Blog – A contraction of the term "Web log," these sites are Internet-based publications typically made up of a chronological list of articles or editorial statements referred to as posts. The site can be set up and managed by an individual, a group of people with a shared interest, an organization or company. Any topic or reason for writing can be the central theme or focus of a blog.

Blogging – Adding a post to a blog site; it can also be used to reference adding a comment that responds to an existing post. Some blog sites monitor, or screen, posts and comments and only allow those that directly address the topic and don’t include obscene or insulting language; others will post anything and everything – writer beware!

Blog post – Articles, editorials, essays, open letters and other long forms of writing used to communicate the author’s views and opinions about a specifics topic that are added (or posted) to a blog.

Micro-Blogging – A brief text comment written by a blog publisher or a reader, usually limited to 140 characters, that will be published on a blog; the content of this kind of post differs from a traditional post because of the limited space allowed.

Twitter – an Internet micro-blogging service that enables users to send and receive each others' short messages (up to 140 characters), which are called "tweets." The tweets are displayed on the author's profile page on the Twitter Web site but can also be delivered to other users (followers) who have signed up to receive them. Forwarding a tweet to someone after receiving it is called "re-tweeting."

Other micro-Blogging sites are are Tumblr, Plurk, Pownce, Jaiku. To learn more about these sites, visit smartbloggerz.com

 

Clip – The name given to an article, advertisement or other media reference that is removed from the original source; those sources can be printed newspapers or magazine as well as electronic media such as television, Web sites, e-zines or electronic versions of print publications.

Clipping Service – A company, like Media Intel, that conducts searches for media mentions important to a customer, creates electronic files of these mentions and delivers them to the customer. Some services also provide data storage on their servers and portals through which to access the archives clips.

Web clips – Press throughout the world available on the web and translate non-English articles captured into English.

TV clips – Segments of television broadcasts available for viewing on Web sites; International and domestic television coverage is available.

Media Clips– Electronic press coverage of all newspapers in the United States that are provided by Media Intel.

Social Media Clip – An article, advertisement or reference made on a social networking site about a company, individual, product or services that's captured, saved and made available by Media Intel.

 

Word-of-mouth marketing – Originally used to describe how individuals would impact the impressions, and even sales, of a specific product of services based on the recommendations - positive or negative - of family, friends or associates. Over time, businesses have made concerted efforts to influence the opinions by targeting communications efforts on blogs, review sites, social networking sites and other forms of electronic media using individuals to write favorable reviews and commentary while posing as independent individuals.

Buzz - A term associated with word-of-mouth marketing, this refers to the conversation about the interaction between individuals and a specific company, produce or service. Derived from the original definition of the word - the sound bees make - it implies the level of excitement (high or low) that generates a level of conversation similar to the sound bees make when excited or lethargic.

Viral-marketing – One view is a way to describe how word-of-mouth spreads a message - either positive or negative - more rapidly than traditional forms of media and advertising; "viral" referring to how quickly a virus can spread and how persistent and difficult to get rid of it can be. After businesses began to attempt to influence genuine word-of-mouth communications with messages and advertisements disguised as a private individual sharing an opinion, the term took on an unpleasant connation and is used to refer to the negative way consumers view these efforts as unwelcome as a virus.

Media Mention/Media Reference - The use of the name of a specific company, product, service, person, etc. within the context of an article, broadcast or other communication generated by the media. The value of such references depends on the context of the usage (positive, negative, neutral) and how it can be of benefit or harm to that company, product, service, person, etc.

Advertising Equivalency/Advertising Value - This gives a value to the article that is "clipped." If you had to buy this article as an advertisement, this is what it would cost.

Gross Impressions - This is the total number of times a specific printed article or advertisement is seen. The calculation is the number of subscribers x 3.5, to include pass along. "Pass along" means that paper picked up by one person is then given to 3.5 people

Published Advertising Rates - This is the cost associated with specific advertisement size and placement within a publication (e.g. 1/4 page ad, black and white $ ___ / color $ ___). These rates are used to determine the advertising equivalency.

Demographic - Within the context of marketing, this is the consumer group or population of individuals often used to define potential or existing customers and is a very important part of media planning.

