reach

On social media analytics, "reach" refers to the total number of unique users who have seen a particular post, ad, or piece of content on a social media platform.

Retargeting

Retargeting in social media refers to the practice of showing targeted ads to users who have previously visited a website or engaged with a brand's content on social media. This is done through the use of tracking pixels or cookies, which allow the brand to collect data about the user's activity and use this information to serve relevant ads to the user on social media platforms.

Return On Investment (ROI)

In social media, ROI (return on investment), is a metric used to show the return that a company can expect to make from the money, time and effort put into social media marketing.

S

Social Media Algorithm

A social media algorithm is a set of rules, calculations, and processes that social media platforms use to determine the content that users see in their feeds. These algorithms are designed to curate and personalize the content that appears on a user's timeline or feed, aiming to show them the most relevant and engaging posts based on their preferences, behaviors, and interactions on the platform.

Social Media Optimization (SMO)

Social media optimization (SMO) is the process of improving the visibility and reach of a company's or organization's social media presence. It involves using various tactics and strategies to increase the number of people who see and interact with a company's content on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a software delivery model in which a software application is hosted by a third-party provider and made available to customers over the internet. Customers access the software through a web browser, rather than installing it on their own computers or servers.

Share of Voice

Share of voice is a term used to describe the percentage of a particular market or industry that is controlled by a specific brand or company. It is often used in the context of advertising and marketing, where it refers to the percentage of total advertising or marketing spending that is allocated to a particular brand or company. For example, if a company has a share of voice of 30%, it means that they are spending 30% of their advertising budget on a specific marketing campaign or product. Share of voice is often used as a measure of a company's brand strength, as well as its overall market position.

Social Proof

Social proof in marketing refers to the idea that people are more likely to trust and be influenced by the actions and beliefs of others, especially when they perceive those others to be similar to themselves. This concept is based on the psychological phenomenon of conformity, where people tend to conform to the behaviors and beliefs of the group to which they belong. In marketing, social proof can be used to demonstrate the popularity or success of a product or service, in order to persuade potential customers to try it for themselves. For example, a business might use customer testimonials, ratings and reviews, or the number of people who have already purchased a product, as social proof to convince others to buy it.

Social Media Monitoring Tools

A social media monitoring tool is a piece of software that tracks conversations around your brand and wider industry by monitoring relevant keywords, hashtags and mentions.

Social Media Automation

Social Media Automation is the process of using software/tools to automate and optimize social media interactions. This includes scheduling posts ahead of time, engaging with followers, and much more.

Snapchat

Snapchat is a social media app which gained popularity for allowing users to send and receive time-sensitive videos and photos (known as snaps) which disappear after the time limit expires and then become inaccessible.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO (Search engine optimization) is the process of increasing the volume of unpaid (organic) traffic to a webpage from search engines. The aim of SEO is to optimize your website’s technical configuration to improve it’s position when it comes to search engine ranking – the higher your website/ webpage appears on the search engine, the more likely people are to see it.

Shadowban

When your account has been shadowbanned, it means your posts aren’t discoverable. They’re not being found via hashtags or showing up on explore pages of anyone who doesn’t already follow you. This mainly affects your discoverability via hashtags, as they are one of the key ways that you actually reach new audiences.

Social Listening

Social listening is when you ‘listen’ or track conversations and trends on social media happening around your brand and your industry. It helps you to figure out why, where, and how the conversations are happening and narrow down what people think of your brand and the wider industry.

Social Media Analytics

Social media analytics is the data from your social media accounts that help you measure and figure out how well your accounts are performing. The metrics will help you determine how well your content is doing and will help you figure out what content your followers like more so you can start making more of what they like. Social media analytics is a combination of likes, comments, shares, saves, mentions, and more.

Social Media Manager

A social media manager is the person (or multiple people) who run, monitor, schedule and measure the social media presence of a brand, business, or person. Social media managers are the ones who post items on multiple social media platforms and are responsible for driving engagement and creating a full content strategy.

Social Media Monitoring

Social media monitoring is the process of gathering data related to a particular brand or business. This can be done by monitoring and tracking hashtags and key words or identifying and responding to individual mentions.

SERP (Search Engine Results Page)

SERP (search engine results page) is the page that is returned by a search engine (such as Google) after a user enters a search query.

T

TikTok

TikTok is a social media platform and app that allows users to create and share short videos, typically set to music. The app was originally developed in China by the company Bytedance and was launched in 2016 under the name Douyin. It was later released internationally as TikTok in 2017.

TikTok Analytics

TikTok Analytics is an in-app feature (within TikTok) that allows you to track key metrics such as your follower count, video views, likes, comments, shares, how long someone watched your video and more.

U

Unique Selling Position (USP)

USP stands for "Unique Selling Proposition" which is a marketing term that refers to the unique benefit or advantage a product or service offers to its customers, compared to its competitors. It's what sets a brand apart and makes it stand out in the market.

UGC (User-Generated Content)

User-generated content is any form of content that is related to your business, from images to videos, text and audio, that is created by a customer or fan of your brand. This can range from a photo showing your product/ service posted by a customer to a review/ testimonial video and so much more.

UTM code

Urchin Tracking Module codes are lines of text used to create a URL that will help you track where your website traffic comes from if a user clicks on the link.

V

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing is a type of marketing strategy that aims to promote a product or service by encouraging people to share it with others, typically through social media platforms. The goal is to create a "viral" effect, where a message or piece of content spreads rapidly from person to person, ideally leading to increased brand awareness and sales. The use of social media and other online networks makes it easier for people to share content, which can help to amplify a marketing message and make it more likely to go viral.

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X

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Y

YouTube Shorts

YouTube Shorts is a short-form, vertical videos on YouTube using your smartphone and uploaded straight to YouTube from its app. At the moment, you can’t upload YouTube Shorts from desktop. With YouTube Shorts, you can comment, share, like, dislike, or subscribe to the channel.

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Social Media Marketing Glossary

All Marketing Terms

A

Affiliate Marketing

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Average Response Time

Ads Manager

B

Brand Guidelines

Brand Voice

Buyer Persona

BeReal

Brand Style Guide

Bottom of the Funnel

Backlinks

Benchmarking

Business Objective

Brand Messaging

B2B Marketing

B2C Marketing

Brand Awareness

C

CPC (Cost Per Click)

CapCut

ChatGPT

Clickbait

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

Carousel Ads

Call-to-Action (CTA)

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Community Manager

Content Curation

Content Marketing

Content Pillars

Cost Per Mile (CPM)

Conversion Rate

D

DTC Marketing (Direct-To-Consumer)

Doxxing

Digital Content Strategy

Deindexed

Direct Marketing

Direct Message (DM)

E

Embed

Ephemeral Content

Engagement Rate

Evergreen Content

F

Facebook Retargeting

Finsta

Facebook

For You Page (FYP)

Facebook Ads Manager

G

Geotargeting

Geotag

Google Analytics

H

Hashtags

I

Instagram Notes

Instagram Reels

Instagram

Inbound Links

Impressions

Inbound Marketing

Instagram Analytics

Instagram Automation

J

K

Keyword

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

L

LinkedIn Analytics

Link Building

M

Machine Learning (ML)

Monetization

Micro Influencer