The ABCs of Social Media Terms, 2012 UNSMC

Introduction

Here are some humorous definitions of Social Media dating to 2010

Source  Jackson Wightman dot com

Google “social media” and the Wikipedia entry comes up first.

It says social media:

“are media for social interaction using highly accessible and scalable pubishing techniques. Social media uses web-based technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogues.”

But Wikipedia is wrong. Here are 9 ‘awesome’ definitions of social media:

1. The group of web based things that saved the PR profession from going the way of dinosaurs
2. The group of web based things that brought loads of losers out of their moms’ basements and turned them into internet superstars.
3. A much hyped marketing channel who’s overall performance is still dubious, due to the difficulty in measuring its impact on the bottom line with any degree of rigor.
4. The ‘next’ version of email marketing (remember how hyped that was).
5. The collection of web based things that killed society’s attention span.
6. A misunderstood group of tools that are driving Fortune 500 executives crazy.
7. A marketing channel where ‘awesome’ is the most used word.
8. Scary s%$#, because you have to keep feeding the beast.
9. The thing that kept Ashton Kutcher relevant after that @#$$ retro show ended.

Source – Jackson Wightman dot com

Class Project, UNSMC June 2012

At the 2012 Social Media Class at the UN, one of my projects was to develop an “alphabet soup” of the terms used and presented during and outside the class.

Here they are:

Implicit in the term Social Media is the impetus to show and tell in your own voice whatever you would like to let others know and do; where action can be driven by you or by others.  Different platforms facilitate that action and call for use of different applications. The main idea is to attract others to your content; social media platforms facilitate this attraction.

A  – Activity, Application, Attract

Application software, also known as an application or an app, is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks.  Attract others to what you are up to online.

B – Backlash, Blog, Brand, Buzz

Expect Backlash should company rules/guidelines not be set or ignored;  Buzz is an outcome of social media, whether positive or negative; can have company or individual consequences (or both); Brands can be developed.managed, protected with Social Media (as well as have overnight success, or be ruined overnight)  Blog – web log (noun or verb) – To Blog; A Blog is a discussion or information published on a site on the World Wide Web (www). It consists of entries/posts. Blogs have evolved from being written by one person (a blogger) to groups or many authors.  Blogs are supported and integrated into mainstream by the rise of Twitter and other ‘micro-blogging’ systems. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

C – Curate/Content/Campaign, Client/Community, Culture, Communicate/Comment, Characters, Click

The essence  of social media – content is curated (managed) with focused campaigns on different topics or trends; clients and communities are developed and served with content, as well as giving their opinions and leaving feedback as they communicate and comment on the content presented; Characters – statistics defining posts; a replacement on Social Media for words in text – e.g. Twitter posts are counted in characters (140) and not in words; Click – an action without which there is no web activity

D – Discover, Define, Delete

Social Media according to entity’s culture in which borders, limits are defined (company, individual) and discovered; Delete – Action-oriented word which should not be ignored or forgotten (can have a relationship with Backlash above) – See Definitions below (after Z)

E – Engage 

Audience, clients

F – Facebook, Fan Page/Fans, Follow/Following/Friends, 

Facebook community can be personal or business driven; Fan Pages as well;  Follow  is  an action step in Social Media;  the reverse is Following – though not all who follow obtain followers and those who are followed do not necessarily return the favor.  One needs to Find (time, human/financial resources) to actively engage in Social Media activities; Friends/Fans  (essential to Social Media)

G – Google (important for search, location, tracking…); Google+ (a Social Media platform); Glogger (educational platform)

H – #Hash Tag; http

# symbol, called a hashtag, created by Twitter – is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet, and to categorize messages. http: hyper text transfer/transport protocol , sine qua non to linkinages and defining URLs  are uniform/universal resource locator – these two terms http and url have revolutionized the world giving way to the World Wide Web.

I – Invest time; Integrate

Social Media leads to time-scarcity among its users; platforms Integrate and collaborate with each other

J – Just Do It!

Nike is right! Social Media is here to stay, age, gender, ethnicity, location notwithstanding

K – Klout

Social Media knowledge/expertise gives you Klout, makes you influential in different topics. Klout Scores go up to 100 – the higher the score, the more valuable the perk. Klout Score at times considered by recruiters

L – LIKE, LinkedIn, Links, ..li, ..ly

Ubiquitous word on social media platforms; LinkedIn is a business Social Media platform; Links  make the web interactive and underlies its connectivity (hyperlinks)  the sine qua non for connecting, exploring on the World Wide Web.

..li (a Chinese measure of distance) now seems to be a recognized suffix (paper.li – individual or company newspaper which rounds up posts,content,shares, etc in your area of interest;

..ly definition evolving –  increasingly used as in bit_ly a shortening URL which became in vogue given the need to summarize and reduce content into characters

M – MEME, Mashable, Meet-up; Micro-blogging, Mobile

An Internet meme is an idea that is propagated (virally) through the World Wide Web. The idea may take the form of a hyperlink, video, picture, website, hashtag, or just a word or phrase, such as intentionally misspelling the word “more” as “moar” or “the” as “teh”. The meme may spread from person to person via social networks, blogs, direct email, news sources, or other web-based services. Mashable is one of the most up-to-date newswire on Social Media, Technology, etc; Meet-up Where like minds gather and network; Microblogging – Character-influenced blogs like Twitter (each tweet has no more than 140 characters); Mobile –Applications (apps) facilitate use of different platforms from different locations

N – Network

Technological and social; imperative for the functioning of Social Media

O – OOOPPSS!!!

An expression TO AVOID in curating and posting content, correlates with all of the above and below

P – POST, Pinterest, Prezi, Privacy

Post is similar to LIKE – another omnipresent word and act; Pinterest –another social platform; Prezi – another software/platform used for presentations and webinars; Privacy is key factor in online participation and the decision of choice of platform to participate

Q –  Quora, Quick

Quora is Another Social Media platform; Never be QUICK to post without examining/considering what can happen on the other side

R – REPLY, Response

similar to LIKE, POST – another omnipresent action to take

S – SEND, SHARE, Skype

Necessary actions for content flow in and around and to other platforms; SKYPE -influences the way we communicate around the world from the computer

T – Twitter, Tumblr, Traffic, Teleconferencing,

Twitter is a Social Media platform (microblogs), where 140 words or less can make or break a tweeter; Tumblr is a blog hosting platform; Traffic shows influence and popularity; Teleconferencing – A means of talking online in conference calls, seminars;

U – UNSMC; Unlike, Unfriend, 

Twitter #hashtag for Social Media Class at the United Nations #UNSMC; UNLIKE –A way to exercise control on what is read or posted on the internet; Unfriend –To delete someone on your list of friends

V – Visit, Viral

Visit – Act of going to different platforms, websites, mobility on the internet; Viral – Rapid spread of information

W- Webinars

Online presentations on different subjects

X – Xfactor

Intrinsic in each agency which must be teased out and understood

Y – Yammer, YouTube  

Yammer – a social network; YouTube – Dominates video management on the internet

Z=Zeitgeist????

Others welcome…

Muriel Glasgow,MPH

June 2012

UN Social Media Class Project, Draft 2