In a recent B2B newsletter article, e Commtouch marketing team leveraged its internal subject matter experts to create valuable content and grab the attention of traditional media and influential bloggers in its field. Read on for Commtouch’s Rebecca Steinberg Herson’s five actionable tactics for getting your content marketing material out into the wild.
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Which is better? 50 qualified social media followers, or 1,000 followers, many of whom will never buy from you? The answer may surprise you.

In social media, reach is of critical importance. It directly impacts how much your content and messages get shared, it increases your business’ ability to get found and generate leads, it can help extend your online footprint as a thought leader, and the list goes on. In other words, in an online world, social reach shouldn’t be a trivial factor for businesses leveraging inbound marketing. So, have you figured out what the right answer to our first question is yet? If the title of this article wasn’t enough of a hint, yes, more followers is always better.

It may seem obvious (more is always better….right?), but a lot of businesses fall into the trap of thinking fewer and more qualified is better. In this case, here’s why it’s not…

1. More followers means access to more followers’ followers.

This concept, albeit simple, is pivotal to understanding the overall importance of reach, so here goes. Think about it: Every one of your fans/followers also has his/her own followers, be it 5, 500, or 5,000. Let’s say that a follower who has 5,000 Twitter followers of his own shares one of your blog posts or retweets one of your tweets. Now, that content is getting exposed to 5,000 additional people who weren’t directly following you. If you can understand that every one of your fans/followers might share your content with their friends and followers, now you can start understanding the awesome impact of reach. So even if that original follower of yours never becomes a customer himself, that doesn’t mean one of his followers who saw your content because of him won’t. Now that’s some powerful stuff.

2. Influencers have, well, influence.

If you can build up a large following for your business in social media, you probably have a few influencers among the bunch. While these influencers may follow but never buy from you, remember that these people are called influencers for a reason. They can introduce you to co-marketing partnerships, put in a good word with investors, and provide introductions to other influencers, bloggers, and experts in your industry. For example, if you can solicit an introduction from an influencer to another industry blogger that you can contribute a guest blog post to, you’ll probably benefit from a couple of inbound links. That follower may not have contributed any direct revenue to your business, but those inbound links are very valuable.   

3. Followers who won’t ever buy can still refer your business.

Indirect exposure to your followers’ personal networks can be an invaluable source of business. Okay, so Frank the Facebook fan may never actually purchase your industrial vacuum cleaner for his teeny tiny small business office. But when his buddy, landlord Lenny, is searching for a new one for the apartment building he owns, Facebook fan Frank might just refer you some highly qualified business. Even if landlord Lenny isn’t the type to participate in social media himself, his good buddy Frank is. Need I say more?

4. Social shares impact SEO.

The impact social media is having on SEO is only increasing. Search engines are taking social cues like social media shares into account when they’re ranking your content, which means the more people you can get to share your content in social media, the better.

Let’s say you own a dog grooming business, and you and one of your competitors each wrote a blog article about how to take care of your dog’s coat in between visits to the groomer. But let’s also say your competitor has 10 times as many social media followers than you and his article got tweeted 50 times, generated 20 likes on Facebook, and got quite a few shares on LinkedIn and Google+, too. All of a sudden, your competitor has quite a leg up when it comes to getting his article ranked in search ahead of yours. In other words, because social shares are now one of the factors search engines take into consideration when ranking your content, it behooves you to build up your following and encourage those social shares. If you tweeted your article and you have 1,000 followers compared to your competitors’ 50 followers, you have a much better chance of generating social shares and a much better chance of ranking in search. Those people who shared your content may never become customers of your dog grooming business themselves, but someone who finds your article in search because of them might.

5. Your followers might surprise you.

If you’ve been doing your research and spending time developing buyer personas, you likely have a pretty solid grasp on who your ideal customers are. That’s all well and good, but if you have a very narrow-minded idea of who exactly will buy your products and services, you could actually miss out on a completely different set of people who might also buy from you.

To use a classic example, the makers of baking soda had a very specific use case in mind for their product: baking. But we all know that the uses for baking soda extend way beyond baking –  it can also be used to extinguish small electrical fires, for personal hygiene, and as a cleaning agent, to name a few. And you can bet that some people who buy baking soda never even use it for baking.

The lesson here is that building up a large following in social media could expose your brand and products to a group — or groups — of people you might never have thought would be interested in what you sell. Your product or service may not have completely different, original uses like baking soda does, but your followers could still surprise you. Just because a social media follower doesn’t fall neatly into one of your cookie cutter buyer personas, doesn’t necessarily mean he won’t buy from you.

Always Be Working to Build Social Reach

The ultimate takeaway here is this: just because followers may not directly turn into customers doesn’t mean they’re not valuable. Social media reach can be a powerful thing for any business, and the ones who understand this know that continuing to build reach is a smart social media tactic.

If building reach isn’t something you’re consciously doing, you may want to start working to attract more fans and followers for your social media accounts. In this article, we’ve got some great tips for building reach that can help get you going. Doing so can greatly increase the impact and ROI of your social media efforts. And if you’re having a tough time convincing your boss that building reach is important, share this article with them

In what ways are you working to regularly increase your business’ social reach?

