Social Media Glossary

Upgrade your social media marketing lingo by browsing our list of the most popular social media glossary terms today.

A

Ad set \ An ad set is the middle layer of a social media ad campaign where you control audience targeting, budget, schedule, and placements for a group of ads.

Audience Intelligence \ Audience intelligence is the practice of collecting and analyzing data about specific groups of people to understand their motivations, behaviors, and interests. It powers smarter marketing decisions.

Audience Segmentation \ Audience segmentation is the process of dividing a broad target audience into smaller groups based on shared characteristics to deliver more targeted, relevant marketing messages.

Audience targeting \ Audience targeting is the practice of segmenting potential customers by shared characteristics and delivering tailored marketing messages to each group. It improves relevance, engagement, and return on ad spend.

B

Boolean search \ Boolean search is a technique that uses logical operators like AND, OR, and NOT to combine or exclude keywords. Learn how it works and how it applies to social media monitoring.

Boosted post \ A boosted post is a regular social media post you pay to show to a wider audience beyond your followers. It's the simplest form of paid social promotion.

Brand advocacy \ Brand advocacy is the organic promotion of a company by people who genuinely believe in it. Learn about the four types of advocates, how advocacy differs from ambassadorship, and how to build and measure a brand advocacy program.

Brand ambassador \ A brand ambassador is a person who represents and promotes a company through their own networks. Learn about the different types, how ambassador programs work, and the key differences between ambassadors and influencers.

C

Carousel \ A carousel is a social media post format for sharing multiple images or videos in a single swipeable unit. It's one of the highest-engagement content types on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and TikTok.

Click-through rate (CTR) \ Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who click on a link, ad, or piece of content after seeing it. Learn the formula, channel benchmarks, and tips to improve your CTR.

D

Dark post \ A dark post is a targeted social media ad that only appears in the feeds of specific audiences, never on the brand's public timeline or profile.

E

Earned media value (EMV) \ Earned media value (EMV) is a marketing metric that puts a dollar figure on your brand's non-paid exposure. It includes social media mentions, shares, likes, press coverage, and other free publicity.

F

FTC disclosure \ An FTC disclosure is a statement required by the Federal Trade Commission that reveals material connections between content creators and the brands they promote. Learn what triggers disclosure requirements, platform-specific rules, and what happens when brands and influencers don't comply.

G

Geotargeting \ Geotargeting is a digital marketing strategy that delivers customized content, ads, or experiences to users based on their geographic location.

H

Hashtag strategy \ A hashtag strategy is a planned approach to selecting, combining, and deploying hashtags across social media platforms to increase content discoverability and drive engagement. Learn the five hashtag types, platform-specific counts, and three frameworks for choosing the right tags.

P

Promoted post \ A promoted post is a piece of social media content that a brand pays to show to a wider or more targeted audience than organic reach alone delivers.

R

Reach \ Reach is the total number of unique users who see your content on a social media platform. Learn how each platform measures reach, how to calculate your reach rate, and what benchmarks to aim for.