In searching for your new social media career, you should already be familiar with terms like ‘engagement’, ‘filter’ and ‘handle’. But would you be able to understand the everyday lingo of a social media marketer? What do these strange creatures talk about during their 9 to 5?
It’s time to find out! Here’s an inside look into some of the words people with a social media career use on a daily basis.
1. Alerts
An ‘alert’ refers to the notification you receive from a
social listening tool about
a certain topic that is gaining traction within your social coverage. These alerts tell you whether it’s going viral on social media or if it has been mentioned in the media.
Used in conversation: “Did you receive the alert about our ‘Blahdy Blah’ campaign? It’s going viral on Twitter! #Blessed”
2. Algorithms
‘Algorithms’ are the logical rules programmed into each and every social network that alters what users see on the platforms’ newsfeeds. It also filters the analytics so that the ranking system only shows you the most relevant or engaging posts based on the rule made for the platform.
You may have heard about
Facebook’s big News Feed change in early 2018 (and all the other algorithm changes that keep happening with the platform), which sent the whole world into a frenzy – well, that’s algorithms for you … and they’re important.
Used in conversation: “LinkedIn changed its algorithm so you can get more engagements on your posts! We may need to start posting more frequently.”
3. Analytics
‘Analytics’ are the metrics that show you how your posts are performing. They provide brands with insights on their posts’ engagement rate, impressions as well as the number of followers they gained over a certain period.
You can find basic metrics on platforms Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube, or use Google Analytics to find more in-depth analytics.
There are tools available that allow you to view
detailed analytics for Snapchat and Instagram, although you can view a summed up version on the apps’ business and insights pages.
Analytics are reviewed to gain insight into how a brand’s platforms are doing and to see where strategies can be revised and improved on.
Used in conversation: “Have you had a look at how much engagement the last Twitter post received? We might need to post about that topic again.”
4. Influencers
‘Influencers’ are people with large followings that are paid to showcase a brand’s products to their audience in order to make the brand’s content seem more relatable. The form of payment is not always money; they also occasionally receive free products or discounts from the brand.
It’s a very ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours’ kind of agreement.
Discussions surrounding influencers usually entails the analytics of the campaign they were involved in and how they are to be used in the next
social media marketing strategy.
Used in conversation: “We need to remember to share Famous Person’s blog post on our platform, they mentioned one of our products.”
5. Mentions
‘Mentions’ occur when a user’s @ ‘handle’ is tagged in a tweet on Twitter. The user who was mentioned then sees the post and has the option to respond, or retweet it.
People with a social media career get excited when their brand has been mentioned in a tweet –
especially when it is from a big personality or well-known company with many followers, as this means more traction to their social pages.
Used in conversation: “Hey, @mediaupdate mentioned us in a tweet. So cool!”
6. Monitoring
‘Monitoring’, or
social media monitoring, is the process of reading, watching or listening to your social posts on a continual basis in order to see how your brand is mentioned in the media.
Many brands invest in monitoring to keep track of their campaigns, marketing initiatives, competitors and the media industry as a whole.
On social media, this is done through various tools and methods, including social listening, sentiment analysis and benchmark reports.
Used in conversation: “Are we monitoring [insert competitor’s name here]? I’d like to see what they posted about this campaign.”
7. Scheduling
‘Scheduling’ refers to the social posts you will schedule for the day or week, depending on who you ask. It’s likely that companies have a tool they use to schedule their posts, like
Tweetdeck or
Buffer.
Posts are scheduled on a timely basis, and are usually decided on by the brand in accordance to the insights they received from their analytics – Did they receive more post engagement at 8am in the morning or 7pm at night?
Once they know when their posts are viewed and engaged with most frequently, they then create time slots and days for future posts to go out.
Used in conversation: “We need to schedule our posts between 8am and 3pm – it’s when they get the most engagement.”
8. Sentiment
‘Sentiment’ is the view, opinion, attitude or emotion expressed by an individual in the form of text and images. These expressions can be viewed as either positive, negative or neutral.
Many companies use AI-powered tools to do a sentiment analysis on users’ social media posts (and various other text and image formats such as emails and news articles) to reveal the users’ attitude of the topic they are addressing.
For example, if someone is posting about their experience at a theme park, they might tweet:
‘@GoldReefCity. What a blast!’
Through the process known as
machine learning and
natural language processing, this sentiment would be viewed as positive, as taught by the social scientist (who presumably taught the machine to process the word ‘blast’ as positive).
Used in conversion: “Hey, some big name brand shared our post on Facebook! What’s was the sentiment on the post?”
9. Social media audit
A ‘social media audit’ involves the compiling and analysing of a brand’s social media data. This is done in order to show the effectiveness of a social media strategy or campaign, allowing the brand to see what has and hasn’t worked.
It is up to your brand to decide how often you’d like to conduct an audit, although
media update advises that you do analytics weekly, and a detailed audit twice a year to see where your strategy can be improved on.
Used in conversation: “It’s social media audit time, everyone. Time to see where our social strategy
should be heading.”
10. Tagged
‘Tagged’ refers to the action of a user mentioning you in a post via your ‘@’ handle. Note that on Twitter, it is called being ‘mentioned’ or receiving a ‘mention’ done through the action of tagging someone. However, on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram, it just referred to as ‘tagging’.
To tag someone, a user will use the ‘@’ symbol followed by the name of the person or company they are trying to tag. Once the post has been sent out, the user that has been tagged will be notified.
Tagging is used to alert a company or individual to a post containing relevant information to them, to share news they may not have heard or to send a direct message. It’s also a great way for brands to engage with their audience and to keep conversations going.
Additionally, it’s the easiest way for brands to make themselves known to other media.
Want to catch a social media influencer? Start
tagging them in your posts!
Used in conversation: “Remember to tag [insert influencer’s name here] in the post so that they can share it on their platforms.”
*Image courtesy of Vecteezy