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Complete Google Conversion University presentation by Stephanie Hsu. www.google.com

In preparation of Email Summit 2012, we had the chance to speak with Larry Dreves, founder and CEO, Janrain, about the social channel in more general terms, and to get his take on where it is heading and what marketers should be thinking about over the next six to 12 months. Here is what Larry had to say …
Marketingsherpa Blog

We have insight and advice from Loren McDonald, Vice President of Industry Relations, Silverpop, an email and marketing automation vendor. Social media marketing is an important channel for both B2B and B2C marketers, and Loren offers up a valuable perspective on the topic and some actionable takeaways to maximize that channel over the rest of this year ….
Marketingsherpa Blog

It’s time to teach that old dog some new tricks.

That old dog I’m referring to is social media.

Sure, you’re already blogging, and on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, and more. Great.

But I’m telling you — there’s more to social media than meets the eye. The final chapter on social media hasn’t been written.

When I kicked off my writing business in April, I decided to use social media my way.

I approached these overused networks as if I’d never heard of them. I made my own rules. I set different expectations. You could say I wrote my own chapter on social media marketing.

It made my website — and my business — better.

Here’s what I came up with, and how you can incorporate these features into your own marketing plan.

1. YouTube: For a bit of drama

YouTube’s not just for viral cat videos and covers of Justin Bieber songs.

I uploaded images of my best-looking writing clips, then stitched together a video portfolio on iMovie. (Take screen shots or scan documents if you don’t have original files.)

I like to think of it as my “me trailer” complete with sound effects, music, and dramatic editing.

Once I posted it to YouTube, I embedded it on my website and added a burst that says, “Click Here to See My Trailer!”

It’s super nerdy. It’s unconventional. It’s me.

Most importantly, it advertises my services in a fresh way and shows all of my specialties in less than three minutes. It’s not about getting the most YouTube views, it’s about getting business.

And it has Star Wars references. (Not required for success.)

Takeaway: Videos make your site more interesting and show your personality. A welcome video can introduce clients to your site. A video biography can turn you from a static picture into a new friend. Most computers, cameras, or phones provide all of the movie-making software you need.

2. Foursquare: For showing off

The location-based site and mobile app lets users “check-in” to venues like restaurants, famous landmarks, and their own homes in pursuit of badges and points.

Foursquare users can friend others and also follow their favorite brands’ pages. Upon unsuspectingly checking in to one of the brand’s favorite venues, a tip will pop up from said brand.

I took advantage of this feature and created my own brand page on Foursquare. But what kind of tips would I share with my followers? The best places to find free wi-fi around the world. Who doesn’t enjoy a free connection, plentiful plugs, and good coffee?

Now when people follow my page and check in to a location near one of my top wi-fi spots, a little pop-up box on their Foursquare app will remind them of my business and how helpful I am.

I even created a Foursquare venue for my writing business. So other nearby businesses — the original The Onion headquarters is steps away — know that I’m here. And I’m ready to rock.

Takeaway: Maybe you’re a movie critic who knows the best theaters around the country. Or a fashion blogger who knows all the top boutiques in New York City. Or a roaming travel writer who knows the best cheap eats from coast to coast. Share’em on your favorite social review site.

3. Pinterest: For going viral

Are you obsessed with Pinterest yet? Pin + interest = Pinterest. It’s a digital pin board site where users “pin” their favorite images to themed boards. You can follow other users’ boards and “re-pin” their content.

I run a little travel blog on the side because I’m working on breaking into travel writing. Pinterest and its cult following seemed like the perfect place to showcase my own travel photography in hopes of a little viral action.

So I created a Pinterest account for my travel blog and I pinned my images to boards like “Pretty Travel Pics” and “Must-Do Travel Experiences.”

I pinned other people’s images, too. This isn’t all about me — you gotta show some love to get some love.

My personal photography has been re-pinned oodles of times and every pic links back to my travel blog. Instant traffic.

If I’m lucky, my pins will appear on the Pinterest home page. Just another unusual way to get my name out there.

Takeaway: Image-based sites like Pinterest, Flickr, and Instagram aren’t just for photographers. If you’re a food blogger, showcase pics of your best recipes. If you’re a tech reporter, gather images of your favorite gadgets.

4. Facebook: For looking important

Every business has a Facebook page, but why did my business need one?

I decided to designate my official Facebook page as a newsfeed of all the things I’ve written.

It’s a vertical version of my portfolio and another way potential clients can see what I’ve been working on — especially what I’ve been working on this week.

Sure, the page won’t get a whole lot of ‘likes’ and my mom is the only person who ‘likes’ my posts regularly (thanks, Mom!), but that’s not the goal of my Facebook page.

It’s there to display my latest clients and clips. And to show that I know how to build Facebook pages – I’m a social media consultant after all.

Takeaway: There’s a cookie cutter social media plan that’s been set in front of us all. But if it doesn’t make sense for your business, don’t follow it.

5. Amazon Associates: for bragging

Amazon Associates is an affiliate program for Amazon.com products. Create an online store (complete with your own URL), fill it with hand-picked items, and you’ll get money for each completed purchase.

I decided to create my own “aStore” as they’re called, not to make money but to show off my latest books and the publications I’m featured in.

I’m simply taking advantage of Amazon’s free social shopping features for my own benefit. I don’t want the money.

