Social Media Marketing Glossary

Social media is rife with acronyms, jargon and phrases. We've rounded up all the social media marketing terms you always wanted to know but were too nervous to ask!

Read on or download it for future reference.

Flummoxed by social media terminology? Read on to demystify all the most important social media terms.

A/B Test - A/B testing is used to consider how small differences in a marketing campaign might influence customer behaviour. This might be the title of a newsletter or email, the text for a banner advert, the text on a call-to-action button or the layout of a web page. The idea is to run two variations of the campaign with a controlled group of customers to see which version is the most successful.

Bitly - Bitly is a free URL shortening service that provides statistics for the links users share online. Bitly is popularly used to condense long URLs to make them easier to share on social networks such as Twitter.

Canva - Canva is an easy-to-use design tool for non-designers and designers alike. The tool offers several templates that adhere to the required dimensions for sharable social images on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.

Call to Action (CTA) - A phrase written to motivate the reader to take action such as signing up for a newsletter, purchasing something or downloading something. On websites they are typically styled differently from the other text on a page so that they stand out even more.

Click-through Rate (CTR) - The total clicks on a link divided by the number of times that ad link has been shown, expressed as a percentage.

Community Management - Community management is the building and monitoring of online communities generated from your brand’s social media, blogs etc

Conversion - Completing an action that a brand wants a user to take, often resulting in revenue in some way. See also: Call to Action (CTA)

Conversion Funnel - A defined path that visitors would take to reach a brand’s ultimate objective.

Conversion Rate - The number of conversions divided by the number of visitors, expressed as a percentage.

Cost per acquisition (CPA) - Refers to the cost of acquiring a new consumers. The advertiser pays only when a desired action is achieved (sometimes called a Cost per Lead or CPL)

Cost per Click (CPC) - The amount an advertiser pays when a link is clicked on.

Cost per Lead (CPL) - The cost an advertiser pays for an interested person’s contact details, using a lead ad on Facebook or LinkedIn. These kinds of ads prepopulate a user’s details to add them to their database, receive a discount coupon etc.

Cost per mille (CPM) - Amount paid for every 1 000 impressions served of an advertisement.

Demographics - Statistical information about a particular population, such as age, gender, language or location

Facebook - Facebook is a social media platform founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. The site connects people with friends, family, acquaintances, and businesses from all over the world and enables them to post, share, and engage with a variety of content such as photos and status updates.

Geotag - A geotag is the directional coordinates that can be attached to a piece of content online. For example, Instagram users often use geotagging to highlight the location in which their photo was taken.

Handle - Handle is the term used to describe someone's @username on Twitter. For example, D.O. Digital’s handle is: @do_academy

Hashtag - A hashtag is a label used on social media to demonstrate what a piece of content is about. It enables content to be searched and discovered more easily.

Instagram - Instagram is a photo sharing application that lets users take photos, apply filters to their images, and share the photos instantly

Key Performance Indicator (KPI) - The metrics which are examined to determine the success of a campaign.

LinkedIn - LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site mainly used for professional networking, demonstrating thought leadership and business to business (B2B) marketing.

Meme - A meme on the internet is used to describe a thought, idea, joke, or concept that's widely shared online. It is typically an image with text above and below it, but can also come in video and link form.

Mention - A mention is a Twitter term used to describe an instance in which a user includes someone else's @username in their tweet to attribute a piece of content or start a discussion.

News Feed - A news feed is literally a feed full of news. On Facebook, the News Feed is the homepage of users' accounts where they can see all the latest updates from their friends. The news feed on Twitter is called Timeline.

Online Reputation Management (ORM) - Understanding and influencing the perception of an entity online.

Pay per click (PPC) - Pay per click advertising is advertising where the advertiser pays only for each click on their advert, not for the opportunity for it to be seen or displayed.

Recommendation - A recommendation on LinkedIn is a term used to describe a written note from another LinkedIn member that aims to reinforce the user's professional credibility or expertise.

Remarketing - Remarketing is an online marketing and advertising technique that allows marketers to display ads to people who have visited their website or are part of their contacts database.

Responsive Design - Websites which fluidly respond to a user’s device or screen resolution (e.g. phone, tablet or desktop).

Return on Investment (ROI) - The ratio of cost to profit.

Sentiment - The emotion attached to a particular mention which is positive, negative or neutral.

SMART Objectives - A marketing objective that is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound.

Social Commerce - Subset of eCommerce which involves social media.

Strategy - A set of ideas which outline how a product or brand will be positioned and achieve its objectives. This guides decisions on how to create, distribute, promote and price the product or service.

Trackable Link - A trackable link is a URL e.g. www.dodigital.academy which is shortened using a link shortening service such as bitl.y to create a link that looks like this: https://bit.ly/2zp91eW It not only shortens long URL’s but it also gives the creator basic analytics in terms of how many people clicked that link

Trend - To trend on social media means your content experiences a spike in popularity on a social media channel.

Twitter - Twitter is a real-time social network that allows users to share 140-character updates with their following. Users can favorite and retweet the posts of other users, as well as engage in conversations using @ mentions, replies, and hashtags for categorizing their content.

User-Generated Content (UGC) - User-generated content is content (blogs, videos, photos, quotes, etc) that is created by consumers. Marketers typically tap into their audience in an online setting to collect this type of content to support a campaign or initiative.

Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) - A UTM code is a simple code that you can attach to a custom URL in order to track a source, medium, and campaign name. This enables Google Analytics to tell you where searchers came from as well as what campaign directed them to you. You can create UTM links with Google’s Campaign URL Builder.

Viral - When a piece of content is shared in very large numbers it is considered to be viral. There is no exact number of shares that constitutes something having gone viral, it is simply exponentially larger than usual.

