In teaching several social media classes at two local colleges, I’ve found that it’s best to define certain terms at the beginning. Class seems to go smoother when the audience/students know what you’re talking about. Haha, imagine that!
So below are a few resources with the various social media terms, if you want to catch yourself up. (You’re not going to find these terms with Webster…).
Social Media Dictionary by Biznet
Guest Pulse Dictionary of Social Media Terms
The Official Social Media & Mobile Glossary of 2010 – Top 20 Labels, Buzzwords to Describe Our Curious Stampede to the Social Media & Mobile Future
Blog – A website where entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
Crowdsourcing – Posing a question or problem to a large group of people to try to get to the best answer quickly. This can be very powerful but also can backfire.
Podcasting – A digital media file, or series of files, residing at a unique web feed address and distributed over the internet for playback on portable media players or computers. The term is a combination of “broadcast and “pod” referring to a container of some sort or the ubiquitous Apple Ipod.
RSS Feed – Really Simple Syndication. RSS is how your “social media inbox” (RSS reader) knows when something new gets posted to a blog/podcast/site that you follow.
Social Media – The tool set (including blogs) which everyone can use to publish content to the web. This can include audio, video, photos, text, files…just about anything. And these days, everyone is a content producer. (I consider “social media” the umbrella term, which includes social networking, blogging, podcasting, video, etc.)
Social Networking – A term for the tools and platforms people use to publish, converse and share content online. The tools include blogs, wikis, podcasts, and sites to share photos and bookmarks
User Generated Content – Any kind of web content created by the end user, from blog posts to video clips; also known as consumer generated media. User generated content is a central component and key aspect of Web 2.0. It includes everything from blogs to free, amateur digital videos on sharing sites like YouTube or Google. Example: http://www.youtube.com
Vlog – Rather than a blog, which consists of text-filled posts displayed in reverse chronological order, a vlog consists of digital video posts, most often of the v-logger speaking into a Web cam or camera and creating two- to five-minute video vignettes and displayed in reverse chronological order. Example: http://askaninja.com
Wiki – Providing community-edited information, a wikipedia can be likened to an open-source online encyclopedia. Example: http://www.wikipedia.org
Buzzworthy Posts 