I uploaded a branded header image similar to the image on my Foursquare page, Facebook page, and website.

I created a page called “Aubre Andrus Books” and included text explaining that I have five books coming out over the next two years.

I’m able to brag without looking like I’m bragging. And when my books come out, I’ll have a stocked store. Impressive, right?

Takeaway: There are a lot of free widgets and plug-ins out there that can make your business better. Don’t let a little html or an affiliate contract scare you.

Now, it’s your turn …

Choose the social networks that excite you, then throw the rules to the wayside.

This is all about doing it your way.

How do you use social media differently?

Do you use Google+ or Twitter in a way that make you stand out from the competition? Share your strategies in the comments below!

About the Author: Aubre Andrus writes for her favorite brands and publications as an author, creative copywriter, professional blogger, social media consultant, and roaming reporter. You can follow her on Twitter @aubreandrus or visit her website and portfolio.

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I’m always amazed that interns at my company can do so much with the web. I’m even more amazed at the limitations social media has put on young aspiring entrepreneurs and how it hinders the necessary fundamentals to start a business.

If you want to open a B2C (Business to Consumer) company, than yes, social media helps. In B2C,… Read the rest of this entry »

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

If your memories of high school involve wedgies, broken hearts, and getting stuffed into your locker, you probably love Glee.

The musical comedy TV show — Ryan Murphy’s smash hit about the nerds, misfits, and social outcasts of McKinley High School’s glee club — is equal parts quirky, cheesy, heartbreaking, and surprisingly delightful.

Over its first two seasons, the show has also attracted millions of obsessive fans from all over the world.

Glee fans, or “Gleeks,” follow the moves of their favorite show with a passion once reserved for Cabbage Patch Kids or the Toyota Prius.

What is Glee’s secret formula for creating crazed fans who would rather die than miss an episode of the show?

And how can you use Glee’s techniques to market your business and turn your listless readers into raving groupies?

Here are a few ideas …

Harness the power of the underdog

The Glee kids are the underdogs at McKinley High.

They constantly have to battle not only the school’s evil cheerleading coach, Sue Sylvester, but vicious classmates who taunt them in the halls and throw Slushies in their faces.

We cheer for these underdogs.

We want them to succeed, to show the world how truly talented they are. We want those bullying football players to see the light and drop the 7-11 cups.

Having someone to cheer for is essential.

If your customers can’t get behind you and support you, you’ll never turn them into raving fans. Show them what you’re up against — whether it’s battling writers block, standing up for mom-and-pop stores in a hostile corporate culture, or even stretching yourself to do something that scares you.

Show your audience what you’re fighting for. Share your biggest obstacles, even if those roadblocks are intangible, like fear of success or struggles with technology.

Once your customers know what you’re fighting for (and fighting against) they can rally behind you and become your biggest fans.

Be undeniably awesome

The kids of McKinley High may be underdogs, but they can sing.

They sing, they dance, they twirl, they shine. And when they perform, they put their hearts and souls into it.

Want to be like Glee? Be really, really good at what you do.

Social media is full of quirky people who aren’t very good at their jobs. The underdog and quirk factors only work if you have something remarkable to offer.

Put your absolute best writing on your site. Craft those autoresponder messages so they’re impressively well written and amazingly useful to your prospects, every single time. Make sure your products and services are remarkable and fan-worthy. Create an atmosphere of excellence.

Put your absolute best effort into every detail of your business. Remember that when you’re online, people are watching, so show ‘em your best side every day. Your customer will learn to expect the best from you every time you put something out in the world.

When they expect greatness and you give it to them consistently, they’ll become loyal. And loyal fans are the best fans to have.

Take risks

One of the most popular characters on the show is Kurt Hummel, played by actor Chris Colfer.

Ryan Murphy took a huge risk by casting Colfer in the show. Chris had no previous professional acting experience and was a complete unknown.

Murphy was so impressed with Colfer during his audition that the Glee creator actually wrote the role of Kurt specifically for him. Murphy thought Colfer had something special, and figured out a way to include him in the show.

Murphy listened to his heart, even though it was a risk.

The result of Murphy’s risk? Last year Chris Colfer won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy for his brilliant portrayal. Kurt has become one of the show’s most-beloved and most-talked-about characters.

The upshot? Follow your gut.

If you think something needs to be said on your blog, say it. If you want to link to something on Twitter that might be a wee bit controversial? Tweet it. If you feel like going out on a limb and creating a bold new product for your customers, and your heart is telling you it’s the right thing to do, listen to your heart.

Don’t create controversy for its own sake, but don’t be afraid to stand out for doing the right thing either.

Think of Kurt, and be brave.

Let your freak flag fly

The characters on Glee are quirky. They’re odd.

In some cases, they’re downright bizarre. And that’s part of the reason we adore them.

Cheerleader Brittney is one of the most unusual kids in the group. Her dry observations have been known to stop lunchroom conversations cold.

Despite some strange looks and the tendency of her McKinley classmates to assume she’s dim-witted, Brittney’s not afraid to be herself. And the more we hear from Brittney and glimpse the world through her oddball observations, the more we cheer for her.

