Social Media Vocabulary: List of Definitions to Know

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Have you ever come across words or acronyms you are not familiar with while surfing on the internet? Have you seen people talking about trolls, clickbait or memes and probably did not make head nor tail of it? You are certainly not alone in this case.

We all know it’s a real pain in the neck to see words or expressions online which we just can’t get our heads around, especially since online terminology seems to go through an unending change.

So, here’s an alphabetically sorted list of words (terms, phrases and acronyms) and their definitions that we came up with to help you get a grasp of it all.

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Whether you wish to take the IELTS, TOEIC, TOEFL, CAE, FCE, BRIDGE, BULATS (Linguaskill) or even the BRIGHT ENGLISH, you need to enhance your English vocabulary in order to prepare for your test and to improve your overall English level. We have have made a long list of vocabulary worksheets:

Social Media Vocabulary: List of Top Terms To Know

Here is the list of words to memorize and practice outloud:

Audience

The group of people who can see the content you share online are called your audience. This includes your followers who can like, comment, or share your content. Your online audience is the group of people who are most likely to buy or use your products or services.

Backup

Backup is the storage of your virtual files and data in another location so as to preserve them in case of technical failure or malfunction. This can help you recover your documents or free storage space from your device.

Browsing

Browsing is the time you spend searching for particular information on the World Wide Web. When using your web browser such as Google Chrome or Firefox, you can search anything you need on the internet.

Clickbait

In social media content, creators can use specific words or pictures to attract the users’ attention and prompt them into clicking on their links. Clickbait is very often used in social networks like YouTube where the number of views increases because of the title given to a video. This may be positive for your channel, but since clickbait is usually deceptive, using it excessively can make you lose popularity.

Content

The information, products, videos, and all the data you share on your social networks are your content. Online content is created for different purposes, including the establishment of brand awareness and the sharing of educational or informational data. In both cases, it is often created to sell or promote products and services.

Crashing

This occurs when a software application or any other computer program fails to function properly and stops. The seriousness of a crash depends on the status of the operating program. If it is a key part of the system, it may result in the crash of the entire system, often causing a fatal error.

DIY websites

DIY stands for Do It Yourself. DIY websites create content for the purpose of helping people to do things on their own. This mainly includes assembling furniture, fixing household appliances, or creating your own custom decorations.

Database

Any organized information controlled by a management system in a computer is considered a database. A typical company database may comprise tables of a set of information on products, employees, and other records.

E-commerce

This term is used to refer to the electronic buying and selling of products and services. It also includes the financial transactions and the transfer of data. E-commerce has many models, for example, consumer to consumer (C2C), when goods or services are sold to another consumer, or consumer to business (C2B), when a person sells goods to a business organization.

Feed

Your feed, or your news feed, is the continuously updated page you see on a social media website. Content is renewed automatically every time you refresh your feed without human interference.

Filtering

Online filtering refers to the blocking of unwanted content on the web. This can be in the form of pop-up ads, viruses, specific websites, or unwanted file downloads. Filtering allows you to have control over the data that is displayed on your screen.

Follower

A follower is a person who can see the content you share on your social medium. Once the content is shared, he or she will be able to react to your social media posts which are most likely to appear on their feed.

GIF

A GIF, short for Graphics Interchange Format, is a concept developed by a computer scientist in which animations are shown for a few seconds. GIFs are frequently used in chat rooms and comments. If you are angry, why not use the famous frowning baby face GIF and let people know exactly how you feel.

Hacking

Hacking refers to the unpermitted access to and control over a computer system, often for the purpose of stealing or destroying it. Malicious activity may be carried out if a hacker has access to your files or your internet data, such as the theft of your credit card details in case you’d purchased a product online.

ISP

ISP, which stands for Internet Service Provider, is a company that gives you access to the internet by the transfer of data into devices. Nowadays, ISPs also offer a wide range of services, such as TV and mobile phone subscriptions.

Inbox

When accessing your email account, your inbox holds the list of emails you received from other users. Inbox has also become a verb: if you wish to talk to your friends, you can now inbox them.

Likes

What used to be referred to as ‘favorite’ before is now called ‘likes.’ In social media marketing, likes are the reactions of users to content found online. Liking may help in increasing the popularity of a product or service.

Meme

Meme refers to the images, photos and videos, or texts shared on the internet to spread a specific idea, style, or behavior. Memes can circulate very quickly from user to user in social networks, blogs, and other platforms.

PV

PV is short for Page Views, which refers to the number of pages clicked on a website. PVs are used in web analytics to count the amount of times a page is loaded or reloaded during a given period of time.

Penetration rate

The percentage of internet users is referred to as internet penetration rate. The number of internet consumers has increased over the last decade and is projected to rise further by 2025.

Platform

An online platform is a website which promotes or sells products and services. Both buyers and sellers are connected through these platforms. A few examples of platforms are Amazon, eBay, Airbnb, etc.

Podcasting

Podcasting is based on posting digital audio content. It often lasts longer than one hour and may be listened to by other internet users through their computers or their MP3 players. Podcasting is becoming increasingly popular, and the speakers are sometimes video recorded, as well.

Post

Posts refer to the content you upload on the internet, including texts, videos, images, and audio files. To post data is to make it available for other users, who are given access to the content you share, to see it.

Reposting

Also called sharing, reposting is sending other users or sharing content originally posted by another user on your online accounts. Reposting is quite common on websites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Reviews

After experiencing a service or purchasing a product, you can leave a review to give your feedback on your experience. Reviews can help sellers to gain more popularity and sell more products.

SEO

SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization, and it is based on the work you do so as to increase the visibility of your website on search engines and make it appear among the first links. In order to do that, you have to work on the keywords you set for your website. The more relevant your keywords are, the more likely they will show up on the first search results.

Shortcut

Along with the basic use of a mouse or a touchpad, shortcuts are another way to operate your computer with. This consists of pressing on one or more keys (often at the same time) on your keyboard, in order to run a given task. For example, holding down the Ctrl key and the C key would copy a selected text.

Software

A software is a program operating on a computer or any electronic device. An example of software is Windows or PowerPoint. Each type of software functions differently and performs specific tasks.

How Can You Easily Master English Vocabulary Online?

Any specialized field has its own jargon and social media is no exception, especially since it’s constantly undergoing massive change.

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