Monday, May 17, 2010

Social Media Marketing: Glossary & Branding Tools to Shine Online




It is no easy task keeping up with social media. This is an  ever-evolving world with new websites, technology and terms that appear  almost every day.


However, there are some words and phrases that will  always be useful.

Here is a short glossary we have put together. Read  it. Print it. Share it. Bookmark it. Of course, there are words we may  have omitted or overlooked. Please feel free to include them in the  comment section below.

Aggregation - The process of gathering and  remixing content from blogs and websites that provide RSS feeds.
Alerts  - Specific words, phrases or tags that search engines check and send to  you be email.
Badge - An image that is squared and displayed on a  blog that signifies a blogger's participation in an event or contest.
Blog  - A type of website that is usually maintained by an individual with  regular entries of commentary. The word is a contraction of the term  "web log."
Blogger - A person who writes and updates a blog. The  word "blogger" was first used for the name of a website that was  launched in 1999 by Pyra Labs.
Blog Post - Content that is  published on a blog. This may include pictures or embedded videos and  links.
Blogosphere - The totality of blogs and conversations on  the Internet.
Blogroll - A list of sites displayed in the sidebar  of blog, showing who the blogger reads regularly.
Bookmarking -  Saving the address of a website or item of content, either in your  brower, or on a social bookmarking site like del.icio.us.
Buzz -  or buzz marketing is a term that was formerly used in word-of-mouth  marketing and now is being used online. It describes the interaction  between consumers about a product or service that amplifies the original  marketing message.
Chat - Interaction on a web site with a number  of people adding text items one after the other into the same space.
Communities  - Groups of people communicating through the Internet.
Community  building - The process of recruiting a potential community or network  participants and helping them find shared interests and goals.
Content  - Text, pictures, video and any other meaningful material that is on  the Internet.
Content Management Systems (CMS) - Software  platforms that offer the ability to create and manage web pages, blogs,  wikis, and other tools.
Crowdsourcing - Harnessing the skills and  enthusiasm of those outside an organization so they may contribute  content and solve problems.
Facilitator - Someone who helps people  in an online group or forum manage their conversations.
Feeds -  The means by which you can read, view or listen to items from blogs and  other RSS-enabled sites without visiting the site.
Folksonomy -  While taxonomies are centralized ways to classify information - like  libraries - folksonomies are the way people or "folks" create less  structured ways of classifying information.
Forums - Discussion  areas on websites where people can post messages or comment on existing  messages.
Groups - Collections of individuals with some sense of  unity through their activities, interests or values.
Lurkers -  People who read but don't contribute or add comments to forums.
Mashups  - The mixies that "techies" do to combine several tools to create a new  web service.
Micro-blogging - A form of blogging where the  entries are limited to a certain amount of characters or words, like  Twitter.
Newsreader - A website or desktop tool that acts as an  aggregator, gathering content from blogs and similar sites using RSS  feeds so you can read the content in one place, instead of having to  visit different sites.
Open-source software - Any computer  software whose source code permits users to study, change, and improve  the software for free, and redistribute it in modified or unmodified  form.
Photosharing - Uploading your images and sharing them on a  website like Flickr.
Platform - A framework or system within where  tools or applications can work.
Podcast - Audio or video content  that can be downloaded automatically through a subscription to a website  so you can view or listen offline.
Post - An item on a blog or  forum.
Profiles - The information you provide about yourself when  you sign up for a social networking site.
RSS - This stands for  Really Simple Syndication.
Share - Offering people the use of your  text, images, video, bookmarks or other content.
Social media - The term for the tools and platforms people use to publish, converse and  share content online. These tools include blogs, wikis, podcasts, and  sites to share photos and bookmarks.
Social media marketing - The  term that describes the use of social networks, online communities,  blogs, wikis or any other online collaborative media for marketing,  sales, public relations and customer service.
Social networks -  Large websites 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, LinkedIn, MySpace, YouTube Flickr and  Twitter.
Subscribe - The process of adding an RSS feed to your  aggregator or newsreader.
Taxonomy - An organized way of  classifying content - as opposed to a folksonomy.
Threads -  Strands of conversation.
Tool - A software application for your  computer.
User generated content (UGC) - also known as  consumer-generated media (CGM) or user-created content (UCC) - The  various kinds of media content, publicly available, that are produced by  users.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) - Using a computer or  other Internet device for phone calls without additional charge,  including conference calls. The best-known VOIP tool is Skype.
Web  2.0 - A term that describes blogs, wikis, social networking sites and  other Internet-based services that emphasize collaboration and sharing.
Widgets  - Stand-alone applications that you can embed in other applications  like a website or a desktop.
Wiki - Web pages used to collect  content about a topic. Anyone with access to the pages can edit or  modify the information.
          

2010 Ministry Marketing Solutions - Social Media Services...                       

2010 Ministry Marketing Solutions - Social  Media Services Division! 4 weeks of PR/Social Media services reaching 100,000+ in  AACM




You can find more definitions in "The Ultimate Internet  Marketing Guide" that appeared in an earlier Vesta Digital blog.Dan  Chambers http://www.vestadigital.com

Want help to get going?
Get The Social Media Kit
Click here