The marketing and advertising industries are notorious for making up their own buzzwords, in order to emphasize and, in some cases, glamorize trends and ideas as they come into the public space. (I once received an email from a media company encouraging me to “techcessorize” my iPad – how’s THAT for corny PR language?) Here are a few definitions intended to flush out fresh trends from Orlando advertising agencies, and what they could mean for you.
Advocacy: A new phase in the traditional marketing cycle, where fans of a brand encourage active engagement by sharing, via their own social media platforms.
Aggregator: An aggregator collects content from a number of sites around the web, and allows people to search the aggregated content to find links that they may find of interest. Popular aggregators include Reddit and Google Reader RSS Feeds.
Agile Marketing: A marketing technique that involves the use of agile tactics, such as real-time response to marketing opportunities, brief stand-up meetings and investing resources in production and project execution (as opposed to planning).
API: Application Programming Interface. Companies such as Facebook and Foursquare allow third-party applications to access their systems in order to create innovative uses for such platforms.
App: Short for application. Though mostly associated with smartphones and iPads, browser-based applications may connect to Facebook or other social networks, such as Facebook games like The Sims Social or Words with Friends.
Content Marketing: Based on the theory that good content creates reader and viewer interest and encourages engagement and social sharing, content marketing describes the consistent generation of branded content to create and sustain search engine traffic, and to keep people returning to a company’s website or social platforms. (Content marketing = keeping your blog up to date.)
eCommerce: All commerce activities that occur on the internet. While people commonly think of companies such as eBay and Amazon, newer power players in the eCommece industry include companies such as Groupon and Fab.
Engagement: The process by which readers and viewers interact with your content, generally by commenting, “liking,” up-voting, mentioning and sharing.
Frictionless Design: The development of intuitive, painless digital interfaces that reduce bounce, increase conversion and increase user satisfaction.
Gamification: This technological function makes digital behavior into a game. Though Foursquare didn’t create this type of tactic, which encourages repetitious behaviors that presumably lead to more points, the company made it popular by including “badges” in its platforms, allowing people to earn various badges (and therefore, social capital) for their check-ins.
Hybrid: A hybrid delineates a person who has a broad skill set applicable to a number of technological disciplines, though that person typically also has one or two areas of true expertise.
Infographic: A visual representation of a data set. Sometimes funny or downright hilarious.
Meme: You know those funny cat pictures, or those sarcastic eCards that always pop up in your Facebook feed? As people share those photos and images, and continue to alter them in ways that are humorous and make sense within the context of the original content, they becomes Internet memes. (It’s pronounced like “theme.”)
Native Speakers (of Technology): This term is used to describe a generation that is growing up with smartphones, tablets and computers as the norm. These children are learning through interactive games as opposed to books and notebook paper.
Pivoting: When a company realizes it’s not meeting its goals, it may pivot to set a new trajectory. This may occur in a single marketing campaign, or may apply to an entire business strategy.
SEM: Search engine marketing. SEM may involve paid search, search engine optimized content, or both.
Social Capital: Many people believe that social capital is at the core of most individuals’ content creation and sharing behaviors. The theory is that people share content with the hope or idea that it will elevate or retain one’s status within their online community. Put simply, the idea is that people share content because it makes them “look cool.”
Social Listening: Monitoring digital media to assess what’s being said about a company, brand, product, or person on the internet in real time. Listening provides opportunities for quick response to customers, get ahead of public relations issues, and trending topics.
Social TV: This describes technologies and behaviors that combine television and social media content. For instance, when brand marketers encourage fans to live Tweet sporting events, this is a form of social TV.
Trendjacking: Leveraging a trending topic to generate buzz around a brand. Like most marketing tactics – there are smart, creative ways to do this right, and also terrible, clunky attempts that get this all wrong.
Viral Video: No one can create a viral video; rather, they can aim to create a video that “goes viral.” Though many viral videos have well over 1,000,000 views, a video can be said to have achieved some level of virality at views as low as 100,000.
We sometimes throw these words around at our Orlando marketing agency, but we’ll never leave you in the dark about what they mean, and the implications for your company. (And we’ll never ask you to techcessorize ANYTHING.)
Contact us and we’ll help fill you in on the fancy lingo.