It’s Brittney’s oddness and naïveté, or Rachel’s songs about her headband, or Finn seeing the face of God in his grilled cheese sandwich, that make us love these characters. If they were all perfect, they’d be boring. And we’d be bored watching them.

What characteristics can you share with your customer that might show them a surprising new side of you?

Can you tell them you love show tunes?

Religiously follow Manchester United?

Have visited all seven continents?

Don’t be afraid to show a little personality. Your customers need to know you in order to like and trust you. So make sure they know some of your oddness, too.

Your customer will see your quirkiness as a part of you and will feel connected to you and your business. And then they will adore you and want to put up your Tiger Beat posters on their walls.

Encourage your fans to connect with you

Glee’s marketing team are absolute geniuses about social media.

Glee has a vibrant website with regularly updated content, including video sneak peeks, interviews with actors, quizzes, and photos. The site features discussion boards and a weekly Gleek newsletter.

The website even features an iPhone app called “Tap Tap Glee” for fans who want to go mobile with their McKinley spirit.

In social media circles, Gleeks are invited to participate in the Glee conversation in a myriad of ways, including:

• Glee’s Facebook page has attracted over 16 million fans. Glee posts at least twice a day with news, award announcements, special previews and regular reminders about upcoming episodes. Fans can comment on all the status updates and videos with encouragement, suggestions, and feedback.
• The Glee Twitter account is also constantly updated, and consistently links to the actors’ individual Twitter accounts, assuring Glee fans have access to their favorite stars, too. Almost a million fans follow the main Glee page and the Glee conversation is constant.
• Glee’s YouTube Channel features more than 120 videos, most of them of musical numbers and interviews. Their videos have received over 300 millions views. Fans can share their thoughts on any video, and each video is embeddable, so fans can share Glee news on their own websites and blogs.

By creating an online presence that gives fans scores of ways to interact with the makers of Glee and their fellow fans, they provide an extraordinary supplement to the experience of watching Glee at home.

They offer Gleeks the opportunity to talk about their favorite things — reliving this week’s show, and speculating on possibilities for the next episode.

Have you given your customers places to connect with you via social media?

Do you give them news, interviews, and fun behind-the-scenes previews of what you’re up to next? If you’re not, you’re missing a fantastic opportunity to turn your regular customers into crazy screaming fans.

Give them a place to show the love.

Your turn in the spotlight …

During sixty minutes of show tunes and Journey covers, Glee somehow pulls off a magic act.

It shows the world a bizarre, ragtag group of high school performers and manages to give each of us someone with whom we can relate. And while we’re relating to these kids, they touch our hearts and make us smile.

So whether you identify with Kurt, Mercedes, Artie, Rachel, or Finn, there is something in the Glee formula that can help you transform your business into an organization that people follow with fanatical loyalty.

Best way to get started? Stand up and sing it, people.

The stage is yours.

About the Author: Beth Hayden helps business owners make more money by helping them create fabulous websites, blogs, and social media campaigns. Get her best tips for achieving blogging nirvana by downloading her free report, From Blah to Hurrah: 25 Ways to Make Your Blog Bigger, Better and More Profitable.

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Marketers and business owners rely on social media to communicate many things about their brand. But there are also some dangers inherent in communicating with a large, diverse audience who you don’t know on a personal level. Oh, and by the way, you are limited to getting your point across in only a few sentences (or characters!), and must achieve a tone that simultaneously entertains but does not offend.

Needless to say, the opportunities for misunderstandings and miscommunications abound. And I’m sorry to say that no matter how hard you try, you will inevitably encounter some negative social media experiences along the way. But you can greatly reduce the number of mishaps you experiece — be it trolls, unfollows/unfans, or PR nightmares — by simply avoiding certain topics of conversation.

Before you publish your next status update or 140-character nugget of social media gold, consider whether it’s definitely the right thing to post to your brand’s account. If you’re unsure, make sure this list of social media update no-nos is nearby. By avoiding these topics, you can avoid most of the worst problems faced by brands active on social media.

10 Things A Business Should Never Publish on Social Media

1.) Off-topic subject matters. Staying on-topic when publishing social media updates is crucial for encouraging engagement and growing a sustainable base of followers. People subscribe to your account for a specific set of reasons, and every time you go off topic, it makes your account less valuable. If you’re finding that there’s a subject matter that really needs to be covered, but your account simply is not the right channel to do it, it may be time to consider starting a new social media account to achieve that purpose.

2.) Smack talk your competition. Say what you will about your competition behind closed doors (come on, they’re not that bad), but don’t ever let your feelings make it to your social media networks. Even if they’re embroiled in a PR disaster, rise above and don’t comment on it; doing so make you look worse, not them. You should, however, use marketing automation to track mentions of your competitors. This lets you speak with your prospects when they are in the research and comparison phase of the sales cycle, see if your customers are shopping around, and identify opportunities to close business with leads that weren’t even in your pipeline.

3.) Smack talk your prospects and customers. Have you ever had a particularly frustrating customer service problem tweeted at you? Or did you have someone attack you on your Facebook wall? It’s really, really frustrating. Your first instinct is probably to give them a piece of your mind, or post something passive aggressive about their sour attitude. Step away from the keyboard, calm down, and construct a more measured response that’s focused on solving the problem at hand, not perpetuating it. Even if they’re wrong, you can’t bad mouth them. But if you’re solution-oriented and don’t give in to their negative attitude, your social media spat will soon blow over. And sometimes, your community even comes to your defense!

