When it comes to marketing, things are always changing. As new processes are put into place, and new technologies emerge, slang terms-or, jargon-come with it. In this blog post, I’m going to define those new terms, so that you can get back to working efficiently.
Social Media
With the rise in popularity of social media, so comes the increase in the terms used on it. Let’s go over a few slang words and phrases commonly used on social media, and in social media marketing.
Hashtags: a word or phrase prefixed by the # symbol. When added to the description of a post on social media, a hashtag essentially marks that post as associated with the topic it is hashtagged with. For example, any post with #coffee is discoverable by people searching for that particular hashtag.
Engagement: when people say “engagement” in terms of social media, they’re most likely not discussing a recent proposal. Engagement refers to any interaction that a lead has with a business or account. This can come in the form of a like, a comment, or filling out a form.
Clickbait: this occurs when someone titles their post in a way that draws traffic, often through shock. The title will not necessarily be untrue, but the assumption made by people when they read the title will not match the content of the video itself. An example of this would be if someone titled a video “painting my entire house in 1 hour”, with the content of the video being them painting a doll’s house.
DM/direct message: a message that someone can send privately, straight to your account.
Follower: someone that follows your content, and had it populate their feed.
Geotag: much like a hashtag, a geotag is when you can add a location to a post. The post is then discoverable through its geotag. For example, all posts with the geotag “#London” will come up in the same search for that tag.
Tag: either a hashtag or a geotag; something that associates a post with a particular topic, for which it is discoverable by.
Paid Media
Dark Post: this is another way of describing paid media advertising. These are ads that are targeted to a specific audience
Facebook Pixel: A line of code that is added both to the backend of your website, and to your Facebook Ads manager account. This allows you to create remarketing and lookalike audiences to target; ie., those that have already visited your website or performed a specific action (wherever you add the pixel)
A/B Test: This is a way to determine which kind of post speaks best to your audience. An A/B test is running two campaigns at once, with the same content, but with one thing different to see which performs better. For example, you might run an ad for wearing a mask at your shop, with one on a blue background and one on white. Then, once the campaign has run its course, you can determine which performed best, and which colour to use in the future.
PPC: Pay Per Click. A paid media advertising campaign in which you pay per each click the ad receives.
CPC: Cost per click. How much the paid media advertising campaign in which you pay per each click on the ad, costs.
CPL: Cost per lead. How much each lead gained from the paid media advertising campaign costs.
CPM: Cost per 1000 impressions on Facebook
Remarketing: targeting past visitors of your website
Lookalike Audience: targeting an audience that resembles another
Search VS Display Campaigns: On Google Ads, a search campaign involves targeting the keywords your audience is searching-these are the ads that come up at the top of a Google page. Display ad campaigns involve a graphic, and are targeted to certain platforms
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO can seem a little daunting at first. It’s full of technical terms and in-the-know knowledge that isn’t often intuitive. I’ve broken down a few of the most common SEO terms below. For a tips on the Dos and Don’ts of SEO for beginners, check out my blog post, here.
Link Building: The process of reaching out to desired prospects, and asking them to link back to your website
Traffic: The amount of people visiting your website
Backlinks: The links that other websites are using to link back to you
Black Hat: SEO practices that are untoward or illegal, such as buying links
Audit: The process of looking into the backend of a website and identifying any gaps or issues that need to be fixed or improved
Ranking: The ranking, or credibility, that the search engine give your website. The higher your ranking, the closer to the top of the search page you will be for certain keywords.
Domain Authority: This refers to your website’s credibility, in the eyes of the search engine
Keywords: words or phrases that relate to a particular topic, and will associate your content with that topic. Keywords work in a similar way to hashtags.
Meta Descriptions: the description of a content piece or webpage using keywords that the search engine can read, and associate your material with
Metatags: the tags of a content piece or webpage using keywords that the search engine can read, and associate your material with
Alt Text: keywords associated with images that the search engine can read, and associate your material with
Title Tags: How you title your landing pages, using keywords that the search engine can read, and associate your material with
General Terms
Blogging: Written articles about certain topics; often used for educational purposes
Copy: the “words”, or content used (can be in a blog, a social media post, an email, etc).
Campaign: A process of promoting your product or service on various mediums and media.
Funnel: The journey that a buyer goes through. A customer can be defined as TOPFU (Top of Funnel, or a new lead in the awareness stage), MOFU (Middle of Funnel, or in the consideration stage), or BOFU (Bottom of Funnel, or in the conversion stage).
CTR: Click-Through-Rate. This is the rate at which your audience is actually clicking through to your website
Bounce Rate: The rate at which your audience is exiting your page/how long they stay on that page for.
Audience: Your target market, or potential customers
Conversion Rate: The rate at which your customers are converting, or paying for your services