Social media glossary

A/B test An A/B test compares two versions of a post, ad, popup or message on similar audiences to see which one performs better. AI agent An AI agent is software that uses a language model to plan and complete multi-step tasks, not just answer one question. Algorithm A social media algorithm is the set of rules a network uses to decide which posts each person sees and in what order. Alt text Alt text is a short written description of an image that screen readers read aloud and search engines use to understand the picture. API An API (application programming interface) is a documented way for two programs to exchange data and commands without a person clicking buttons. Attribution Attribution is working out which channel, post, email or ad deserves credit for a lead or a sale. Audience demographics Audience demographics are statistical facts about your followers, such as age, gender, location and language. Audience segmentation Segmentation is splitting your contacts into groups by shared traits or behaviour so each group gets more relevant messages. Auto-reply An auto-reply is a message sent automatically when someone writes to you, comments or triggers a set condition. Avatar (profile picture) An avatar is the small image that represents an account next to every post, comment and message it sends.

B2B (business to business) B2B means a business sells its products or services to other businesses rather than to individual consumers. B2C (business to consumer) B2C means a business sells directly to individual people, like a cafe, a beauty salon or an online clothing shop. Best time to post The best time to post is the time of day and week when your particular audience is most active and most likely to engage. Bio A bio is the short text in a social media profile that explains who you are, what you offer and what to do next. Boosted post A boosted post is a regular post you pay a network to show to more people than it would reach organically. Brand awareness Brand awareness is how many people in your target audience know your brand and can recall or recognise it. Brand voice Brand voice is the consistent personality your business expresses in words, across every post, reply and email. Buyer persona A buyer persona is a short, research-based profile of your typical customer: their situation, goals, worries and where they spend time.

Call to action (CTA) A call to action is a short instruction that tells people exactly what to do next: book, buy, write, subscribe or save. Caption A caption is the text that accompanies a photo, video or carousel in a social media post. Carousel A carousel is a single post with several photos, videos or slides that people swipe through one by one. Chat funnel A chat funnel is a sequence of automated messages in a messenger that guides a person from first contact to a purchase or booking. Chatbot A chatbot is a program that talks to people in a messenger or on a website, following a script, using AI, or both. Click-through rate (CTR) Click-through rate is the share of people who clicked a link, button or ad out of everyone who saw it. Comment to DM Comment to DM is an automation that replies publicly to a comment with a keyword and sends the promised item to the person in direct messages. Community manager A community manager is the person who talks with a brand's audience: answers comments and messages, moderates and keeps discussions alive. Competitor analysis Social media competitor analysis is studying what similar businesses post, how their audience reacts and where you can do better. Content approval Content approval is the step where the owner, a client or a manager checks and confirms a post before it is published. Content calendar A content calendar is a schedule that shows which posts go out on which networks, on which dates and at what time. Content marketing Content marketing is attracting and keeping customers by publishing useful content instead of direct advertising. Content pillars Content pillars are 3–5 recurring themes a brand posts about, so the feed stays focused, varied and easy to plan. Content plan A content plan is a list of upcoming posts with topics, formats, goals and dates, prepared in advance for a week or a month. Content repurposing Content repurposing is turning one piece of content into several formats for different networks, such as a video into clips, posts and a newsletter. Conversion A conversion is a valuable action a person takes, like buying, booking, leaving a phone number or subscribing; conversion rate is its share. Cost per click (CPC) Cost per click is the average amount you pay for one click on your ad: ad spend divided by the number of clicks. Cost per lead (CPL) Cost per lead is how much you spend on average to get one potential customer's contact or request. Crisis management Social media crisis management is how a brand prepares for and responds to a wave of negative attention online. CRM (customer relationship management) A CRM is a system that stores your customers and leads with their contacts, conversations, deals and history in one place. Cross-posting Cross-posting is publishing the same content to several social networks, ideally adapted to each network's format and audience.

Direct message (DM) A direct message is a private message sent to an account on a social network, visible only to the sender and the recipient.

Email marketing Email marketing is sending newsletters, offers and automated messages by email to people who agreed to receive them. Engagement Engagement is every active reaction to your content: likes, comments, shares, saves, replies, clicks and votes. Engagement rate (ER) Engagement rate is the share of people who interacted with your content, usually engagements divided by followers or by reach. Evergreen content Evergreen content stays useful and relevant for a long time, unlike news or trends that quickly go out of date.

Followers Followers are people who subscribed to an account to see its updates; on some networks they are called subscribers or members. For You page (recommendation feed) The For You page is a recommendation feed where a network shows posts from accounts a person does not follow, chosen by its algorithm.

Gamification Gamification is using game mechanics such as quizzes, points, levels and rewards to make customers more engaged and loyal. Generative AI Generative AI is artificial intelligence that creates new text, images, audio or video from a written request (a prompt). Geotag A geotag is a location attached to a post, story or video that shows where it was made and helps nearby people find it.

Hashtag A hashtag is a word or phrase after the # sign that groups posts by topic and helps people find content on a subject. Hook A hook is the first line of a post or the first seconds of a video, designed to stop people scrolling and make them keep reading or watching.

Impressions Impressions are the total number of times your content was displayed, including repeated views by the same person. Influencer An influencer is a person whose audience trusts their opinion, so their recommendation can affect what followers buy or do. Influencer marketing Influencer marketing is promoting a brand through creators and bloggers who recommend it to their own audience.

Knowledge base A knowledge base is an organised collection of your prices, services, rules and FAQs that people or AI use to answer customer questions. KPI (key performance indicator) A KPI is a measurable number that shows whether you are moving towards an important business goal.

