Social Media Buying Guide
Glossary
Social Media
Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video. Technologies include blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, crowdsourcing and voice-over IP, to name a few. Examples of social media applications are Google Groups (reference, social networking), Wikipedia (reference), MySpace (social networking), Facebook (social networking), Youmeo (social network aggregation), Last.fm (personal music), YouTube (social networking and video sharing) Second Life (virtual reality), Flickr (photo sharing), and Twitter (social networking and microblogging).
Web 2.0
The term "Web 2.0" describes the changing trends in the use of Internet technology and design that aim to enhance creativity, communications, secure information sharing, collaboration and functionality on the Web.
Web 2.0 also connotes the enhanced interconnectivity and interactivity of content on the Internet. In business terms, Web 2.0 reflects a movement toward leveraging the evolving strengths of the Internet, including its use as a flexible platform.
Forum
An online community Forum is the modern equivalent of a traditional bulletin board, and a technological evolution of the dialup bulletin board system from the early days of the Internet.
A forum consists of a tree like directory structure containing at the lowest end topics (commonly called threads) and inside them posts. Logically forums are organized into a finite set of generic topics (usually with one main topic) driven and updated by a group known as members, and governed by a group known as moderators.
Blog
A “Blog” is a contraction of the term Web Log. A blog implies regular entries and frequent updates usually focused on a singular subject. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web Pages and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.
RSS
RSS(Really Simple Syndication) is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship.
Web feeds benefit publishers (and communities who aggregate them) by establishing a system for automatic syndication of the feeds. With RSS in place in a social community, readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites can organize the feeds one place, however they wish.
Aggregator
In computing, a feed aggregator, also known as a feed reader, news reader or simply aggregator, is client software or a Web application which aggregates syndicated web content (RSS feeds) in the form of news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and vlogs in a single location for easy viewing.
Social Networking
Social Networking is the assembly, or coming together of individuals in specific groups or communities. Although social networking is possible in person, especially in schools or in the workplace, it is most popular online. This is because the Internet is filled with millions of individuals who are looking to meet other internet users to develop friendships and business relationships.
Depending on the website in question, many of these online community members share a common interest such as hobbies, religion, or politics.
So, members make like-minded friends, and easily share ideas, information and visual content.
Profiling
Members of online communities can create individual user profiles, including vanity pages and URLs, to establish their presence within the community. Members can also personalize, edit and manage their profiles. Profiles are the core element of the online community, setting the stage for interaction and friending.
In a Profile, members can share as much (or as little) information as they wish. Along with a brief biography, a member can reveal his or her birthday, marital status, education, occupation, geography, hobbies, preferences in music/film, plus a virtually unlimited list of additional topics.
Profiling links make it easy for people to discover, connect and engage with other members.
API
Application Programming Interface is programming code exposed to the outside world to give other developers outside your application or organization the ability to more easily interact with your software. Language-independent APIs are written in a way that means they can be called from several programming languages. This is a desired feature for a service-style API which is not bound to a particular process or system and is available as a remote procedure call.
For example, online social communities utilize APIs to support features such as Remote Commenting and Single Sign-On.
SSO
Single Sign-On is a method of access control that enables a user to log in once and gain access to multiple Internet sites without being prompted to log in again. A community developer who offers SSO uses centralized authentication for authentication purposes, and combines this with techniques to ensure that users do not actively have to enter their credentials more than once.
SSO helps eliminate user “password fatigue,” saving visitors the time and bother of re-entering passwords for the same identity.
Targeted Marketing
Because online communities are very focused by subject matter or geography, they lend themselves well to intense targeted marketing of a well-defined audience. This concentrated promotion is a cost-effective way to saturate a market niche, helping community owners maximize reach, reducing CPM rates while significantly elevating brand awareness.
Monetization
Monetization involves engaging an audience with dynamic social media activities, thereby ramping up website traffic, significantly increasing page views and length of visits. Adding social functions to a site can generate greater revenues from advertising and third-party sponsorships. For nonprofit organization, this can result in greatly enhanced fundraising efforts.
Static Content
Static Content refers to the old web site model where visitor interactivity is at a minimum and options for connecting with other users are missing or minimal. Static Content implies a passive experience, giving one fewer reasons to return frequently.
Dynamic Content
Dynamic Content is at the core of the social media experience on the web. Clickable, easily-accessible content modules give members many engaging ways to express an opinion, share information, connect with other members, create a community group. post an event, upload photos and videos and much more.
UGC
User Generated Content (UGC), refers to various kinds of media content, publicly available, that are produced by end-users. In a community infused with social media tools, members have the opportunity to create a compelling profile, contribute to blogs, comment on a blog or article, upload photos and videos, establish a Group, post an Event, and more. These positive activities encourage collaboration, skill-building and discovery.
Often UGC is partially or totally monitored by website administrators to avoid offensive content or language, copyright infringement issues, or simply to determine if the content posted is relevant to the site's general theme.
CPMs
CPM is frequently used in advertising to represent cost per thousand (where M is the roman numeral of 1000). When used in online advertising it relates to the cost per thousand page impressions. The primary point is that a social media community is the definitive way to drive page impressions online, especially compared to a legacy-style, static-content web site.
SaaS
Software as a Service (SaaS, typically pronounced 'sass') is a model of software deployment where an application is hosted as a service provided to customers across the Internet. By eliminating the need to install and run the application on the customer's own servers, SaaS alleviates the customer's burden of software maintenance, ongoing operation, and support.
As a term, SaaS is generally associated with business software and is typically thought of as a low-cost way for businesses to obtain the same benefits of commercially licensed, internally operated software without the associated complexity and high initial cost.
