As a digital marketer, we need to know the basic knowledge of social media types and terms. Different social media types have different users and purposes. Social media terms are varying and can be used in multiple social media. Below are the list of common social media types and terms that you need to know.
Types of Social Media
There are many kinds of social media. Each type fulfils a user’s online needs. Some social media may excel in media sharing. Others prioritize communication and socializing as its main feature. According to Hootsuite, there are 10 types of social media:
- Social networks (e.g., Facebook and Twitter). Social networks are some of the biggest social media in the current generation. People and organizations use social networks to connect with each other online. Social networks are the place for companies to conduct the majority of social media marketing, especially market research, brand awareness, and lead generation.
- Media sharing networks (e.g., YouTube and Instagram). Media sharing networks are used mainly to share media such as photos and videos. They also allow users to share live videos. Media sharing networks are useful for your social media marketing. They are great for customer engagement, brand awareness, and lead generation.
- Discussion forums (e.g., Reddit and Quora). Discussion forums are one of the oldest types of social media. It allows users to discuss topics online. In terms of social media marketing, discussion forums allows you to research your target market.
- Bookmarking and content curation networks (e.g., Pinterest). Content curation networks allow their users to discover, save, share, and discuss new and trending content and media. This can be useful for marketers to increase web traffic and customer engagement.
- Consumer review networks (e.g., Zomato and TripAdvisor). Consumer review networks are the kind of networks that allow their users to review services online. In a company’s point of view, consumer review networks establish a company’s social reputation.
- Blogging and publishing networks (e.g., WordPress and Tumblr). Blogs and publishing networks are the places where users share their writing. Blogging and publishing networks are used for content marketing, especially for startups.
- Interest-based networks (e.g., Goodreads). Interest-based networks are the gathering places of people with similar interests. These networks cater more to niches, such as books, movies, arts, etc. Interest-based networks are the best place for brand awareness building and customer engagement for a business focusing on a niche or two.
- Social shopping networks (e.g., Polyvore). Social shopping networks are a step up from ordinary shopping networks. These networks add social elements to shopping. It is a good place to build awareness and sell new products via new channels.
- Sharing economy networks (e.g., Uber and Airbnb). Sharing economy networks recently boomed as an emerging business model. It has two-way advantages between the networks and the business entering the networks. Companies can use these channels to generate leads and sales.
- Anonymous social networks (e.g., Ask.fm and Whisper). As the name implies, anonymous social networks are used to communicate anonymously. Unlike other types of networks, these networks do not have any value for your business.
Social Media Terms
Social Media Terms and Definition You Should Add to Your Vocabulary
Social media has a large number of terms. We’ve summarized the commonly used terms that are important for marketers to know:
- Algorithm – Algorithm is a set of digital formula intended to perform a certain function. Understanding algorithms in your intended platform can maximize its usage.
- Analytics – Analytics is the way you interpret data. Social media marketing employs analytics to understand metrics and using it to improve its business practices.
- Audience – Audience is the group of people that follows you online.
- Avatar – Avatar is the representation of a person online.
- Business-to-business (B2B) – B2B business is a type of business that sells products or services to other businesses.
- Business-to-consumers (B2C) – B2C business is a type of business that sells products or services to customers.
- Blog – Blog is an abbreviation of “weblog”. It is a collection of web pages with regular entries. The entries range from texts and stories to multimedia items.
- Brand awareness – Brand awareness is the level of consumer’s familiarity with your brand. It is one of the main goals of social media marketing.
- Clickbait – A clickbait is a sensationalized title of an article that exploits people’s curiosity. It is called “clickbait” because it is highly effective to bait people to click the article.
- Conversion rate (CVR) – Conversion rate deals is the percentage of users who see your post and do the desirable action.
- Engagement rate – Engagement rate is one of social media metrics that describes the interaction a content receives.
- Feed – Feed is a social media term that describes the stream of content from users.
- Follower – Follower is a term used in social media to describe people who subscribed to you and will constantly notified when you create or update something.
- Hashtag – A hashtag is an annotation for your message. In social media such as Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, a hashtag can be used by a content creator to categorize a content. This category can then be searched by other users.
- Like – A like is a sign of approval on a content in social media. Usually, there is a “like” button in every social media nowadays.
- Pay-per-click (PPC) – Pay-per-click is an online advertising model that pays the advertiser for every click the advertising gets.
- Retargeting – Retargeting is a form of online targeting advertising that targets on your existing contacts or visitors.
- RSS Feed – RSS feed is a family of web feed format that regularly update contents in a standardized form. People can subscribe to the feed and read them from website or through RSS readers.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Search engine optimization is a process to increase traffic on search engine.
- User-generatedcontent – User-generated content is a piece of content created by customers. This type of content can be collected by a company to support their campaign.
- Viral – Viral is an online term for a piece of content that has spread exponentially, usually in a short time.
Conclusion
Social media world is vast. There are still so many terms and types for you to learn. However, knowing these essential types and terms will increase your knowledge on social media marketing. This knowledge can be used to improve your business online.
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References
https://blog.hootsuite.com/types-of-social-media/