Social media and influencer marketing is constantly evolving, and it’s essential to have a solid understanding of the key terms that define and shape these industries. To help marketers and professionals, we’ve put together the ultimate glossary that defines and explains all the most common terms in social media and influencer marketing.

From basic concepts like “micro-influencers” and “hashtags” to advanced strategies such as “algorithm” and “engagement”, our glossary covers a comprehensive range of terms used in influencer marketing.

Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or starting an influencer marketing program, use this glossary to stay informed about the terms and acronyms used in this dynamic field.

Glossary of terms for influencer marketers

Affiliate marketing: Affiliate marketing is a method of marketing where a brand compensates third parties, called affiliates (often influencers or content creators), to generate traffic or leads for the company’s products or services. Affiliates earn a commission by promoting a company’s products or services and driving traffic to their website through unique tracking links.

Affinity: Affinity is how much a given social media profile overlaps with another. If two profiles talk about similar content, are interested in similar subjects and reach similar audiences, there’s a high overlap between those two profiles. That means they have a high affinity for one another. Influencer Marketing by Sprout Social’s (formerly Tagger) proprietary metric that discovers look-a-like brands or individuals. Affinity data allows you to identify influencers whose audiences are predisposed to like your brand or product.

Algorithm: A set of rules and signals that define how data behaves. In social media, algorithms prioritize content based on factors like user preferences, past behavior and content popularity to create a personalized experience for everyone.

Authenticity: An influencer’s genuine and truthful portrayal of themselves and the brands they partner with. Authentic influencers create content that aligns with their values and resonates with their audience, building trust and driving meaningful engagement.

Brand advocate: Someone who genuinely loves a brand and recommends its products or services to others. They often share their positive experiences through word-of-mouth, social media or online reviews. They are driven by personal satisfaction rather than financial incentives.

Brand ambassador: A person who partners with a brand to represent and advertise to their audience. A brand ambassador supports the company’s offers and acts as the embodiment of the company’s values and image through words, actions, social media posts, etc.

Brand awareness: The extent of consumer familiarity with a particular brand, good or service. Brand awareness is about creating a memorable identity and establishing a presence in the market so that consumers can easily remember and identify your brand and its products or services.

Campaign brief: A set of guidelines and goals that direct the creation and execution of a marketing campaign. It outlines audience, objectives, key messages, channels and timelines. Here’s a campaign brief template to inspire your next initiative.

Content creator: Someone who produces and shares engaging material, such as videos, blogs or social media posts, designed to entertain, inform or engage a specific audience. While all influencers are content creators, not all content creators are influencers.

Cookies: Pieces of code that are added to users’ web browsers as they visit different websites. Cookies are used to collect data—like the websites the user visited—to help deliver the user the most relevant content to specific audiences.

Creator economy: A community of independent content creators, such as influencers, writers, bloggers and YouTubers. They monetize their passions and skills by engaging with their followers and building a community.

Creator listening: The active practice of monitoring and analyzing online conversations and audience feedback relevant to a creator or a creator marketplace. This involves tracking mentions, comments, reviews and social media discussions to understand audience sentiment, interests and preferences.

CPM [Cost Per Mille/ Cost Per Thousand Impressions]: The fixed price of every 1,000 advertisement impressions on one webpage or specific advertisement.

CTR [Click Through Rate]: The percentage of people who click on an element after seeing it, such as an affiliate link, advertisement on a webpage, social media post, etc. It is calculated by dividing the number of clicks received by the number of impressions and multiplying by 100.

Demographics:

  • Influencer Demographics: Characteristics of influencers like age, gender, location and cultural backgrounds.
  • Audience Demographics: Characteristics of an audience like age, gender, location and cultural backgrounds.

Earned media: Any media that’s been posted about the brand organically, such as news articles, social media posts, online reviews or word-of-mouth marketing. Posts are considered organic if the brand didn’t create or pay a creator for the content or use paid advertising

Earned Media Value (EMV): The monetary values assigned to the various actions associated with different social media content types, such as likes, comments and shares. EMV quantifies the return on investment of a brand’s influencer campaigns by quantifying the value of the engagement through earned media exposure.

Engagement: The interaction between users and content on social media, including actions like liking, commenting, sharing and clicking. Engagement measures the level of interest an audience has with a brand or individual on social media.

Engagement rate: Engagement rate is a way to measure how much people interact with your content on social media. It shows how actively interested users are in what you post. The more likes, comments and shares you get, the higher your engagement rate. Engagement rate is a metric often used in analyzing the efficacy of influencers in brand campaigns.

