1. Blogosphere: Blogs are websites that are run by an individual or group that have dated posts listed in reverse chronological order. Following this logic, the blogosphere is the collection of the total blogs currently floating about on the internet. This term is especially useful when investigating trends.
- For example, “The blogosphere has recently been flooded with posts and commentary concerning the upcoming 2012 Presidential election.”
2. Facilitator: A facilitator, in terms of social media, is a person who helps an online group manage their conversations. They can do this in several ways: 1. stipulating a certain set of rules; 2. submitting topics for discussion, 3. helping keep the group on topic; etc.
- Example, “Professor Brey is the best blog facilitator a class could ask for.” =)
3. Links: Links are words or phrases in a post that are highlighted. These words, when clicked on, take the reader to a separate website that is related to the highlighted words.
- Example, “Links are fun! I can use them to allow readers quick access to the websites of some of my favorite companies/people. Bill Maher. Ford. Starbucks. President Obama. See? It’s easy.
4. Bookmarking: Bookmarking refers to saving a website address or specific item of content in your browser or on a bookmarking site such as del.icio.us, in order to allow readers easy access to your favorite sites.
- An example of this can be found on the side of this page.
5. Listening: Listening is, by far, the simplest, yet most important aspect of social media. It refers to browsing other sites to discover what topics people are currently interested in.Listening is vital if you want your posts to be relevant and “right now”. In terms of a specific business, it refers to setting up searches to monitor and respond when/if your organization is mentioned online.
- As I stated in an earlier post, Starbucks does an excellent job of listening to their customers to discover how they are perceived as a company.
Cliff Carter 