Found it useful? Download our Social Media Marketing Glossary now.

Interested in a career in social media marketing? Why not kick start a bright new future, starting with our Introduction to Social Media Marketing Course. We can't wait to explore the ins and outs of social media marketing with you!

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SOURCES:

Red & Yellow Textbook

Buffer Blog

How to craft a successful influencer strategy

We’ve all heard of “influencers”, those social media stars who have an above average impact in their niche, whether that be fitness, the arts, fashion or being a mom. But what do we mean by “influencer marketing”? This refers to the marketing tactic whereby we reward those people for featuring our brand in their social media posts.

In the past year, 70% of brands have used influencer marketing strategies, and many have achieved success in this way.[1]

The status of the influencer will determine their cost. For highly established influencers, their fee might be great, but for those just starting out, you might be able to negotiate a non-financial deal in which you can offer exposure, free product or payment in kind.

The common misconception is that influencer marketing relies only on social media celebrities who showcase their trendy, photogenic lives. Sure, the Twitterati and Instaglamorous are often the most visible influencers, but there a multiple groups we need to look at when developing an influencer-based campaign. Brand employees, regular consumers, brand advocates and micro-influencers might be more important for your campaign because of the clout they have in their niche, and the trust their followers have in their authenticity.

The best results occur when there’s an organic relationship between the influencer and the brand. Is this person an active user of the brand’s services or products? Is there synergy between the influencer’s values and communication style and the brand? Is there an overlap between the influencer’s audience and the brand’s customers? Perhaps not. Which begs the question: how do we find advocates who genuinely are living the brand?

Pinpoint your most engaged and influential existing customers by using social aggregator tools. Spend some time analysing the content that these customers are generating, sharing and engaging with. What are the common themes they’re interested in? How do these themes align with the values of the brand?

Once you’ve understood who your tribe of influencers needs to be, you can devote time to crafting a long-term content plan. During the construction of the content plan, keep top of mind how the use of your influencer tribe must align with your business objectives. Is your goal to gain more followers, increase awareness, boost sales, or launch a new product? Your objective will distinctly shape the way in which you build your influencer tribe into your content plan[2].

Ready to start using influencers to drive your online marketing objectives? Start small, grow your network of influencers and remember to track how successful your influencer campaigns are at achieving the goals set out for them.

Interested in a career in social media marketing? Why not kick start a bright new future, starting with our Introduction to Social Media Marketing Course. We can't wait to explore the ins and outs of social media marketing with you!

SOURCES

[1] Digital Marketing Institute

[2] Influencer Marketing Hub

Improve your social media presence with these eight easy tips

Whether you’re managing your own social media accounts or those of a brand, it's important to ensure that you have a clear plan to optimise your social presence.

Without further ado, here are DO Digital’s Eight Easy Tips to improve your social media presence:

1. Identify your objectives

Devote solid time to unpacking the brand’s objectives for being on social media. Are you trying to drive traffic to a website? Creating brand awareness? Pushing sales? Educating the consumer? Highlighting the heritage of the brand?

2. Draft content pillars

You likely have quite a few objectives. These can be translated into content pillars that form the building blocks of your social content. Each month you need to create content that speaks to each content pillar at least once – perhaps more depending on the importance of the pillar.

3. Build Platform-Relevant Calls to Action

Think carefully about how your objectives translate to the various social platforms. Facebook is a great space to drive awareness around an event, whereas Instagram is less event-friendly. Twitter is great for news and PR updates, whereas Instagram is ideal for showcasing visual products.

Peruse through the various calls-to-action (CTA’s) that each platform permits. If you know you want to drive traffic to a website, then you’ll want to include “Learn More” CTA buttons on Facebook and Instagram. If you want customer feedback, you might want to use the polling function on Twitter or Instagram Stories.

4. Be human

Once you’ve posted your content, people will respond, comment and react. You’ll need to manage your social community by replying to comments, queries and complaints. Try not to be devoid of personality. A brand has a personality too, and you need to spend time understanding how the brand would speak if it were human. This will help endear your online community to you, and they’ll be more likely to trust a brand that speaks with a consistent voice.

5. Analyse this

Some of your posts will do very well, and some… not so much. But the general popularity of a post in terms of likes may be misleading. Using each platforms’ insights or analytics tools will help you delve deeper into the performance of your posts. For instance, you may have a post that didn’t receive many likes or comments, but tons of people hit the sign-up CTA button – which was your objective all along.

Furthermore, you may have loads of engagement, but from the wrong crowd. Insights and analytics reveal the demographic make-up of the people engaging with your content. Are these the same people who are the brand’s intended target market? If not, you may need to rethink your content.

6. Read the room

You’ll be surprised at the massive followings certain Instagrammers, Facebookers or Twitterheads have amassed! Find out who these influencers are in your category and tag them in relevant posts. Get them on your side… but be subtle about it. You want them to be genuinely interested in your content so that they comment and share, serving your content to their massive followings.

7. Icons, icons everywhere

Ensure that your website and email signature feature social media icons that click through to your various social accounts. People don’t want to have to track you down, so make it easy for them.

8. Keywords are king

People don’t only search for words and phrases on Google, they use social media as search engines too. Compounding this, social media posts that include keywords show up in Google searches. Think about what your target users might be looking up on Google that would bring them to your content. Include those keywords and phrases in your content.

Who knows, thinking about those search phrases might even inspire you to create some truly valuable content!

Ready to become a social media rockstar?

Try out these tips and see if you find greater confidence at producing a dynamic social media presence. If you’re still feeling that you need to sharpen your pencil to really be a social media rockstar, take a look at Introduction to Social Marketing course.

SOURCES

Forbes