4.) Resolutions to complicated customer service issues. Using social media to solve customer service issues is one of the best developments since sliced bread. But not all questions come with a one sentence answer. If someone has presented a complicated question to you on one of your social networks, don’t try to solve it publicly. It clogs up everyone else’s feed, and unless it’s a question that applies to your entire fan base, it’s not valuable content. Instead, publicly ask them to privately message, email, or call you to work out the complicated kinks.

5.) Confidential customer information. Another potential pitfall when using social media for customer service is leaking private customer information. If you are troubleshooting via social media, be sure you don’t accidentally leak information that legally shouldn’t be shared. To you it may seem trivial, but it’s actually quite common for people to not want to publicly discuss pricing, location, or other seemingly benign topics.

6.) Surprise pictures and tagging. Just because you’re a social media super star doesn’t mean your staff and customers are comfortable being in the public eye. Don’t publish photos of them, use location based tagging, or even tag their names in public updates without their permission. Some people have stringest personal privacy rules of which you must be respectful.

7.) Misinformed updates. Whoever monitors your brand’s social media accounts is responsible for knowing a lot about…well, everything. He or she will come up against questions spanning from product information, to billing questions, to industry insights, to support issues. And one of the worst things you can do is answer those questions without first getting all the facts. It makes your organization look confused, ill prepared, and untrustworthy. Remember that there are a lot of people you work alongside that deal with the issues you’re facing on a daily basis; tap your internal resources before giving out incorrect information in cyber space.

8.) Apathetic updates. Everyone has *those* days. But one of the hard parts about being a social media manager (or any public figure, for that matter) is putting on a happy face. Please don’t let apathy shine through in your social media updates. If you’re not excited about your brand, how can you expect anyone else to be?

9.) Proprietary company information. This one is a tip specifically for the social media and community managers out there. Leaking proprietary information may not upset your network, but it will upset your boss. Keep your job safe, and remember that what is common knowledge to you is probably big news to a lot of people…namely, your competitors. If you have any doubt before hitting the “Enter” key, that’s a good indication that you probably shouldn’t post it. Or at the very least, check with your CMO!

10.) Personal rants and diatribes. If you manage a social media account, you may feel like you have your own soapbox off of which to rant and rave. In fact, you do not. Sure, you obviously shouldn’t wax poetic on your religious and political opinion, but you also shouldn’t opine about the horrible customer service from the sandwich shop down the street. Not only does it make you look petty, but remember point #1 (in my opinion, the most important one) from this post: It is not relevant to your audience.

What other updates do you think businesses should never, ever share on their social media accounts? Which of these points do you think does the most damage to a brand’s social presence?

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Janrain and Blue Research completed a study together on social identity. A key element of the survey was finding out how respondents felt about using a social login — Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. — instead of having to register individually at multiple websites. Read on for some of the very interesting results and what they mean for marketers …
Marketingsherpa Blog

On the web today, things change fast. New applications launch every day, and existing applications continue to evolve and add new features. Just this year we witnessed the debut of Google+ and the introduction of Facebook Timeline. Even the Merriam-Webster Dictionary started adding a few to its collection!

Thus, while we’re all learning about social media and inbound marketing as well as teaching others about it, having a resource that quickly and clearly explains all of the basic terms and applications is critically important.

I hope that you will pass this blog post along to others in your organization and maybe even print it out to have on hand when others have questions related to social media marketing. And for even more inbound marketing-related terms and definitions, check out The Ultimate Inbound Marketing Glossary.

Social Media Marketing Dictionary: 120 Terms to Know

A

AddThis – AddThis is a social bookmarking service that provides a code users can put on their websites so that when people visit that site, they have the option to share via Facebook, Twitter, etc. Its analytics service can show you which pages are trending, where people are interacting with your brand, and what they’re saying about your content on Twitter.

Algorithm – An algorithm is a set of formulas developed for a computer to perform a certain function. This is important in the social sphere as the algorithms sites like Facebook and Google use are critical for developing content-sharing strategies.

Application Programing Interface (API) – An API is a documented interface that allows one software application to interact with another application. An example of this is the Twitter API.

Avatar – An avatar is an image or username that represents a person online within forums and social networks.

B

BackType – BackType is a social media analytics company that helps companies measure their social engagement. Previously, the service started as a blog comment search engine.

Bitly – Bitly is a free URL shortening service that provides statistics for the links users share online. Bitly is popularly used to condense long URLs to make them easier to share on social networks such as Twitter.

Blip.TV – Blip.TV is an online video sharing site that provides a free and paid platform for individuals and companies who host an online video show.

Blog – Blog is a word that was created from two words: “web log.” Blogs are usually maintained by an individual or a business with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. 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.

Blogger – Blogger is a free blogging platform owned by Google that allows individuals and companies to host and publish a blog typically on a subdomain. Example: yourblogname.blogspot.com

Blog Talk Radio – Blog Talk Radio is a free web application that allows users to host live online radio shows.

BoardReader – BoardReader is a free search engine that allows users to search for keywords only in posts and titles of online forums, a popular form of social networking.

