Social media is a great way to promote your book, but it can also be hard to stay up-to-date on all the lingo! Here’s a comprehensive list of 20 essential social media terms to empower you in maximizing the potential of your promotional efforts on Facebook, Instagram, and more!
Algorithm:
Every social media platform uses a complex set of rules and calculations to prioritize the content that users see in their feeds. Understanding these algorithms can help you tailor your keywords and hashtags to reach your target audience better.
Bio:
An account bio is the short description on your profile page that introduces you and your account to the viewer. The bio often includes links to professional or promotional websites.
Caption:
Captions are written descriptions that accompany a photo or video post. The best captions tend to be succinct, informative, and engaging.
Carousel Posts:
On photo-oriented platforms like Instagram, posts with more than one photo are called carousel posts. Users can swipe through the series of photos united by the same caption and comment section. Browse ideas for different types of social media posts here.
Comment:
Comments are a form of engagement in which users publicly share messages on your social media post. Account owners and other users can directly interact with these comments in the comment section.
Direct Message (DM):
Social media platforms have features that allow users to send private messages to accounts. The messages can only be seen by the sender and the recipient.
Duet:
This feature of TikTok allows you to post your video alongside a video from another creator, potentially helping you to engage with a wider audience.
Engagement/Accounts Engaged:
Metrics like “Accounts Engaged” on Instagram track the number of individual accounts that have actively engaged with your post. This engagement includes likes, saves, comments, shares, and replies.
Hashtag:
By placing the # symbol before a word or phrase, accounts signal to viewers and the platform algorithm that the post is connected to that specific topic, person, or group.
Highlights:
The Instagram Highlights feature allows you to save Stories to your profile. You can also group Highlights thematically or chronologically.
Impressions:
Impressions are the total number of times a post has been viewed. This metric does not account for the same user viewing the same content multiple times.
Live:
Most social media platforms offer Lives, which are a feature that allows creators to host live streams where they can engage directly with users in real time. Lives can also be saved as a permanent video post upon completion.
Pinned Posts:
You can “pin” posts to the top of your page so they are the first posts visitors see when they go to your profile.
Profile Picture:
The profile picture is an image used to identify your account. Some social media platforms (like Facebook, X, LinkedIn) also have a cover photo, which is a large banner across the top of your page.
Reach/Accounts Reached:
This metric measures the number of individual viewers that have viewed your content.
Reel:
On Instagram, a reel is a 15-90 second portrait video that remains on your page as a post (unlike Stories, which disappear after 24 hours). Reels are particularly effective for promotional content and share a similar format and function to videos on TikTok.
Story:
On platforms like Facebook and Instagram, Stories are photos or videos that only remain viewable for 24 hours. They can be found at the top of the feed and include a variety of features to boost engagement, including polls, quizzes, and countdowns.
Tag:
Many platforms allow you to include “tags” that link your post to related accounts.
Username:
Also referred to as your handle, your username is the unique social media name that users use to identify your account. We recommend keeping your username consistent across all of your social media platforms so that users can easily find your different accounts.
Verified Account:
Accounts with a blue check mark near their username are verified. This marker is used to authenticate notable people, organizations, and brands. Many platforms, including Instagram and X, have also created paid options for verification.
Now that you know these key terms and definitions, you’re ready to conquer your social media branding! And don’t forget to check out our other informative glossaries to expand your publishing and book PR vocabulary!
If you’d like to learn more about navigating social media for book publicity, reach out to our team at Pacific & Court!