Baby Boomers (people born 1946-1964) number 77.2 million and 30 percent of those are regular online users.

Generation X (people born 1965-1979) number 83.3 million and are the most active online users.

Generation Y (people born 1980-1994) number 70.4 million and have grown up using the Internet.

Vertical Market - Products and services that are sold to meet the needs of a broad industry, such as construction.

Horizontal Market - Products and services that are sold to meet the needs of a specific industry, such as semiconductors.

 

Media – The various forms used to distribute information or data to an audience, usually a large group of people.

Media Markets – A geographic region - usually organized around metropolitan areas and rural regions - where people will receive same (or similar) programming on television, radio station and some other types of media such as Internet content and newspapers. Occasionally, extremely large metropolitan areas can be subdivided into several segments.

Domestic/International Media – These terms refers to the location of the media outlet or source of the information generated; domestic, from within the United Stated; international, any country outside the United States.

Traditional media – Also referred to as “industrial media” or “mass media,” these are the forms of communication that have been used to reach a large audience for years before the age of the Internet: newspapers (daily, weekly, school, etc.), magazines (national, regional, local, etc.), television (network and cable) and radio; some also include newsletters in this category.

Electronic Media – Any form of media that utilizes electricity to communicate/distribute content, not printed on paper. Traditional forms of electronic media are radio and television. News forms utilize digital and other technologies such as Internet radio, satellite radio and pod casting, Web sites, hand-held device services and cellular phone services - including Internet access - are included in this form of media.

Print Media - Includes but is not limited to newspapers (distributed daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly), magazines (distributed weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, semi-annually), trade publication (for union members, specific trades - electricians, pipe fitters, etc.), professional journal (prepared by associations such as the American Bar Association, universities, etc.) and newsletters.

Print Edition - this is the paper copy of a publication, which can be a newspaper, magazine, trade publication, professional journal, newsletter or any other printed material containing editorial content, and usually paid advertisement. This terminology is used to differentiate from the electronic version of their content of these publications available via some form of electronic device such as a cellular phone or computer, usually delivered via the Internet.

Electronic Edition - this is the publication of a periodical - which can be a newspaper, magazine, trade publication, professional journal, newsletter or any other form of publication - in a digital or other format that isn't printed on paper. The editorial content, and usually paid advertisement, can be original, a duplication of a print edition or a combination of both. This terminology is used to differentiate from the print version of their content available via the paper copies of a newspaper, magazine, etc.

E-zine - A magazine available only via the Internet; while some successful e-zines have started printing a paper edition, the term refers to those publications published on the Web.

Television Media - Programming that offers news, reviews, editorial content, opinions and other information to viewers through network and cable broadcast companies. These can be domestic or international.

Local Affiliates - The name given to a television station allowed to broadcast national programming generated by a national broadcasting service (such as ABC, CBS, NBC) while the station retains regional control over the programming schedule, staffing and other business decisions.

Major Media Outlet - The name given to the largest sources of television broadcast content. These can be cable channels (CNN, HBO) or commercial television stations (NBS, PBS)

New Media/Forms of Media – These are non-traditional and growing sources that make information available to people. The Internet is one form of "new media" that is also one of the most well-known. Recent and still not as popular are other sources of information are social networking sites and resources for hand-held devices such as "smart phones" (phones with Internet access and other applications normally associated with a standard computer).

Social media – Web sites and other forms of online technology that encourage and allow people to share experiences, insights and opinions with others about their experiences, usually with a product, service provider, specific company or professional; sometimes referred to as “user-generated content.”

Electronic Social Networking – a way to describe the act of joining and participating in a Web site that's designed to bring people together

Forums – A place where anyone can start a conversation about any topic and others can join in. These communication tools usually organize information by topic.

Reviews – Sites or Web pages that are part of a larger site that encourage users to rates and provide personal experiences with a particular company, product, service, professional or anything else that can be "graded." Some of the most well known are Angie's List (http://www.angieslist.com) and Craig's List (http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites) - these also include job postings, real estate listing and a host of other local information.

