Social Media Cheat Sheet for the Digital Age

If there is ever a divide between digital marketers and the common CEO, it has to be about terminology. We in the industry love our buzzwords and the overall sense of creating the future, one new word at a time. So enjoy this cheat sheet with the caveat that it is intended to be exhaustive. These are common questions I get when presenting the Alchemy of Business, Life and Technology all over North America. Here’s a cheat sheet for the digital age:

@ (“At” Sign)

Simply the beginning of someone’s twitter name. Adding “@CESSON” within the 140 characters of a tweet means that the tweet is in reference or response to our agency CESSON 3.0.

(The) Cloud

A network of servers. Some provide an online service, like Instagram, and others allow you to store and access data, like Dropbox. For example, when you take a picture on your smartphone, it is stored on your phone’s internal memory drive, which has limited storage space. However, when you upload the photos to Facebook, you are uploading it to a cloud with much more space.

# (Hashtag)

Hashtag was created by Twitter users as a way to categorize their tweets. Think of it as the subject line of an email within the content of message. It is now universally used as a way to unify Social Media content over many sites (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest) for maximum trending opportunities. #Anyonecanmakeahastag, there are no rules.

Freemium

A pricing strategy, typically a digital offering such as software, media, games or web service is provided free of charge, but money (premium) is charged for advanced features, functionality, or virtual goods. This is a great offer to seek when you are not sure if a web service would fit your company needs.

Instagram

An online photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service that enables you to take pictures and videos, apply digital filters to them, and share them with the world. A distinctive feature is that it confines photos to a square shape, in contrast to the 16:9 aspect ratio now typically used by mobile device cameras.

Pinterest

A pinboard-style, photo-based sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections. Users can browse other pinboards for images, “re-pin” images to their own pinboards, or “like” photos. Information is shared as well, like cooking recipes, DIY (do-it-yourself) artistic and functional creations, and articles, for example.

Selfie

A term for self-portrait photo. Pictures are usually casual, taken either with a camera held at arm’s length or in a mirror, and typically include either only the photographer or the photographer with as many people as can be in focus.  Here is a great example: Selfies of 2013 Compilation by The Guardian.

Trending

When a topic is becoming popular on a news or social networking website.

Vine

Vine is a video-sharing app that requires users to take up to six seconds of video recording with their phone. When the recording is completed and saved it loops repetitively to the humor of other viewers. There are many great examples of funny Vine videos.

As a bonus, I am introducing a word that might be a staple of 2014, “Glasshole”. As you probably heard, Google will release its wearable tech Google Glass to the public this year. The ability to access the web, record videos and more from eyeglasses opens the doors of many possibilities, including being the Mr./Ms. know-it-all, or even worse, record formerly private moments and instantly post on the web. As in, “c’mon, don’t be a Glasshole!”

About Author
Philippe Cesson is CEO of CESSON 3.0, a marketing and training company based in California, with offices in San Diego, New York City and Miami. Cesson’s speciality is helping companies succeed in social media, bridging the generational divide and “Navigating the New Normal.” Visit our site at https://www.cesson.com

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