Since our focus the past few weeks has been all things social media, I thought it might be helpful (and fun!) to end the month with a list of terms commonly found in our social media and other online circles. If you’re like me sometimes, just reading through some of today’s articles and postings is like trying to read a foreign language! Avatars and hashtags and tweets, oh my! Not to mention the acronyms! There’s an acronym for almost everything these days! LOL, right?

Here’s a quick list of some of today’s widely-used terms in social media and online in general. Of course, the key word here is today, because new ones are trending and going viral all the time!

To give kudos where kudos are due, the list below was compiled from a recent blog on the awesome social media site, HubSpot.com. To keep the list here brief, some of the descriptions have been shortened. You can find HubSpot’s full list in its entirety here.

• Avatar – An avatar is an image or username that represents a person online, most often within forums and social networks.
• Chat – Chat can refer to any kind of communication over the internet but traditionally refers to one-to-one communication through a text-based chat application, commonly referred to as instant messaging (IM) applications.
• Connections – The LinkedIn equivalent of a Facebook ‘friend’ is a ‘connection.’
• Fans – Fans is the term used to describe people who like your Facebook Page.
• Favorite – Represented by the small star icon on Twitter, favoriting a tweet signals to the creator that you liked their content or post.
• Follower – In a social media setting, a follower refers to a person who subscribes to your account in order to receive your updates.
• Friends – Friends is the term used on Facebook to represent the connections you make and the people you follow.
• Handle – Handle is the term used to describe someone’s @username on Twitter.
• Hashtag – A hashtag is a tag used on a variety of social networks as a way to annotate a message. A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by a “#” (i.e. #InboundMarketing).
• Like – A Like is an action that can be made by a Facebook or Instagram user.
• Meme – A meme on the internet is used to describe a thought, idea, joke, or concept that’s widely shared online. It is typically an image with text above and below it, but can also come in video and link form.
• Mention – A mention is a Twitter term used to describe an instance in which a user includes someone else’s @username in their tweet to attribute a piece of content or start a discussion.
• Recommendation – A recommendation on LinkedIn is a term used to describe a written note from another LinkedIn member that aims to reinforce the user’s professional credibility or expertise.
• Retweet – A retweet is when someone on Twitter sees your message and decides to re-share it with his or her followers.
• Tag – Tagging is a social media functionality commonly used on Facebook and Instagram that allows users to create a link back to the profile of the person shown in the picture or targeted by the update.

Here are just a few of the common acronyms you’re likely to see…

• Application Programming Interface (API) – An API is a documented interface that allows one software application to interact with another application.
• Direct Message– Direct messages — also referred to as “DMs” — are private conversations that occur on Twitter.
• Instant Messaging – Instant messaging (IM) is a form of real-time, direct text-based communication between two or more people.
• PPC – PPC is an acronym for pay per click. Pay per click is an online advertising model in which advertisers display ads on various websites or search engines and pay when a visitor clicks through.
• RSS Feed – RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blogs and videos in a standardized format.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Search engine optimization is the process of improving the volume or quality of unpaid traffic to a website from search engines.

And then, just for fun, here are a few common texting abbreviations that you often see…

• AAR – At Any Rate
• ADDY – Address
• BRB – Be Right Back
• BRT – Be Right There
• BW – Best Wishes
• CAAC – Cool As A Cucumber
• CM – Call Me
• COB – Close Of Business
• COL – Chuckle Out Loud
• DIY – Do It Yourself
• DK – Don’t Know
• IMO – In My Opinion
• IYSS – If You Say So
• IKR – I Know, Right?
• LOL – Laughing Out Loud or Lots Of Love

Now that you know some of the terms and fun shortcuts, you’ll be all CAAC the next time you Friend, Like, Connect, Link and Mention!

When talking about social media, most of us immediately think about the usual suspects…Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Some of us may go a bit farther down the list of 200+ social media sites and include Instagram, Google+ and Tumblr. All are great sites for connecting with your audience! But there’s another key platform that’s really making headway these days as a successful marketing strategy, and that’s online business forums.

