by Carlos Macías
Facebook and Twitter share the glory with thousands of young protesters in Tunisia and Egypt for overthrowing decades-old dictatorships. Social media has proven that it is already an integral part of our global society. However, its evolution has created a variety of new concepts that may confuse even seasoned professionals. Let’s familiarize ourselves with 10 of the newest (for the average internet user) terms in social media:
- Over-indexing:
Lately, every study on how Latinos use the Internet concludes that we are over-indexing on mobile and social media platforms. This simply means that we are using it more often than other ethnic groups. - Self-influencers:
What? Relax, it is not that complicated. Internet marketers collect information about your preferences when you surf the net. Unfortunately, this process is more intrusive than most of us would like. So, being a self-influencer means you control the information you share online about your tastes without revealing your identity. - Tags:
When you upload an article, picture, or video online you can assign description words that capture the essence of your post. This is useful when you are searching using keywords in search engines like Google or Bing. - Hashtags:
When you type a # symbol before a word in Twitter, you are transforming it into a keyword. Then, any person can search for this keyword and read all the tweets sent with the hashtag or include it in his/her tweets to join that particular conversation. - Re-tweets:
If you like a tweet from one of the people you follow, you are able to forward it to your followers. You may add hashtags or your own comments as long as they stay within the 140-character limit. - Social bookmarking:
We all bookmark Internet pages that are useful and we don’t want to forget. Now you can share these bookmarks with others and classify them as you prefer. Remember, you are not sharing a file; you are only sharing the link that references the content. - Geolocation:
Social media is taking advantage of wireless technology. You no longer have to say “I was there,” now you can say, “I’m here and this is what is happening.” - Check-ins:
With geolocation, you can tell the world that you just walked into a restaurant. Marketers have figured out a way to create buzz, build user reviews and deploy promotions to people that take the time to do a virtual check-in. Popular sites are Foursquare, Gowalla and Foodspotting. - Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
If you are not a web designer, blogger or marketer, you can ignore this one. Just be aware that every time you look for information online and you find it with ease, accuracy and speed, it is the careful work of many people organizing, tagging and managing information. - Cloud computing:
You used to buy a computer with many programs that will do a specific task. In the near future, you will need computers with programs that act just like applications on your cell phone. You send your information or query; it gets processed “in the cloud” and comes back with the result. The process no longer takes place in your own computer.
To learn more about Carlos, visit Carlos Macias Web.
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and should not be understood to be shared by Being Latino, Inc.
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