Fuzzy about social media terms? Take a look at this guide

While a number of us have adopted social media as a standard form of communication, plenty of us still have no idea what certain terms mean. Luckily, these terms are generally easy to understand once you’re given a push in the right direction. This guide should serve as a first step to understanding social media terms.

1. Tag

A tag can pertain to quite a few things, depending on how it is used. When referring to blogs, tags typically refer to the keywords that were used in the post. Tagging keywords in blogs allows search engines to recognize your post as pertaining to certain topics, and helps the post rank higher.


Tag might also pertain to the act of tagging a friend in photos on Facebook. This essentially means that you link someone to a photo that they are in. This feature has been around for years but it’s becoming more sophisticated as it now uses facial recognition.


The latest form of tagging on Facebook refers to tagging friends in posts or status updates. You can now refer to people in a post and tag them, which will alert them to your post. This will also cause the post to show up on their wall for all of their other friends to see.


2. Troll

In this instance, a troll does not refer to a little toy with neon hair and a jewel for a belly button. A troll, in social media terms, is a person who uses social media as a way to irritate people. They often make taunting or offensive posts in order to generate anger.

3. Friend

While we all know what the conventional meaning of friend is, that’s often not the meaning applied to the word friend in the social media world. In social media, to friend a person simply means adding someone to your network.

4. Stream

This is another double-meaning word. Streaming something pertains to receiving a constant flow of information, such as a webcast. A stream is what many people call their Twitter or Facebook home pages, where all of the recent information and updates are posted.


5. At mention

An at mention, or @ mention, is when you talk about someone on Twitter. It’s similar to Facebook tagging in that it will show up on the person’s Twitter stream if you mention them, and alert them to your post.

Although social media terms can sometimes be hard to understand, they usually pertain to simple processes that can be easily recognized. If you’d like to see an even more in-depth guide to social media terms, take a look at this article.