Boxee – Boxee is a social video application that allows users to watch online videos on their TVs and computers. Users can share and watch videos from a variety of online videos sources for free.

Bookmarking – Bookmarking online follows the same idea of placing a bookmark in a physical publication–you’re simply marking something you found important, enjoyed, or where you left off to continue reading later. The only difference online is that it’s happening through websites using one of the various bookmarking services available, such as Delicious.

C

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 applications.

Circles - Circles are clusters of a user’s friends on Google+, meaning you can group certain people you choose to connect with on your Google+ into a certain Circle–such as colleagues, college connections, family, etc. When you want to share content with only these individuals, you include that specific Circle in your post’s sharing options.

Collecta – Collecta is a real-time search engine that includes results from blogs, microblogs, news feeds, and photo sharing services as they are published.

Collective Intelligence – Collective intelligence is a shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision-making in social networks.

Comment – A comment is a response that is often provided as an answer or reaction to a blog post or message on a social network. Comments are a primary form of two-way communication on the social web.

Compete – Compete is a web-based application that offers users and businesses web analytics and enables people to compare and contrast the statistics for different websites over time.

Connections – The LinkedIn equivalent of a Facebook ‘friend’ is a ‘connection.’ Because LinkedIn is a social networking site, the people you are connecting with are not necessarily people you are friends with, but rather you met in brief, heard speak, or know through another connection.

Craigslist – Craigslist is a popular online commerce site in which users sell a variety of goods and services to other users. The service has been credited for causing the reduction of classified advertising in newspapers across the United States.

Creative Commons – Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright. It provides free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix, use commercially, or any combination thereof.

D

Delicious – Delicious is a free online bookmarking service that lets users save website addresses publicly and privately online so they can be accessed from any device connected to the internet and shared with friends.

Digg – Digg is a social news website that allows members to submit and vote for articles. Articles with the most votes appear on the homepage of the site and subsequently are seen by the largest portion of the site’s membership, as well as other visitors.

Disqus – Disqus is a comment system and moderation tool for your site. This service lets you add next-gen community management and social web integration to any site on any platform.

E

Ebook – An ebook is an electronic version of a printed book. However, most ebooks are not actually available in print (unless you print them). These are typically published in PDF form.

Eventbrite – Eventbrite is a provider of online event management and ticketing services. Eventbrite is free if your event is free. If you sell tickets to your event, Eventbrite collects a fee per ticket.

F

Facebook – Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study, and live around them. Facebook is the largest social network in the world with more than 800 million users.

Firefox – Firefox is an open-source web browser. It has emerged as one of the most popular web browsers on the internet and allows users to customize their browser through the use of third-party extensions.

Flash Mob – A flash mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperse. The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails.

Flickr – Flickr is a social network based around online picture sharing. The service allows users to store photos online and then share them with others through profiles, groups, sets, and other methods.

Forums – Also known as a message board, a forum is an online discussion site. It originated as the modern equivalent of a traditional bulletin board, and a technological evolution of the dialup bulletin board system.

Follow Friday (#ff) – Follow friday is a trend via the hashtag #ff every Friday on Twitter. Users select other usernames and tweet them with #ff in their post, meaning they recommend following those Twitter users. People tweet at their favorite brands, colleagues, celebrities–you name it!

Foursquare – Foursquare is a social network in which friends share their locations and connect with others in close physical proximity to each other. The service uses a system of digital badges to reward players who “check in” to different types of locations.

Friends – No, not your pals you play poker with on the weekends. We’re talking Facebook friends. These are individuals you consider to be friendly enough with you to see your Facebook profile and engage with you.

G

Google Chrome – Google Chrome is a free web browser produced by Google that fully integrates into its online search system as well as other applications.

Google Documents – Google Documents is a group of web-based office applications that includes tools for word processing, presentations, and spreadsheet analysis. All documents are stored and edited online and allow multiple people to collaborate on a document in real-time.

Google+ – Google+ is Google’s new social network. It differs in that it promotes social sharing that is more similar to how people share in real life by providing features such as one that limits who you are talking to, creating 1-on-1 conversation.

Google Reader – Google Reader is an RSS reader that allows you to aggregate various blogs and sites and collect updates to new content in one location. You can log on whenever you choose, and the latest content from multiple blogs will be in one stream so you don’t have to navigate to each site individually.

Gowalla – Gowalla is a social network in which friends share their locations and connect with others in close psychical proximity to each other.

Groundswell – A social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations. (Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, Groundswell, pg. 9)

H

Hangout - A Hangout is a video service on Google+ that allows you to video chat with up to 10 Google+ users are a time. You can name these chats, watch YouTube videos during them, open a Google Doc with colleagues, and much more.

Hashtag – A hashtag is a tag used on the social network Twitter as a way to annotate a message. A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by a “#.” Example: #yourhashtag. Hashtags are commonly used to show that a tweet, a Twitter message, is related to an event or conference, online or offline.

hi5 – hi5 is a social network focused on the youth market. It is a social entertainment destination, with a focus on delivering a fun and entertainment-driven social experience online to users around the world.

HootSuite – HootSuite is a web-based Twitter client. With HootSuite, you can manage multiple Twitter profiles, pre-schedule tweets, and view metrics.

