Do you ever feel like the words used in marketing are in a foreign language? And somehow you missed the class teaching you said language? 

You’re not the only one. The marketing industry loves its jargon and buzzwords, but we know that just makes it more confusing for busy entrepreneurs who already have a million things on their plate.

Don’t worry, we’re going to break it all down so you can use the terms to help you grow your business, rather than experience them as a roadblock to your success.

Need a quick way to reference this guide in search of a specific word? 

This dictionary is organized the following way:

1. Broken down into a few categories: Social media analytics, general social media terms, social media creation terms, and social media tools.
2. Alphabetized in each category.

Okay, let’s get started breaking down those words.

Social Media Analytics

• Clicks: Clicks show you how many times people take action on a link. 

For instance, the number of times someone tapped or clicked on your content, links, buttons. Think, checking out your website, scheduling, following your link, or hitting “learn more.” 

*Note: You can’t measure these alone on social media, but they’re part of your engagement.

• Engagement Rate: This is the percentage of your audience that interacts with your content (likes, comments, shares, saves).

Engagement rate helps you understand how well your content resonates with your followers. Are they just scrolling past or actually stopping to interact?

Formula for calculating engagement rate:
(Total Engagements ÷ Total Followers) × 100

Pro Tip: If a recent post has had a high engagement rate make note & repost or repurpose that content!

• Followers: The total number of people hit that “follow” button on your account. These people have said they want to see your content. 

⬆️ Growth in followers means ⬆️more potential eyes on your content, giving you more chances to turn them into customers.

• Impressions: The number of times your content is shown to people, including repeat views by the same person.

This helps you understand how often your content is getting pushed out to viewers, regardless of engagement. 

• Likes: The number of times people have tapped the heart (or thumbs up, depending on the platform) on your post.

Likes = a quick pulse check on your content. In general more likes means your post caught someone’s eye + resonated with them.

• Reach: The number of people who saw your post one time. (No repeats counted here.)

Reach tells you the size of the crowd your post made it in front of.

• Saves: Someone bookmarks your post to come back to another time. 

Saves are a strong indicator that your content is genuinely valuable + worth referencing again. 

• Shares: The number of times someone sends your post to their own followers. This can include reposting it, sharing it to their stories, or sending it to a friend.

Shares are social media gold. They’re a sign your content is valuable, relatable, and helpful (so much so that they want other people to see it, too).

General Social Media Terms:

• Algorithm: The mysterious forces that decide which posts show up first (or at all) in someone’s social media feed. Gone are the days of chronological scrolling, now the algorithm decides who sees what, when, and how often.

The algorithm is influenced by what a person usually watches, likes, or comments on, plus how much engagement a post is already getting.

• Carousel: A type of social media post that contains multiple slides (graphics or photos) that a viewer can scroll through to.

Pro-tip: Carousels help increase engagement because viewers spend longer on these posts while they scroll through them. Recently, Instagram has been sharing carousels as reels. When possible, add music to these posts to get the most out of them!

• Comments: Replies on your posts or stories, whether they’re text or emojis. When your audience comments on your content it is a strong sign that your content is connecting with your audience on a deeper level (rather than just getting a quick double-tap).
• Content Buckets: This concept is basically the foundation of what your social media posts are built around. It helps group your content into clear categories so your feed doesn’t feel random. When you mix a few of these together, it creates a more organized presence for you and helps your followers understand you, your brand, and the kind of content they can expect. Think things like: Service Highlights, Staff Features, Behind the Scenes, Product Showcases, and more.

Need help building your social media posts around specific topics? Read this blog: Content Buckets Work… If You Know How to Use Them.

• Handle: Your social media profile name. Your handle is what appears before the @ sign when someone is tagging or mentioning you. 

This is usually your business name or some variation of it. Ours is @stratossocialmediaclub.

• Platforms: The different social media apps or websites you can post content on. Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, Snapchat, or Threads.

Generally, we recommend you not try to post to every single platform. Choose the ones that your audience is on the most and focus your efforts there.

• Static: A post that consists of a single image, graphic, or photo that doesn’t move + a caption. These are good for statement posts, brand identity, and facts. They are generally useful when you need a quick turnaround for a post.
• Stories (Instagram + Facebook): Not showing up in your social media feed forever, this content lives 24 hours in your stories. These can include videos or static images/graphics. They’re great for updates, invitations, + bite-sized engagement. 