Whether you join an existing forum, or create your own, an online business forum is a powerful way to connect with people in the same industry, as well as potential or existing clients. For coaches with group programs, establishing a private online forum is a convenient way for your coaching clients to connect and share, get questions answered and find support and encouragement as they go through their coaching program.

Just as with the other social networking platforms, there are many professional forum sites to choose from, such as ProBoards.com and Boardhost.com. If you’re interested in adding online business forums to your marketing strategy, here are a few guidelines to help you get started:

• Find the forums that are right for you. Just as with the other networking sites, you want to be where your audience is. Do your research, and ask your colleagues and peers where they hang out. You can also visit forum hub sites such as Board Reader and search for specific niche keywords.

• Read the fine print. While all user agreements will include the typical legalese, each site will have its own specific rules. You need to understand them and make sure they fit with your goals for selecting that forum.

• Create a reader-friendly username and avatar. Select a name and image that reflect your business, are easy to identify, remember and pronounce. Using your high school nickname and your dog’s image may be cool for you, but will it speak to others as an identifier of your business? In keeping with that, you’ll also want to make sure your profile clearly describes your expertise and business services. You can include a few bits of personal info like hobbies or favorite sports, but keep it brief.

• Be professional. Many forum users are respected experts and bloggers in the area of interest of that particular forum, so you’ll want to maintain a high level of professionalism as you engage with the other users. Remember, you’re using this forum ultimately as a marketing strategy, so be aware of the underlying message you’re sending as you post your messages to the group.

There are so many benefits to using online forums as part of your business marketing strategy. For more great tips and advice, I recommend this article at Inc.com.

If you need help with your marketing strategy for online business forums, we are here to assist you! Our Virtual Team works with extraordinary life and business coaches who are looking for a true business partner to bring their BIG ideas into tangible, clickable reality. Want to learn more?

Since my last blog offered you a few guidelines for incorporating social media into your marketing plan, I thought it only right that this week’s Cool Tool be something to help you stay on track with your efforts. After all, even if you find it fun and easy, managing your social media takes time, doesn’t it? I find that to be so true for me, and for many of my clients, too. So let’s see if I can simplify things for you a bit and show you how to use Hootsuite to help work your social media plan.

I have to say I was a bit blown away when I first learned that there are currently over 200 social media platforms out there to choose from. Imagine how I felt when I found out that there are just as many tools available for managing those platforms! Talk about mind-blowing! So how do you choose which one to use? First, decide on the criteria you need, and then do your research to see which one might best meet those needs. It’s also good to reach out to your colleagues and peers and see what they’re using.

Of course we can’t even begin to cover all of the tools out there, so let’s just take a quick look at one of the more popular ones—Hootsuite. Here are a few of the features that keeps Hootsuite at the top of the list when it comes to social media management.

• A broad range of apps (web-based, mobile and desktop) and add-ons (for Chrome and Firefox) makes it extremely versatile.
• You have the ability to save updates as templates, which reduces the amount of time spent preparing similar posts.
• Of course, you can schedule multiple updates in advance, and there’s a really nice feature called Autoschedule that will choose the time to release your posts in order to give them the best chance of being seen. This works well to help keep posts from appearing on all of your networks at the same time. How cool is that?
• You can shorten links, add images, files and even locations. That’s a huge help!
• You can set it up to receive an email notification when your updates post.
• There is a free version for up to 3 social network sites, which is great for small businesses or those just starting to create their social media presence.

Hootsuite takes a bit more time to set up than some of the other services, but it is such a robust system, it’s worth the effort for those who need or want all of the features it offers. And with the time you’ll save once you’re up and running, you’ll wish you had done it sooner.

And as always, if social media just isn’t your thing, partner with a virtual team that can handle it for you! Our Virtual Team works with extraordinary life and business coaches who are looking for a true business partner to bring their BIG ideas to into tangible, clickable reality. Want to learn more?