Social Networking – Web sites that are designed to build "online communities" with people who share similar interests (social justice, environmentalism, etc.), activities (gardening, sports, reading, etc.) or just interested in meeting new people; there are a number of these sites that are becoming more popular than others - Facebook, My Space and Linked In (professional networking) are just a few that frequently make the Top Ten list of technology magazines (http://blog.compete.com/2009/02/09/facebook-myspace-twitter-social-network/).

Social Media – another way to describe the phenomena of the online community trend. Sometimes used interchangeably with social networking, Media Intel differentiates social media as a term to describe the communications and marketing power of these online community sites.

 

Automated Search Tools - Search engines used for media monitoring

Proprietary Search Software/Proprietary Search Technology - A custom software program designed to comb television broadcasts or the Internet utilizing a keyword search function to identify, retrieve and store specific Media Intel, that conducts searches for media mentions. These programs are more sophisticated, more technologically advanced and more accurate than standard search engines. Sometimes also referred to as an "advanced search system."

Standard Search Engine/Automated Search Tool - A simple software that combs the Internet utilizing a keyword search function to identify, retrieve and store specific Media Intel, that conducts searches for media mentions. These programs are available via Web sites like Google and Yahoo and offer cost-free, simplistic searches that frequently miss important information.

Daily E-mails/E-mail Notification - The electronic notices Media Intel sends to provide a summary of the Web Clips, TV Clips, Social Media Clips and News Clips that meet your search parameters.

Monitoring - The process of regularly scanning for specific information; in the case of television and the Internet, this is done with computer servers (electronic monitoring), while print publications are read by people (print monitoring).

Keywords - The specific terms identified by Media Intel's customers that are used to program search engine software and used by our staff editors when reading printed material.

Hits - The articles, blog posts and other media mentions identified by Media Intel's proprietary search software that scans television broadcasts and the Internet for keywords you identify.

Aggregator - Usually a Web site that searches for and combines information in the Internet around a specific them (CHECK: THEME?) e (CHECK: e?) or focus - news, sports scores, weather forecasts - and provides links and summaries in order to reference materials found from a variety of Internet source, making the content available to its customers.

Secure Server - A computer server that is protected by encryption software and passwords to preserve the digital content it stores.

Archiving - The organization and storage of electronic files - text or video footage; this storage can be short-term or long-term depending on the value of the files.

Portal - A secure (password protected) access into a defined area of a server that allows the user to view, retrieve, move, delete or store data in that specific part of the server. The server administrator is the only other individual with access to that portion of the server.

Batch - The process of bundling together a group of related computer files into a larger file and delivering them all at one time. In the case of TV Clips, Web Clips, Social Media Clips and Media Clips, Media Intel creates a batch file for customers to quickly and conveniently access all media mentions from the Media Intel secure servers.

Service Tour Animation - The Media Intel Web site video that provides a brief summary and visual tour of the services we provide.

Cached Text - A short-term storage location is called a cache - this is used to accelerate some computer operations by placing data or a copy of it, temporarily, in a location where it can be accessed more quickly. The media mentions Medial Intel identified with our proprietary search engine captures takes the data from the cache; therefore, the text is referred to as "cached text."

Text Only - A form of communicating Internet documents or data that removes all formatting (bold, underline, spacing) pictures, charts and other graphics; the result is only a simple text.

Web Content - Material created exclusively for Web sites.

 

.flv (Flash File) - These are the electronic files used to deliver video over the Internet.

OCR (optical chacter recognition) – A form of artificial intelligence that refers to both the process of scanning text from a printed page into a digital text file

PDF An acronym adopted as a way to describe a secure, electric document that can't be edited or changed unless the password for that document is known o the use; pdf is the name of the file extension used by a software (Adobe) to generate these secure documents.

RSS Feed (Rally Simple Syndication) - A syndication format that was developed as a way to aggregate (collect) information updates to blogs and the news sites and then make that information available as streaming text on a Web site. It was developed by Netscape in 1999.

URL (Uniform Resource Loader) - It's the address that an Internet servers connects to. Similar to a telephone number, the URL isn't the name of the person you wish to reach when dialing that number, but the telephone systems finds that number electronically and makes the connection with that specific phone.