Social media is something people in todays society might describe as a “necessity” and on some levels, they might be right. Businesses are now catching on to this Facebook/Twitter/Social Media trend and it seems to be around every corner. Society is constantly using it to interact with the world around them and, in a way, document their lives. You hear words like ‘Hashtag,’ ‘Tweet,’ and ‘Post’ everywhere- so much so that there should be a language titled “Social Media.”
Many savvy techies already speak this language, as do teenagers and twenty-something’s, but for those that have been around since before popular gadgets started with an “i” it is a hard language to learn.
This will be a sort of “Intro to Social Media- the language.” It will decode words associated with Social Media and decipher their truly fascinating meaning.
Twitter: A social platform that enables users to send and read ‘tweets.’
• Tweet: A ‘status’ message, if you will, that has a limit of 140 characters.
• Reply: If you wish to answer a tweet, simply click the green arrow to answer, or ‘reply’ to them.
• Favorite: If you really like someone’s tweet, click the star icon to “Favorite” it.
• Mention: Symbolized by the “@” symbol, a mention allows you to tag people in your tweet and vice-versa.
• ReTweet: If you wish to re-post someone’s tweet, click the “ReTweet” symbol.
• Hashtag: Allows you to group posts together by topic or word choice, prefixed with the “#” sign.
• Follower/Following: If you wish to be someone’s ‘friend’ on Twitter you can ‘follow’ them and see all tweets they post.
• Post: This can be in any form (picture, Link, video, text) and is a way of communicating with friends. It will show up on your timeline as well as friend’s News Feed’s.
• Timeline: Shows all Facebook updates and activities in reverse chronological order.
• Tag: To mention someone in you post, you can tag them by inserting the “@” symbol before their name. You can also tag people in pictures or comments.
• Like: You can “like” anything on Facebook by clicking the thumbs-up icon on the screen. (This can be Company pages, Pictures, posts, statuses, etc.) After liking, the action will show up on your Wall.
• Wall: Area where you and your friends can post updates.
Although these are not all terms associated with Social Media (that would take many more pages) it is a great intro to the language. Social Media is constantly changing as is everything in today’s world and it is key to have a basic understanding of each platform not only for pesonal use but professional as well.
We hope this post helps with your understanding of Social Media and that you feel more secure in using it!
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