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May 20, 2011 - Shammam Consulting Services

Social media is something that exists in most of our lives, whether we like it or not. Unfortunately, many of us still have no clue what most of the terms surrounding social media mean. This simple guide can reduce some of that uncertainty by explaining some of the more common social media terms.

1. Tag

Tag is one of those words that may refer to quite a few different things, depending on how it’s used. Often, a tag refers to the use of a keyword in a blog or other post. These keywords help ensure that search engines relate your post to the relevant topics.

Tag might also be used in reference to tagging someone in, or linking someone to, photos. Facebook photo tagging now utilizes facial recognition software to help you tag friends in photos.

The newest form of tagging actually refers to mentioning friends in your posts and status updates. Now, if you tag them in your updates, they will be notified of your post and it will show up on their wall for all of their other friends to see.

2. Troll

A troll in this situation is a person that uses social media as a way to provoke people. Trolls often make taunting or offensive comments on pages or in groups in order to provoke anger.

3. Friend

While we all know what the traditional meaning of friend is, that’s often not the meaning applied to the word friend in the social media world. In social media, to friend someone simply means adding someone to your network.

4. Stream

This is another double-meaning word. Streaming something pertains to receiving a constant flow of information, such as a webcast. A stream is what most people call their Twitter or Facebook home pages, where all of the recent information and updates are posted.

5. At mention

At mentions, or @ mentions, are used on Twitter and they are really similar to Facebook’s new tagging system for status updates. This allows you to mention someone in your Tweet and notify him or her of your post.

Although social media terms can sometimes be tough to understand, they usually pertain to simple processes that can be easily recognized. If you’d like to see an even more in-depth guide to social media terms, take a look at this article.