53 Social Media Terms: A Glossary of Definitions

Social media terms are the words for the parts of a network (feed, handle, Story), the ways people interact (likes, mentions, DMs) and the numbers that measure a post (reach, views, engagement rate). The common ones are grouped by topic below, with each network's own definition and a help-center link where one exists.

• Accounts and profiles
• Post formats
• Discovery and engagement
• Metrics
• Publishing and planning
• Content rules of thumb

Accounts and profiles

Handle

A handle is the username after the @ that identifies an account, such as @pubblica.social. A handle appears in the profile URL and is what people type to mention you. Your display name can contain spaces and emoji; your handle can't.

Bio

A bio is the short description at the top of a profile. Instagram limits it to 150 characters. A bio usually says who the account is for and includes a link or a call to action.

Link in bio

"Link in bio" points people to the link on your profile, since links in captions aren't clickable on Instagram and TikTok. Instagram lets you add up to 5 links to a profile (Instagram Help), and Threads up to 5 (Meta).

Follower

A follower is an account that subscribed to your posts. Following is the reverse: the accounts you subscribe to. On LinkedIn, a connection is mutual, while a follower sees your posts without connecting.

Feed

A feed is the scrolling stream of posts in a network's app. A feed now usually mixes posts from accounts you follow with recommended ones from accounts you don't.

Algorithm

An algorithm is the set of ranking systems that decides which posts a feed shows and in what order. Networks don't publish exact formulas but explain the signals: TikTok, for example, names interactions, video information such as captions, sounds and hashtags, and device and account settings (TikTok).

Verified badge

A verified badge is the check mark next to an account name. Its meaning differs by network. On Instagram it confirms an account is the authentic presence of a person or brand, not that it's important (Instagram Help). Meta Verified is a paid subscription that includes the badge, and on X the blue check means an active Premium subscription (X Help).

Professional account

A professional account is a free Instagram account type with insights, contact buttons and access to ads. It comes in two kinds: Business, for shops, brands and organizations, and Creator, for public figures, artists and influencers (Instagram Help).

DM

A DM, or direct message, is a private message between accounts. Most networks keep DMs from accounts you don't follow in a separate requests folder.

Post formats

Caption

A caption is the text that goes with a photo or video. Each network caps its length: an Instagram caption takes up to 2,200 characters, a Threads post 500 and a post from a free X account 280.

Carousel

A carousel is a single post with several photos or videos that people swipe through. Instagram allows up to 20 in one post (Instagram Help), and LinkedIn and TikTok have their own versions.

Reel

A Reel is a short vertical video on Instagram or Facebook. Instagram lets you record and edit Reels up to 20 minutes long but doesn't recommend Reels over 3 minutes to people who don't follow you (Instagram Help).

Story

A Story is a photo or video that disappears after 24 hours, shown at the top of the app on Instagram and Facebook. To keep one on your profile, add it to a Highlight (Instagram Help).

YouTube Shorts

Shorts are vertical or square YouTube videos up to 3 minutes long, watched in their own swipeable feed (YouTube Help).

Pin and board

A Pin is Pinterest's post: an image or video with a short description and a link, saved like a visual bookmark. A board is a collection of Pins on one topic, and it can be public, secret or shared with others (Pinterest Help).

Thread

A thread is a chain of posts by one author that reads as one piece, used on X and Threads when a thought doesn't fit one post. Threads is also the name of Meta's text-based app.

Collab post

A collab post is an Instagram post or Reel shared by several accounts. It appears on each co-author's profile and in their followers' feeds, with one set of likes and comments. The author invites up to 5 collaborators from the mobile app (Instagram Help).

Duet and Stitch

Duet and Stitch are TikTok formats built on someone else's video. A Duet plays your video side by side with the original, and a Stitch plays up to 5 seconds of the original before yours (TikTok Support). The original's author decides who can use them.

Alt text

Alt text is a written description of an image for people who use screen readers. Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn and Pinterest let you add it when you post, and Instagram writes one automatically if you don't (Instagram Help).

UGC

UGC, or user-generated content, is content made by customers or fans rather than the brand. Brands repost it with the creator's permission and credit.

Discovery and engagement

FYP

FYP stands for For You Page, TikTok's feed of videos recommended to each viewer, now officially called the For You feed. TikTok picks the videos from what you watch, like, share and comment on, from details of the video itself and, with less weight, from your language and device. Follower count and past viral videos aren't direct factors (TikTok).

Explore

Explore is Instagram's discovery feed of photos, videos and Reels from accounts you don't follow, picked from what you like, follow and interact with. Each person's Explore is different (Instagram).

Hashtag

A hashtag is a word or phrase after the # sign, such as #socialmediatips, that groups posts on one topic. On Instagram a public post with a hashtag appears on that hashtag's page, and a post can have up to 5 (Instagram Help).

Topic tag

A topic tag is Threads' version of a hashtag. A post takes 1 tag of up to 50 characters, and it can contain spaces (Instagram Help).

Mention and tag

A mention is an @handle in a post or comment; the person mentioned gets a notification. A tag marks an account in a photo, linking to its profile.

Pinned comment

A pinned comment is a comment the post's author fixes at the top of the comments, above the newest and most liked ones. Creators pin a link or an answer to a common question. On YouTube you can pin your own comment or someone else's, one at a time (YouTube Help). Facebook lets you pin a comment during a live video (Meta Business Help).

