Frontline Perspectives

Most people know these terms as if they’ve existed for decades. But a review of the basics never hurts — whether you just need a refresher or are just getting started in social media.

• Facebook
  • Profile — A user’s home page. Includes basic contact information, and the user’s wall, photos, status updates and friends.
  • Wall — A stream of comments from a user and his or her friends. It can also include chains of comments based off of a status update or wall post.
  • Post – A wall post is a public message from one user to another on their wall.  A user may also post on their own wall but this is referred to as a status update.
  • Status updates — A post the user writes, typically a timely update that displays on the user’s wall, as well as on their newsfeed and the newsfeed of friends.
  • Newsfeed — Facebook’s home page, with a constant, current stream of content from based on the user, the user’s friends, groups, and fan pages
  • Like — An action that displays as a “thumbs up.” You can “like” friends’ status updates, photos, videos or wall postings, as well as businesses and campaigns.
  • Fan page — Similar to a user profile, for businesses or associations. These pages allow customization as well as the basics: a wall, and photos / videos. However, you can also create discussions and / or landing pages, message your fans, promote your page with Facebook ads and view basic analytics based on your page.
  • Group —A collection of users, similar to a fan page but not an official page of a business or association. Typically less formal, a group may consist of friends, teams, etc., who share updates, photos and videos. One benefit of creating a group is the option for privacy settings that allow only group members to view content.
  • Tag — Allows one user to link a photo or comment to another user. Typically used for photos, tags can also be used in status updates, videos or notes.
  • Updates — Different from status updates, updates are messages from fan pages or groups that the user is a part of. These messages are separated within the user’s personal inbox of messages but are a great way for businesses and associations to promote events or announcements.

• Twitter
  • Tweet — A 140-character message from a user to the Twitter community, often including a hyperlink that is posted on the user’s profile, as well as the homepage, with a stream of tweets the user is following.
  • Mentions — Tweets that mention you or are in reply to you, designated with the “@” sign before your username.
  • Followers — Users who opted in to viewing your tweets.
  • Following — Users whose tweets the user would like to view.
  • Profile — A collection of one users’ tweets, with the newest at the top.
  • Retweets — Resending another user’s tweet to your users.
  • Hash tags – — Adding a “#” or hash tag into a tweet then marks that tweet with the keyword following it, allowing users to search by keywords. It also allows for more flexibility than the 140-character limit typically allows.

• LinkedIn
  • Home — Overview page including network activity or a constant stream of updates, as well as a list of other possible connections and key statistics, such as the number of people in your network.
  • Connections — Other users you have linked to and are now a part of your network.
  • Profile — A user’s page that includes contact information, employment history, social media links and recommendations.
  • Recommendations — A post written on your behalf, by another user who is typically a former employer or colleague.
  • Groups — Collection of users with common interests. These allow for Companies — Profile pages for companies, which include links to current and previous employees, as well as contact information, job listings and company demographics.
  • Following — Users select companies they’d like to see information on, via their home page network activity.

Hopefully, this glossary will make it easier for you to navigate the ever-changing world of social media. Look for references to these key terms in our blogs as we discuss social media strategies and lead generation for B2B.