The Social Media Dictionary for Dummies

At Social Songbird we understand that in the ever changing world of Social Media, it is easy to get lost in all the techie jargon. 

paulstallard.me

We also know it's not easy to wrap your head around everything the first time, so that's why we're putting everything in one handy article. Go on, make us a bookmark, you know you want to.

And hey, whilst we're feeling generous, we're going to throw in a few tips on how to use these tools effectively. So, let's begin:

Analytics: From the minute you create a Twitter account you get access to analytics.twitter.com - just not many people know about it. These analytics help you keep track of your account's growth and if you head there now you'll be sure to spot most of the words below.

previdenzafacile.com

Having a Google account gives you the same sort of thing but it's called Google Analytics... Creative huh?

Insights: Okay, so Facebook wanted to be different and they called their analytics something else. It's the same thing with a very similar layout, just remember, you only get Facebook Insights if you have made a Facebook "Page."

Reach: When you're looking at your analytics/insights and it's telling you what your overall reach was, it's actually telling you how many people's news feed you made it on to that month/week/day (depending on your settings). 

Post Reach: As opposed to just "reach" your post reach is the number of people who saw either an individual post, or you can choose to view an accumulated figure for all your posts.

Impressions: Impressions are pretty similar to reach. They're simply saying how many times your post appeared on news feeds. However, your reach may be less than your impressions, because one person can see multiple impressions. 

So to recap: Reach is how many actual users saw your post and impressions is how many posts in total made it onto a news feed at some point. 

Organic VS Paid: Likes and reach (and many other things) can be paid for on social media. So if you're looking at your social media account and it's telling you two sets of figures (one organic/one paid) it means somewhere along the line you have paid to promote your account.

thenutritionhealer.com

Paying for reach/likes is not a bad thing and in fact most big brands and pages still pay for their social media posts to get to the top of our news feeds. Being 100% organic may sound good, but you won't get too far without a little help.

Your paid figures should always be higher than your organic, if they're not you're doing something wrong. The usual mistake is being too specific when selecting your target audience. Facebook is pretty good at telling you if you're trying too hard.

There's a limited number of people who will want exactly what you're offering, so don't be afraid to broaden your horizons.

None the less, don't fall into the trap of saying "EVERYONE" because trust me, whilst it might look good on the outside, an account that isn't targeted is a lot worse for your business than an organic account with less followers.

Boosts: A boost is one of the ways you can reach a paid audience. This type of promotion can only be applied to your Facebook posts. When you click this button (in the bottom right corner of your post after it's published) you will be met with a screen where you can create a target audience and select a budget (minimum £1 a day).

We've discovered that boosting is the most cost efficient form of promotion for the amount of likes, clicks and views you get. 

Top Tip: Make sure the post you’re boosting includes all relevant details and a link to your website. Make it friendly but also keep it applicable... i.e. don’t choose that cute pic of a cat stuck in a cereal box, chose that awesome graphic you had made with your logo in! It's all about brand awareness, guys! 

Promote: As opposed to boosting, promoting a page is putting the entire business page out there. This will only include your description, your cover photo and your profile picture. Whilst it's great for getting people to your Facebook page, if it's traffic to your website that you're after: a boost is your best bet. 

Either way, whether you promote or boost, they should appear like these Sponsored Posts in your News Feed:


Top Tip: When promoting your page you can choose to have it in "Desktop News Feed," "Desktop Right Column" and "Mobile News Feed." 

We highly suggest that you remove the "Desktop Right Column" from this list as it is not very productive and will run out your budget quicker! 

The reason we think that this one doesn't work too well, is because few people will check that side of their screen.  We all know it as the "advert area" - however, with the Sponsored Posts embedded within the timeline, it's a lot easier to "accidentally" read them.


Engagements: No, you're not getting hitched! Engagements are basically interactions. These include all the likes, comments, shares and post clicks that your page/post is receiving.  Post clicks can't be seen by your followers, but they're actually the most important. For every post click you get, that means someone is actually clicking and (hopefully) reading your article/enjoying your cute cat/visiting your website.

Scheduling: We're all busy people and scheduling is actually one of the most handy tools that Facebook has to offer. Setting up your account to do all the posts whilst you carry on with a normal life means you're not spending your time updating Facebook every hour or so!

Twitter does offer a similar tool, but it's a little more complicated and hard to come by (so we'll save that for a whole different article - keep your eyes peeled though).

How do you schedule?
When you make a post, in the bottom right corner you can publish it or, if you click the drop down arrow, you can schedule it. From here, it's easy peazy. You chose a date, then a time and bam. Scheduled. 

You can then view all your scheduled posts whenever you want, edit them, delete them and re-schedule them. You can even backdate them if you missed the date!

SO!

There you have it. A tailor made list of Facebook & Twitter's confusing jargon, I hope it's cleared a few things up for you.

Remember to keep your eyes on our "How To" section of Social Songbird for more articles like this.

And good luck!

Megan Herdson

Megan is a country girl who moved to the city with some big dreams. She is studying her MA in Creative Writing whilst also managing an American Football Team.  She loves her blog and wants nothing more than to have her words read. That and to win the Championship, obviously. Follow her @MeganAtSMF

 

Contact us on Twitter, on Facebook, or leave your comments below. To find out about social media training or management why not take a look at our website for more info http://socialmediacambridge.co.uk/.