Social Media Vocabulary – Lessons in the Social Media Networking Language of Today

The English language has experienced its greatest growth over the course of the last twenty years, thanks to the introduction of computers in our everyday lives. The first decade of the twenty first century will be well known for the exponential growth of the internet and its impact on our language.

Just in the last few years, social media has transformed the way we communicate. I thought it would be kind of fun to bring forth some of these terms to light here. My list features some of the less popular words that I feel should get some merit for their creativity.

Anonoblog: A blog site by an anonymous author(s).

AstroTurfing: A faux grass roots push to promote a product, service, or idea.

Crowdsourcing: When an organization harnesses the efforts and skills of those outside of the organization to volunteer content.

Deciprocity: Saying or doing the wrong things which results in a chronic decrease of friends and followers.

Dooced: Losing your job as a result of your blogging. Coined by the author of the popular site, Dooce, who was fired after venting about her company.

Folksonomy: Collaborative tagging, or social indexing. The collective use of tags to categorize content.

SOB: Successful and Outstanding Blogger (this definition is a vast improvement over the original).

Social Capital: The benefits received from a positive reputation and strong relationships in social networks.

Splog: Fake or spam blogs often used solely for the purpose of back linking and affiliate sales.

Vlog: Blog containing primarily video posts.