Pinned post

A pinned post stays at the top of your profile above newer ones. Instagram lets you pin up to 3 posts or Reels (Instagram Help), X shows a pinned post first on your profile (X Help), and LinkedIn shows chosen posts in its Featured section.

Close Friends

Close Friends is an Instagram list of people who see the Stories, Reels and notes you share with that list only. Only you see who's on it (Instagram Help).

Going viral

A post goes viral when it spreads far beyond your followers, usually through shares and recommended feeds, and gets many times your usual reach.

Shadowban

Shadowban is the informal name for an account or post that stops reaching people who don't follow it, without a notice. Networks don't use the word. Instagram's Account Status shows whether your content can be recommended in Explore, Reels and search (Instagram Help), TikTok lists what's ineligible for the For You feed (TikTok), and X calls it limiting a post's reach (X Help).

Metrics

Engagement

Engagement is the interactions a post gets: likes or reactions, comments, shares, saves and, on some networks, clicks. Each network counts a slightly different set.

Engagement rate

Engagement rate is the share of a post's audience that interacted with it, as a percentage: interactions divided by followers, reach or views, times 100. LinkedIn, for one, divides clicks, reactions, comments, shares and follows by impressions (LinkedIn Help). Get a rate with our engagement rate calculator, which shows all three formulas.

Reach

Reach is the number of unique accounts that saw a post at least once. Ten views by one person count as a reach of one.

Views

Views count every time a post was shown or played, including repeats. Meta now reports views in place of impressions and plays: for Reels and videos, a view is each start or replay, and for photos, text and Stories, each time the post appears on screen (Meta). Instagram insights count views the same way (Instagram Help).

Impressions

Impressions are the number of times a post appeared on screen. LinkedIn counts one when at least half of a post shows for 300 milliseconds, and YouTube counts thumbnail impressions, the times a video's thumbnail was shown (YouTube Help).

CTR

CTR, or click-through rate, is clicks divided by impressions, as a percentage. On YouTube, it tells you how often people who saw a thumbnail opened the video.

Insights

Insights, or analytics, are the stats a network gives a professional or business account: reach, views, interactions, follower growth and when your followers are online.

UTM parameters

UTM parameters are tags added to the end of a link, such as utm_source=instagram, that tell Google Analytics where a visit came from. Build tagged links with the Google UTM builder.

Publishing and planning

Social media scheduler

A social media scheduler is an app that publishes posts at a time you set, on one or several networks. Pubblica is one: it publishes to 9 networks through their official APIs.

Content calendar

A content calendar is a plan of what goes out, where and when, usually by week or month. In a scheduler, it's the view of all scheduled posts by date.

Cross-posting

Cross-posting is publishing the same post to several networks or accounts, adapted to each one. Meta's apps can share a post between Facebook, Instagram and Threads, and a scheduler covers the rest: see how to post to multiple platforms at once.

Best time to post

The best time to post is the hour your audience is most active. Studies give a starting point and your insights refine it: see the best time to post on social media for every network.

Social media automation

Social media automation is software doing repeat work for you, such as publishing scheduled posts or posting one update to every network. More in our page on social media automation.

Character limit

A character limit is the most text a network accepts in one post, caption or bio. Check a draft against every network with our Twitter character counter.

Aspect ratio

Aspect ratio is an image's width to its height. A 1:1 square fits most feeds, 4:5 portrait takes more of the screen on Instagram and Facebook, and 9:16 fills Stories, Reels and TikTok. Sizes for each placement are in our guide to social media image sizes.

Safe zone

A safe zone is the part of a vertical video that the app's buttons, captions and profile name don't cover. Keep text and faces inside it, and check a frame with the TikTok safe zone checker.

Instagram grid

The Instagram grid is the 3-column layout of posts on a profile, which shows each post cropped to 3:4. Some accounts split one image across several posts so the grid forms a larger picture; our Instagram grid maker cuts the tiles.

Evergreen content

Evergreen content stays useful months after it's posted, such as a how-to or a checklist, so you can repost it. Its opposite is timely content tied to news or a trend.

Social media management

Social media management is running accounts day to day: planning, publishing, replying and reporting, often for several brands or clients. To run many accounts from one place, see how to manage multiple social media accounts.

Content rules of thumb

None of these rules comes from a network. They're starting points for planning a content mix, and each exists in several versions.

5:3:2 rule

The 5:3:2 rule says that out of every 10 posts, 5 should be useful content from other sources, 3 your own content and 2 personal posts that show the people behind the account. The aim is to keep self-promotion low.

5-3-1 rule

The 5-3-1 rule on Instagram is a daily engagement routine rather than a content mix: like 5 posts, leave 3 comments and follow 1 account in your niche. Some versions swap the follow for a DM.

5-5-5 rule

The 5-5-5 rule has no single meaning. The most common version is a daily routine: post 5 times, leave 5 thoughtful comments and reply to 5 Stories. Older versions mean spending 5 minutes a day on 5 new connections or posting no more than 5 times a day.

80/20 rule

The 80/20 rule says 80% of posts should inform, help or entertain and 20% should promote your product. It borrows its name from the Pareto principle. Unlike 5:3:2, it caps only the promotional share and doesn't split the rest.

Put the terms to work

A scheduler puts most of these terms in one place: write a caption once, check it against each network's character limit, pick the time and publish to every account. Pubblica's Free plan includes 20 posts a month on every network except X, with unlimited accounts and no card. Pro is $20 a month for unlimited posts on all 9 networks, with a 7-day free trial. See both plans of our free social media scheduler.