HTML – HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a programing language for web pages. Think of HTML as the brick-and-mortar of pages on the web. It provides content and structure while CSS supplies style. HTML has changed over the years, and it is on the cusp of its next version: HTML5.

I

Inbound Marketing – Inbound marketing is a style of marketing that essentially focuses permission-based marketing techniques that businesses can use to get found by potential customers, convert those prospects into leads and customers, and analyze the process along the way. Inbound marketing leverages tactics such as SEO, blogging, social media, lead generation, email marketing, lead nurturing, and analytics. It is in direct contrast to outbound marketing, which utilizes traditional interruptive marketing tactics such as direct mail, trade shows, print and TV advertising, and cold calling.

Instagram – Instagram is a photo sharing application that lets users take photos, apply filters to their images, and share the photos instantly on the Instagram network and other social networks like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and Foursquare. The app is targeted toward mobile social sharing, and in just over one year, it has gained almost 15 million users. Currently, it is only available for iPhone devices.

Instant Messaging – Instant messaging (IM) is a form of real-time, direct text-based communication between two or more people. More advanced instant messaging software clients also allow enhanced modes of communication, such as live voice or video calling.

J

Joomla – Joomla is a content management system (CMS) that enables users to build websites and online applications.

K

Klout – Klout is a measure of social influence. The service allows users to connect various social accounts such as Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, etc., and then provides every user with his or her Klout score. The score is out of 100–the higher the score, the more inlfuence you have on the social world.

L

Lifecasting – Lifecasting is a continual broadcast of events in a person’s life through digital media. Typically, lifecasting is transmitted through the internet and can involve wearable technology.

Like – A “Like” is an action that can be made by a Facebook user. Instead of writing a comment for a message or a status update, a Facebook user can click the “Like” button as a quick way to show approval and share the message.

Link Building – Link building is an aspect of search engine optimization in which website owners develop strategies to generate links to their site from other websites with the hopes of improving their search engine ranking. Blogging has emerged as a popular method of link building.

LinkedIn – LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. As of June 2010, LinkedIn had more than 70 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.

LinkedIn Today – LinkedIn Today is LinkedIn’s own version of a social news service. Every industry on LinkedIn (marketing, journalism, technology, etc.) has its own LinkedIn Today. Stories are selected based off which ones are posted and shared the most by users of LinkedIn.

Lurker – A lurker online is a person who reads discussions on a message board, newsgroup, social network, or other interactive system, but rarely or never participates in the discussion.

M

Mashup – A content mashup contains multiple types of media drawn from pre-existing sources to create a new work. Digital mashups allow individuals or businesses to create new pieces of content by combining multiple online content sources.

Meme – A meme on the internet is used to describe a thought, idea, joke, or concept to be shared online. It is typically an image with text above and below it, but can also come in video and link form. A popular example is the “I Can Has Cheezburger?” cat meme that turned into an entire site of memes.

MySpace – MySpace is a social networking website owned by News Corporation. MySpace became the most popular social networking site in the United States in June 2006 and was overtaken internationally by its main competitor, Facebook, in April 2008.

MyPunchbowl – MyPunchbowl.com is a social network that facilitates party planning and provides members with ideas, invitations, favors, gift registries, photo/video sharing, and more.

N

News Feed – A news feed is literally a feed full of news. On Facebook, the News Feed is the homepage of users’ accounts where they can see all the latest updates from their friends. The news feed on Twitter is called Timeline (not to get confused with Facebook’s new look, also called Timeline).

O

Opera – Opera is an open-source web browser. While not as popular as Firefox, Opera is used as the default browser on some gaming systems and mobile devices.

Orkut – Orkut is a social networking website that is owned and operated by Google. The website is named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Büyükkökten. Although Orkut is less popular in the United States than competitors Facebook and MySpace, it is one of the most visited websites in India and Brazil.

P

Pandora - Pandora is a social online radio station that allows users to create stations based on their favorite artists and types of music.

Permalink – A permalink is an address or URL of a particular post within a blog or website.

Podcast – A podcast, or non-streamed webcast, is a series of digital media files, either audio or video, that are released episodically and often downloaded through an RSS feed.

Posterous – Posterous is a blogging and content syndication platform that allows users to post content from any computer or mobile device by sending an e-mail.

PostRank - PostRank monitors and collects social engagement related to content around the web. Essentially it helps publishers understand which type of content promotes sharing on the social web.

Q

Qik – Qik is an online video streaming service that lets users stream video live from their mobile phones to the web.

Quantcast – Quantcast provides website traffic and demographics for websites. The tool is primarily used by online advertisers looking to target specific demographics.

R

Real-Time Search – Real-time search is the method of indexing content being published online into search engine results with virtually no delay.

Reddit – Reddit is similar to Digg. It is a social news site that is built upon a community of users who share and comment on stories.

Retweet – A retweet is when someone on Twitter sees your message and decides to re-share it with his/her followers. A retweet button allows them to quickly resend the message with attribution to the original sharer’s name.

RSS Feed – RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a family of  web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blogs and videos in a standardized format. Content publishers can syndicate a feed, which allows users to subscribe to the content and read it when they please, and from a location other than the website (such as reader services like Google Reader).

