Aggregation
The collection of content from various online sources such as blogs and websites using their RSS feeds. Typically presented on aggregator websites and customisable portals such as iGoogle and newsvine.
Alerts
Search engines such as Google allow you to save specific searches and receive an update whenever a new result appears for that particular search, typically delivered by email or RSS.
This is particularly useful for brands wishing to monitor mentions of their brands online, in particular on blogs and websites.
Authenticity
Authenticity is remaining true to yourself, your brand and your values.
Badge
An image that indicates the user is a member of a certain group or movement, or has taken part in some sort of event.
Blog
A website where users can share content posts. They can be run by individuals or by several users, can be self hosted or hosted on a blogging platform. There are various different types of blog, including photo blogs, where the content is predominantly photographs, video blogs and text blogs. Blogs can also be a hybrid, including video, photo and text posts. (see also, Micro Blog)
Blog Roll
A selection of other blogs that a user feels is worth reading, placed on their blog.
Collectors
Individuals who comment, rate or review the content
Comments
The reply a user has made to a certain piece of content
Creators
Individuals who create content such as blogs or articles, videos or photos etc
Critics
Individuals who comment, rate or review the content
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Customer Relationship Management is a strategy in which a company attempts to develop relationships with the existing and potential customers, typically facilitated though the use of technology to capture, store and analyse information about customers.
Forums
Individuals who comment, rate or review the content
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)
Inactives
Individuals who do not participate
Influencer
A user in a given field or area of interest that influences the opinions of others in that area. They are also often perceived as thought leaders or trendsetters.
Joiners
People that maintain a profile on a social networking site
Micro Blogs
Stripped down versions of traditional blogs, that typically limit the number of characters that any given post can be. Most notable example is Twitter.
Micro Donations
Where users donate small smalls of money towards a charity or good cause.
Micro Payments
Where users pay for a product or service in small, regular amounts. Typically involves paying a recurring nominal fee for content online, such as news or webcomics.
Micro Philanthropy
Micro Philanthropy
Multimedia
The different types of media, including pictures, videos and audio recordings.
Online community
A group of people that form around a specific site, channel or idea.
Podcasts
Audio recordings that are syndicated online. They can be streamed or downloaded.
RSS
Stands for Really Simple Syndication. A feed containing the latest updates from a given site that can be subscribed to, akin to a newsletter.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
A type of online marketing that improves a site’s traffic by improving their position in the SERPs. Typically through SEO or paid advertising.
Sentiment
A quantitative measure of the feeling behind online content, such as blogs posts and comments.
Social Bookmarking
Where a user collects the URLs of sites they consider to be funny, interesting or useful for future reference.
Social Media
An umbrella term referring to a large number of applications and services that enable interaction, communication and collaboration with other people online.
Social Networks
Social networking sites were initially sites where each user created a profile and was able to add other users to their network. The medium has grown, absorbing features from other areas of social media, so whilst they are their own genre, their feature sets overlap heavily with other tools. Most large social networks, including Facebook and MySpace all include blogging, instant messaging, internal messaging, bulletin board as well as much other functionality.
Spectators
Users that consume content without commenting
Tags
User generated keywords that are applied to content. Typically used to organise content and facilitate easy searching of archives.
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 is an umbrella term referring to a large number of applications and services that enable interaction, communication and collaboration with other people online.
Webinar
A seminar conducted online.
Widget
A small application performing a specific function that can be shared on the web.
Wikis
User editable pages that contain information around a given subject. They facilitate the sharing of knowledge by online communities by allowing multiple users to contribute to a wider pool of knowledge. Most notable example is Wikipedia.