Landing page A landing page is a single web page built for one goal, such as booking, signing up or buying, where visitors arrive from an ad, post or email. Lead A lead is a potential customer who has shown interest and left a way to contact them: a message, a phone number, an email or a request. Lead generation Lead generation is the process of attracting potential customers and collecting their contacts so you can start a sales conversation. Lead magnet A lead magnet is something useful you give away for free in exchange for a contact, such as a guide, checklist, discount or mini-course. Link in bio Link in bio is the single clickable link in a social media profile, often leading to a page that collects all your important links. Live chat Live chat is a chat window on a website where visitors can write to a business and get answers in real time. Live stream A live stream is real-time video broadcast on a social network, where viewers can comment and react while it is happening.

Marketing funnel A marketing funnel describes the path from first hearing about a brand to buying, with fewer people at each next stage. MCP (Model Context Protocol) MCP is an open standard that lets AI assistants connect to external apps and data, so they can read information and take actions there. Mention A mention is when someone tags or names your account in a post, comment or story, usually with the @ symbol. Micro-influencer A micro-influencer is a creator with a smaller but highly engaged niche audience, often roughly 10,000–100,000 followers.

Online booking Online booking lets clients choose a service, a specialist and a free time slot themselves, without calling or waiting for a reply. Organic reach Organic reach is the number of people who saw your content without paid promotion.

Paid social Paid social is advertising on social networks: paying to show your posts or ads to a chosen audience. Pinned post A pinned post is a post fixed at the top of a profile, channel or group so that every visitor sees it first. Popup A popup is a window that appears on a website to offer something, such as a discount, a subscription or a lead form, at the right moment. Post scheduling Post scheduling is preparing posts in advance and setting a date and time so they publish automatically. Posting frequency Posting frequency is how often you publish on each network, for example three posts a week and daily stories. Prompt A prompt is the instruction or question you give to an AI model to get a text, image, video or other result.

Reach Reach is the number of unique people who saw your post, story, video or ad at least once. Reels Reels are short vertical videos on Instagram and Facebook, shown to both followers and non-followers in a dedicated feed. Referral marketing Referral marketing encourages existing customers to recommend your business to friends, usually with a reward for both. Retargeting Retargeting is showing ads or messages to people who already interacted with you, such as site visitors or people who added to cart. ROI (return on investment) ROI shows how much you earned compared with what you spent: (revenue − costs) ÷ costs × 100%. RSS feed An RSS feed is a machine-readable list of a website's latest articles that apps and services can follow and republish automatically.

Sentiment analysis Sentiment analysis classifies comments, reviews and mentions as positive, negative or neutral to show how people feel about a brand. SEO (search engine optimisation) SEO is improving a website and its content so it appears higher in search engines for the queries your customers type. Shadowban A shadowban is when a network quietly limits the visibility of an account or its posts without notifying the owner. Share of voice (SOV) Share of voice is your brand's share of all conversations, mentions or ad visibility in your market compared with competitors. Short-form video Short-form video is vertical video from a few seconds to a few minutes, made for TikTok, Reels, YouTube Shorts and similar feeds. SMM (social media marketing) SMM is promoting a business on social networks through content, community, advertising and conversations with customers. SMM manager An SMM manager is the specialist who plans, creates, publishes and analyses a brand's social media and talks with its audience. Social commerce Social commerce is selling products directly through social networks and messengers, from discovery to order. Social inbox A social inbox is one shared window where messages and comments from different networks and messengers are collected and answered. Social listening Social listening is tracking public conversations about your brand, competitors and topics, and turning insights into action. Social media analytics Social media analytics is collecting and reading data on your accounts and posts to understand what works and decide what to do next. Social proof Social proof is evidence that other people use and like your business, such as reviews, customer photos, ratings and counts of buyers. Social selling Social selling is finding and building relationships with potential customers on social networks before making an offer. Social SEO Social SEO is optimising profiles and posts so they appear in the search of social networks such as TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. Stories Stories are full-screen vertical photos or videos that disappear after 24 hours, unless saved to highlights.

Targeting Targeting is choosing who sees your ad or message, by location, age, interests, behaviour or previous contact with your brand. Telegram bot A Telegram bot is an automated account in Telegram that talks to users, sends content, takes orders, accepts payments and more. Telegram channel A Telegram channel is a one-to-many broadcast feed in Telegram where the owner publishes posts to an unlimited number of subscribers. Telegram Mini App A Telegram Mini App is a web app that opens inside Telegram, for example a store, booking form or editor, without installing anything. Tone of voice Tone of voice is how your brand adjusts its manner of speaking to a specific situation, channel or audience. Trigger A trigger is the event that automatically starts an automation, such as a new message, a keyword, a subscription or an order.

UGC (user-generated content) UGC is content about your brand created by customers or fans, such as photos, videos, reviews and posts. UTM parameters UTM parameters are tags added to a link that tell your web analytics where a visitor came from: network, campaign and post.

Vanity metrics Vanity metrics are numbers that look impressive, like follower count or likes, but say little about business results on their own. Viral content Viral content spreads quickly because many people share it, reaching far beyond the account's usual audience.

Watch time Watch time is the total time viewers spent watching your video; together with retention, it shows how well the video holds attention. Web push notifications Web push notifications are short messages a website sends to subscribers' browsers on desktop or mobile, even when the site is closed. WhatsApp broadcast A WhatsApp broadcast is a message sent to many contacts at once, each receiving it as a personal chat, not as a group message.

YouTube Shorts YouTube Shorts are short vertical videos on YouTube, shown in a separate swipeable feed and on the channel page.