Want more ideas for stories? We recommend using interactive stickers. We share our favorites in this blog: The BEST and WORST Instagram Interactive Story Stickers for Small Businesses.

• Reels (Instagram + Facebook): Short-form videos used in place of carousel or static posts. These can include videos of you talking to the camera, showing something, or even b-roll footage.

Content Creation Terms

• Batch: Our favorite tip for creating content with less stress. Create a batch (in our world, a month’s worth) of content at a time so you can schedule it and forget it for the rest of the month. This leaves you more time to focus on running your business.
• B-Roll: Video recording of more behind-the-scenes/candid content. Think: pouring your coffee, typing at your computer, walking, getting ready, talking with a friend or family member. B-roll is great for reels, often having words layered on top.
• Call-to-Action: CTAs are used to give your viewer direction on what to do next. Sometimes they encourage someone to buy or schedule an appointment. Other times they’ll direct someone to share, comment, tag a friend, or save your post. It all depends on your post. 

If you need help figuring out which CTA’s to use when, read this blog: When “Buy Now” Won’t Cut It: CTA Ideas Small Business Owners Can Customize

• Copy: The words you use to communicate your points and engage your audience in your captions. Your copy can be shorter or lengthier depending on it’s purpose + the accompanying graphic(s) or reel. Generally, more info in graphics + reels can lend to shorter captions. Focus on clear captions that use storytelling elements.
• Graphics: The visual representation of your content. Think designs and infographics. Usually, in social media, this is the picture that accompanies your caption. These can also include photos that contain designs or text on them.
• Hashtags: When you add the # to the beginning of a word, it can help people find and search for posts like yours. While hashtags don’t get quite as much attention as they used to, they can still be used as a search tool, we still recommend them.

*Note: Include hashtags on Instagram, LinkedIn, + X only. How many should you include? Instagram: 1-3, LinkedIn: 3-5, X: 1-2

• Hook: A hook is a sentence used at the beginning of your post to catch your audience’s eye and draw them in to reach more. It should be catchy, surprising, or controversial.
•  Keywords: These are words  or phrases that are specific to your business and are SEO friendly. If you want your content to be discoverable, keyword strategy matters more than ever.

Want more tips on hashtags + Keywords? Read this blog: The DIYers guide to Social Media Keywords + Hashtags

• Memes: A piece of content (think videos, GIFs, images or even text) that are sarcastic, humorous, and relatable. 
• Trending Audio: Music that is currently helping posts or reels show up on more people’s feeds, because it’s being used + shown more. You can use trending audio as background for your reels (and even static or carousel posts).

Social Media Tools:

• Meta: The company that owns several social media apps, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads. Usually referred to when talking about Facebook and Instagram.
• Meta Business Suite: A social media management tool run by Meta. This allows you to schedule posts, manage messages/comments, run ads, and look at your analytics all in one place. It’s free, but some users feel it’s confusing for beginners.
• ManyChat: A platform that lets you build automated replies to audience comments. It helps you answer comments + DMs from your followers, increasing engagement.
• Social Media Scheduler: A website/tool that you can use to plan and schedule your content ahead of time across various platforms Many of them also give you analytics. Some are free, some are paid, and each has its own perks. 

 We share more info on schedulers in this blog: Why You Should Use a Social Media Scheduler (Even If Experts Say Not To).

Now that you have the 411 on social media lingo, you can consider yourself a social media expert. Just kidding, but any time you encounter a marketing term you don’t know, you can check this blog.

If you’re looking for more general marketing vocab, visit our Stratos blog, Marketing Terms Explained.

You didn’t think you were leaving without homework, did you? You can find it below!

Use your renewed understanding of social media vocab to benefit your social media right now.

1. Did you get a renewed sense of key analytics terms? Go look at your analytics for a better appreciation of what they’re telling you. Use the info to inform a new post.

2. Do you have a better understanding of different types of posts now? Create one of the types of posts mentioned in this blog. Shoot for one you don’t usually create.

Okay, social media marketing guru, you’re ready to take on the world of social media lingo now. But just remember, while there was homework, there’s no quiz. If you need another quick reminder of what something means, revisit this blog for a better understanding.

Are there any words you think we should add to this blog? Send us an email (diyclub@stratossocialmedia.com) + maybe we’ll do a part two.