I offer this glossary as a clarification for how I am using specific terms and jargon. These definitions are not intended to be perfect or make a scholarly statement. I hope that this list will be a quick reference for those who are new to social media. Readers who are interested in longer treatments of these terms may wish to check Wikipedia, where they will find fairly reasonable definitions.

Audacity A free digital audio editing program.

Blog A website typically of short articles (100–500 words) updated regularly and organized by date with the newest posts at the top of the page. Blogs are often thought of as online journals, but have evolved into more news-like sites covering a specific topic or related topics. Blogs have one or multiple authors contributing posts.

Blogger A free blog platform owned by Google.

Facebook One of the largest social networking sites.

Google⁺ A social networking site launched by Google.

Google Groups Online discussion groups owned by Google that often include discussion boards, areas to share files and group email lists. Google Groups are free and can be made private.

Delicious A social bookmarking site used for saving and organizing links.

Digg A social news site where users can “digg” an article giving it an online vote used to rank it against other articles. Websites can embed a Digg button so that readers can easily “digg” an article thus helping to increase its exposure. Users can use the ratings to discover articles.

Feed A general term used to describe a regularly updated flow of content (articles, images, video, etc.) often used for specific technologies as in Twitter feed, news feed, or RSS feed.

Flickr A free image-sharing site where users can upload and tag images. These images can be shared via feed into other sites or social media services.

FourSquare A location-based social media site where users “check-in” to restaurants, bars and other places as a way to connect with friends.

Hashtags Words or phrases used in social media sites (primarily Twitter) that act as makeshift subject headings which tie together posts by users who are writing on similar topics.

Hootsuite Software for managing social media sites. Hootsuite allows users to post to multiple Facebook accounts, Twitter accounts and other social media sites.

HSX The Hollywood Stock Exchange is a trading market for stocks based on the earnings of Hollywood films.

HTML Hypertext Markup Language is the primary language used to create webpages.

InTrade An online futures market where users buy options on questions about world events.

LinkedIn A social media site used primarily for business and professional contacts.

Microblog A social media site where the size of posts is limited to encourage regular postings and fast browsing. Twitter is often classified as a microblog.

MP3 A common audio file-type used most often for downloading music or podcasts.

MySpace One of the first social media sites to reach widespread popularity. With the rise of Facebook, MySpace became less dominant.

Ning A social networking and discussion group site where users can organize their own groups around topics or interests. These groups can be public or private.

PDF A standard file-type for documents.

Pinterest A social networking and photo sharing site based on the concept of a virtual pin-board, where users “pin” images and visual links to websites. Information is shared in theme-based clusters.

Photo sharing sites Websites where users upload and distribute digital images which are often tagged based on subject or content. Flickr is one of the most popular examples of photo-sharing sites.

Podcast An online audio cast that utilizes MP3 files and XML. Podcasts are often associated with Apple’s iPod and iTunes, but are actually available on any device or software able to play MP3s. Generally, podcasts are semi-regular audio segments resembling radio broadcasts.

Reddit A social news site where users submit and vote on news stories.

RSS A standardized file-type that includes labeled content which can be incorporated into other sites. An RSS “feed” is a stream of content from a social media site such as a blog or podcast.

Scribd A social media site used to share documents of various types.

Slideshare A social media site used for sharing presentation slides.

Snopes A US-based website that debunks or confirms rumors and myths.

Social bookmarking Social media sites that store and organize links to online resources. Delicious is one of the more popular examples of social bookmarking sites.

Social media Online services that enable two-way sharing and communication between users, organizations and larger communities. Social media are often recognized as a key component of Web 2.0, which is an effort to differentiate from the static web of the late 1990s.

Social networking Any online service that allows users to connect socially sharing updates, photos, links and other social connections. Facebook, LinkedIn and Google + are the most well-known social networking sites.

Stumbledupon Social media site where user ratings and preferences enable the discovery of new sites and resources.

Tags Descriptive keywords assigned to websites, images and other files.

Tumblr A microblogging site often used to post media.

Tweetup A meetup of people who tweet around a topic.

Twitter A microblogging site utilizing text of 140 characters or less.

Web 2.0 Term used to describe a wide range of web-based tools and services that are more interactive and user-driven than the more static, page-driven websites that came to prominence during the initial growth of the web. The term “Web 2.0” has become somewhat passe in some circles.

Wiki A type of social media site where pages can be easily edited and updated.

Wikipedia User-created and organized encyclopedia

Wordpress A free blogging platform.

XML A standard file-type where content is “marked-up” or described for purposes of display within websites. XML is often utilized by social media sites.

Yahoo! Groups Online discussion groups owned by Yahoo! that are free and open any users. Groups can be made private.

YouTube A social media site where users share online videos.