RSS Reader – An RSS reader allows users to aggregate articles from multiple websites into one place using RSS feeds. The purpose of these aggregators is to allow for a faster and more efficient consumption of information. An example of an RSS Reader is Google Reader.

S

Scribd - Scribd turns document formats such as PDF, Word, and PowerPoint into a web document for viewing and sharing online.

Search Engine Optimization – Search engine optimization is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a website from search engines via unpaid or organic search traffic.

Second Life – Second Life is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab that was launched on June 23, 2003. Users are called “residents,” and they interact with each other through avatars. Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade virtual property and services with one another, and travel throughout the world.

Seesmic – Seesmic is a popular desktop and mobile social application. Using APIs, Seesmic allows users to share content on social networks such as Twitter and Google Buzz from the same application.

Sentiment – Sentiment is normally referred to as the attitude of user comments related to a brand online. Some social media monitoring tools measure sentiment.

SlideShare – SlideShare is an online social network for sharing presentations and documents. Users can favorite and embed presentations as well as share them on other social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

Skype – Skype is a free program that allows for text, audio, and video chats between users. Additionally, users can purchase plans to receive phone calls through their Skype account.

Social Media – Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques.

Social Media Monitoring – Social media monitoring is a process of monitoring and responding to mentions related to a business that occur in social media.

StumbleUpon – StumbleUpon is a free web-browser extension that acts as an intelligent browsing tool for discovering and sharing web sites.

T

Tag Cloud – A tag cloud is a visual depiction of user-generated tags, or simply the word content of a site, typically used to describe the content of web sites.

Technorati – Technorati is a popular blog search engine that also provides categories and authority rankings for blogs.

Timeline – Timeline is the new Facebook format for personal profiles. It is essentially a digital scrapbook of a user’s life, displaying their profile in an actual timeline format so they can see at exactly what point in time something a story occurred.

Trend – A trend is seen on every social network. Facebook shows what is trending when multiple users are sharing the same link or discussing the same topic. Google+ highlights trending topic when a user conducts a search. Twitter has a section to the bottom right of its home feed which clearly shows what topics and hashtags are trending in tweets. And LinkedIn shows what industries (in LinkedIn Today) that a certain story is popular.

Tumblr – Tumblr lets users share content in the form of a blog. Users can post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos from your browser, phone, desktop, or email.

TweetDeck – TweetDeck is an application that connects users with contacts across Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and more.

Tweetup – A tweetup is an organized or impromptu gathering of people that use Twitter.

Twitter – Twitter is a platform that allows users to share 140-character-long messages publicly. User can “follow” each other as a way of subscribing to each others’ messages. Additionally, users can use the @username command to direct a message toward another Twitter user.

Twitter Chat – A Twitter Chat is a chat or discussion that is held on Twitter and is open to all users. Questions are prompted from the user hosting the chat, while anyone else can respond using a particular hashtag. The hashtag is the marker for someone participating in the chat. HubSpot has its own chats hosted every other Tuesday via the hashtag #inboundchat.

Twitter Search – Twitter Search is a search engine operated by Twitter to search for Twitter messages and users in real time.

TypePad – TypePad is a free and paid blogging platform similar to Blogger. It allows users to host and publish their own blogs.

U

Unconference – An unconference is a facilitated, participant-driven conference centered on a theme or purpose. The term “unconference” has been applied, or self-applied, to a wide range of gatherings that try to avoid one or more aspects of a conventional conference, such as high fees and sponsored presentations.

USTREAM – USTREAM is a live interactive broadcast platform that enables anyone with an internet connection and a camera to engage and stream video online.

URL – A URL is most popularly known as the “address” of a web page on the web (e.g. http://www.example.com)

V

Video Blog – A video blog is a blog the produces regular video content often around the same theme on a daily or weekly basis. An example of a successful video blog is Wine Library TV.

Viddler – Viddler is a popular video sharing site similar to YouTube and Vimeo in which users can upload videos to be hosted online and shared and watched by others.

Vimeo – Vimeo is a popular video sharing service in which users can upload videos to be hosted online and shared and watched by others. Vimeo user videos are often more artistic, and the service does not allow commercial video content.

Viral Marketing – Viral marketing refers to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes.

W

Web Analytics – Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of internet data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage.

Webinar – A webinar is used to conduct live meetings, training, or presentations via the internet.

Widget – A widget is an element of a graphical user interface that displays an information arrangement changeable by the user, such as a window or text box.

Wiki – A wiki is a website that allows the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser, allowing for collaboration between users.

Wikipedia – Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its millions of articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world, and almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site.

WordPress – WordPress is a content management system and contains blog publishing tools that allow users to host and publish blogs.

Y

Yammer – Yammer is a business communication tool that operates as an internal Twitter-like messaging system for employees within an organization. It is used to provide real-time communication and reduce the need for e-mail.

Yelp – Yelp is a social network and local search website that provides users with a platform to review, rate, and discuss local businesses.

YouTube – YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $ 1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google. YouTube is the largest video sharing site in the world.

Z 

Zoho – Zoho is a suite of online web applications geared toward business productivity and collaboration.

Zooomr – Zooomr is a online photo sharing service similar to Flickr.

What terms did I forget? What would you like to see added to this list?

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