Have you read a term in one of my earlier posts and thought “what is she talking about?”  I tried to use plain easy to understand general terms in the first part of this series.  As we journey into more robust topics in the coming months, a primer in web marketing terms seemed timely!  So this is part II of my glossary series.  Last post was Content Marketing Glossary so if you missed that you might want to check it out.  This post will cover web marketing terms every small business owner needs to know.

What is a campaign?

A campaign is a set of coordinated marketing messages, delivered at intervals, with a specific goal, such as raising funds for a cause or candidate or increasing sales of a product.

What is inbound marketing?

Developing content and visibility through online presence that is not meant to be specifically promoted out but rather lives on your website as a means to draw customers through search and proactive research to your site.

What is integrated marketing?

Coordinating your online and offline marketing campaigns to ensure continuity.  Can be as simple as adding your website to your print ads or developing specific landing pages to drive off line consumers to your website with a special promotion.

What is a nurture process?

A way to identify probable customers who are in a “not yet” or “not no but not now” stage in the buying cycle and keep their interest on your product or service with educational and relevant content.

What is paid search marketing?

Paid search marketing is the placement of paid ads for a business or service on a search engine results page. An advertiser pays the search engine if the visitor clicks on the ad (pay-per-click or PPC).

What is a prosumer?

A prosumer is a person who proactively seeks information online before acting, and/or is more likely to offer User-Generated Content (UGC) - a superuser.

What is search engine marketing?

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a series of online tactics that, when combined with SEO, helps to attract customers, generate brand awareness and build trust. SEM (sometimes called search marketing) seeks to increase websites’ visibility chiefly through the purchase of pay-per-click ads and paid inclusion.

What is search engine optimization?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of arranging your website to give it the best chance of appearing near the top of search engine rankings. As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content, identifying high-traffic keywords and improving the site’s layout and design.

What is SMS?

SMS stands for Short Message Service, a system that allows the exchange of short text-based messages between mobile devices.

What is social bookmarking?

Social bookmarking is a method by which users locate, store, organize, share and manage bookmarks of Web pages without being tied to a particular machine. Users store lists of personally interesting Internet resources and usually make these lists publicly accessible. Delicious is the best-known social bookmark site.

What is social media?

Social media are works of user-created video, audio, text or multimedia that are published and shared in a social environment, such as a blog, podcast, forum, wiki or video hosting site. More broadly, social media refers to any online technology that lets people publish, converse and share content online.

What is social media optimization?

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a set of practices for generating publicity through social media, online communities and social networks. The focus is on driving traffic from sources other than search engines, though improved search ranking is also a benefit of successful SMO.

What is social networking?

Social networking is the act of socializing in an online community. A typical social network such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace or Bebo allows you to create a profile, add friends, communicate with other members and add your own media.

What is a tag cloud?

A tag cloud is a visual representation of the popularity of the tags or descriptions that people are using on a blog or website. Popular tags are often shown in a large type and less popular tags in smaller type

What is a tweet?

A post on Twitter, a real-time social messaging system. While all agree on usage of tweet as a noun, people disagree on whether you “tweet” or “twitter” as a verb. RT stands for retweet: Users add RT in a tweet if they are reposting something from another person’s tweet.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a popular social network, unveiled to the public in July 2006, that lets members post updates of no more than 140 characters. People have begun using Twitter in interesting ways to point to news stories, to raise funds for charity, and other unexpected uses.

What is UGC?

UGC stands for user-generated content, an industry term that refers to all forms of user-created materials such as blog posts, reviews, podcasts, videos, comments and more.

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 refers to the second generation of the Web, which enables people with no specialized technical knowledge to create their own websites to self-publish, create and upload audio and video files, share photos and information and complete a variety of other tasks. In this new world, the Internet becomes a platform for self-expression, education and advocacy that “regular people” can use on their own without having to go to an expert to do it for them in contrast to the less interactive publishing sites of Web 1.0. Some of the best-known Web 2.0 websites include Wikipedia, MySpace, Digg, Flickr and YouTube.

What is web analytics?

Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for the purpose of understanding who your visitors are and optimizing your website.

What is word-of-mouth marketing?

Word-of-mouth marketing, sometimes called grassroots marketing or conversational marketing, is an umbrella term for dozens of techniques that can be used to engage and energize customers. By building relationships with influencers through WOM, marketers can get people to become so enthusiastic about a cause, product or service that they drive sales through conversations.

About the Author: Heather Rubesch is currently the Director of Content for DemandCon, the only industry conference focused on accelerating the entire sales and marketing funnel. Her penchant for collaboration drew her 3 years ago to co-found the Savvy B2B Marketing blog with five of the most talented content marketers in the universe!