Social media marketing glossary

Simple explanations of social media and influencer marketing terms, with examples.

B

Barter collaboration

A barter collaboration exchanges agreed deliverables, such as a creator post, for a product or service rather than a cash-only fee.

Brand ambassador

A brand ambassador represents a brand through an ongoing relationship with an agreed role and set of responsibilities.

C

CPM

CPM, or cost per mille, is the cost of one thousand ad impressions within a specified campaign scope.

CTR

Click-through rate (CTR) is clicks divided by impressions, expressed as a percentage.

D

Dark post

A dark post is ad content that is not published as an ordinary organic post on the brand or creator profile.

E

Engagement rate

Engagement rate (ER) expresses interactions as a percentage of followers, reach or views.

F

Follower count

Follower count is the number of accounts following a creator. Audience size is a broader label, so specify what is being counted in a brief.

Follower growth rate

Follower growth rate is the net change in followers expressed as a percentage of the starting follower count.

I

Impressions and views

Impressions count displays of content or an ad. Views count displays or video starts according to the platform and reporting metric.

K

KPI

A key performance indicator (KPI) is a metric selected to track progress toward a specific objective.

M

Micro-influencer

A micro-influencer has a mid-sized community. This glossary uses a working band of 10,000 to below 100,000 followers.

N

Nano-influencer

A nano-influencer has a small following. This glossary uses a working band of 1000 to below 10,000 followers.

S

Social media reach

Social media reach is the number of distinct accounts or people exposed to content within a stated scope and period.

U

UGC

User-generated content (UGC) is content made by users, such as customer reviews, product photos and videos.

W

Whitelisting

Influencer whitelisting is permission to run paid advertising using a creator’s identity within an agreed scope.