Hashtag (or tag): Hashtags are a word or phrase preceded by the # symbol used on social media to categorize content and make it more discoverable to others. It allows people to find posts related to a specific topic by searching for or clicking on that hashtag.

Impressions: The total number of times a piece of content is displayed on a screen, regardless of whether it was clicked on or interacted with.

Influencer: A person who has an engaged audience online through social media. They can impact potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the item(s) on social media.

Influencer-generated content (IGC): Any form of content, like videos, photos or blog posts, that an influencer creates and shares on their social media channels as part of a marketing campaign.

Influencer marketing: A type of marketing where brands partner with people who have a strong online following and influence over their audience to promote products or services.

Influencer marketing campaign: A strategic collaboration between a brand and one or more influencers to promote a product, service or message to their target audience. Learn about what makes an influencer marketing campaign successful.

Influencer outreach: The process of finding and connecting with relevant influencers who align with your brand and target audience. Influencer outreach involves building relationships with influencers to explore potential collaborations.

Influencer tiers: How many followers an influencer has determines which tier or category they fall into. An influencer’s tier affects the cost of working with that influencer.

  • Nano – <10K
  • Micro – 10-50K
  • Mid-Tier – 50-100K
  • Macro – 100K-1M
  • Mega/“Celebrity” – 1M+

Key performance indicators (KPIs): The measurable outcomes that show how effective a campaign is in achieving goals. KPIs in influencer marketing can include engagement, reach and awareness or audience growth.

Mention: Mentioning is when someone talks about your brand, product or service online, whether it’s a direct tag or @mention or an untagged mention in a post or comment.

  • Organic mention: Any mention or tag on social media that wasn’t paid for.
  • Sponsored mention: Any mention or tag on social media that’s been paid for by the company or brand.

Macro-influencer: Someone who falls between micro- and mega-influencers, typically having between 100,000 to 1 million followers on social media. They have a dedicated and engaged audience that trusts their opinions and recommendations.

Mega-influencer: Someone who has over 1 million followers on one or more social media platforms. They often have celebrity status and can reach huge audiences with their content.

Micro-influencer: Someone with a small but dedicated following on social media, typically between 10,000 and 100,000 followers. Micro-influencers often focus on a specific niche or area of interest and connect with audiences on a deeper level.

Mid-tier influencer: Someone who falls between micro- and macro-influencers, typically having between 50,000 to 500,000 followers. They offer a balance of reach and engagement, often having a strong voice in their niche and a dedicated audience.

Nano-influencer: Someone with a small but highly engaged social media following, typically between 1,000 and 10,000 followers. Nano-influencers are seen as relatable and authentic.

Paid media: Any form of external marketing efforts that involves a paid placement, such as pay-per-click advertising, branded content and display ads.

Post: A piece of content, like text, images, videos or links, that someone shares on a social media platform.

Product seeding: Also known as Gifting. Product seeding is a marketing strategy when a brand gifts its product to relevant influencers in their industry or niche. The hope is that influencers will post the gifted product and drive their audience to the brand’s website and for some, a sale.

Profile: A page that represents a person, organization or brand. Profiles usually have information about them, like their name, bio, location and profile picture. They also have a collection of posts and activity on a social platform.

Reach: The total number of unique individuals who have seen a piece of content.

Return on ad sales (ROAS): A marketing metric that measures the success of a digital advertising campaign. It calculates how much revenue you generate for every dollar spent on advertising. ROAS helps businesses evaluate which methods are working and how they can improve future ad efforts.

Return on investment (ROI): A way to measure how well an investment has performed by attributing profit and revenue growth to the impact of the marketing initiatives. Influencer marketing ROI is usually expressed as a percentage and helps you understand if the partnership was successful.

Sponsored content: A marketing strategy where a brand or company pays an influencer to create and share content that features their product or service. Sponsored content is designed to look like organic content blended with editorial, but it’s labeled as sponsored or paid content.

User-generated content (UGC): Any form of original, brand-specific content that’s created by customers then published on social media. UGC can include images, videos, reviews or even a podcast. Most importantly, brands do not create UGC themselves, but it can be shared on their profiles as a form of social proof.

Mastering the language of influence

Influencer marketing involves collaborating with individuals who have a strong online presence and significant influence over their followers. Understanding key terms in influencer marketing is crucial for effective collaboration and successful campaigns.

To elevate your brand’s reach and effectively engage your target audience through authentic content and genuine connections, dive deeper into the world of influencer management and learn its potential to transform your marketing strategies.