Social Media Glossary

Blog - An online "web log" of content chosen and written by the blog's owner, usually commentary or current events. One blog item is called an entry or post. Blog posts can contain text, photos, links, video and other multi-media.

Cause - On Facebook, similar to a group, Causes allows non-profit organizations to create issue-based pages, a community of fans and friends, and promote fundraising efforts, including collecting donations through the Cause's page.

Comment - A comment is reply left by the reader of a blog or in response to a Facebook post. Those who view the original blog entry or post can also view the comments.

Donate Your Status - On Facebook, encouraging friends to post a specific status update, usually related to a movement or cause, rather than posting typical personal updates. Statuses are often donated to spread the word about animals-at-risk, missing children and other philanthropic endeavors.

Facebook - The largest social networking web site, boasting 400,000,000 users. Allows users to customize profile pages with photos and information, contact other users (see friend) and communicate with them through photos and text posts.

Fan - On Facebook, a user can show their support of an organization, artist, politician or product by clicking a link on that business or individual's profile page that reads "Become a Fan." The organization, person or product's posts will then appear in the fan's Facebook news feed.

Follower - A follower is a Twitter user who subscribes to another user's updates. When logged into their Twitter account, a follower will see a list of tweets from other users he or she is subscribed to, or "following."

Friend/Unfriend - On Facebook, a user can communicate with other users he or she has approved as 'friends.' Each Facebook user will accumulate a list of friends and can share information, photos, videos and other content with this screened and limited group of trusted people. Users can 'unfriend' people who the user no longer wants to allow access to their Facebook profile.

Group - A large or small number of Facebook users with a common interest. One user can start a group by creating a new page dedicated to their interest and invite other users to join. Anyone who joins the group will be able to read updates and contributions from other group members.

Hashtag - On Twitter, hashtags consist of the # sign followed by text, and are created in order to classify or label certain topics and easily group them. They are added to the ends of relevant Tweets. They're often used to group live event Tweets, like #lostfinale or #worldcup2010, and make them easier to find by searching.

Keyword - A word or phrase that you type into a Search field on a website to locate information related to that topic. Content containing the keywords or tagged with the keywords will be included in the search results.

Like/Unlike - On Facebook, you can reply to a friend's status update with a comment or by clicking the "Like" link. It's a quick way to respond without typing a comment. You can later change your mind and click the "Unlike" link.

You can also join a group or organization's page by simply clicking the "Like" button that is displayed to the right of the group's name on its profile page.

Link - Usually underlined or indicated in a unique color, a link appears either as a word or group of words, or as a string of letters and numbers beginning with http:// or www. If a computer user hovers their mouse's cursor over the link and clicks, the link will open a new web page. Links are also known as URLs or web addresses.

News Feed - On Facebook, the main content of any page consists of the news feed that displays the information that friends and groups have posted. You can interact with this content. Your comments and actions will be visible immediately to your friends.

Page - Short for "profile page" which you create after signing up for any social networking site. Your profile page contain any information you decide to share, such as your name, interests or a photo of you. It is also considered your starting point on sites such as Facebook.

Post - In social networking (Facebook, Twitter) a post is a sentence or two of text that the writer wishes to share with those who can view his or her Facebook and Twitter updates. In blogging, a post is one discreet article. To "post" is to create and publish to the web one of these updates.

Retweet - On Twitter, clicking the Re-Tweet button within another user's Tweet will post that content to your own Twitter feed. Retweeting shares the content with those who follow your Tweets while giving credit to the original poster.

RSS Feed - Most often contains the text and images of blog or web page. It creates a portable version of the content ideal for reading on a mobile device or in an email without having to visit individual sites on the internet. You can view your RSS feed to check whether any of the sites you added to it have posted new content. RSS = Really Simple Syndication

Share - Both on and off Facebook, a link to "Share" content - a blog post, status update or article - will capture an excerpt of that content and post it to your own profile, where your friends will also see it and potentially share it with their friends.

Status - Similar to a Tweet, a Facebook status update is a sentence or two that lets a user's friends know what's on the user's mind. There's no specific format, and no topic is off-limits, though brevity is expected. Status updates are typed into the first box that appears atop a user's page.

Tag - Terms used with blog entries to identify major topics within the entry. For example, an entry about shelter sanitation might include the tags: bleach dilution, disinfection, gloves. The blog author determines which tags an entry will use. Carefully chosen words help make an entry easier to find by searching.

Tags are also used on other types of web content including images and videos, usually to identify people but often to call out topics or themes in the images.

Tweet - Tweet is the term for the updates that Twitter users publish to their Twitter profile pages. Tweets must be 140 characters or less in length including any URLs. Tweets cannot contain any multimedia.

Twitter - A social networking site that allows users to enter 140-character text updates that are shared with others who subscribe to that poster's feed. Used for quick hits of information, or to convey updates from live events.

Wall - On Facebook, your wall is an area on your page for friends to type notes or share content. Depending on your privacy settings, items posted on your wall are visible by your entire friend list, and items you post on a friend's wall will be seen by their friends.