Everything you always wanted to know about digital media definitions but were afraid to ask

Digital Marketing Agencies spill their beans

Apple and Zuckerman are household names but what about all the digital marketing words in between? To effectively communicate with communicators in digital marketing agencies and small business social media, goggle (opposed to google) this glossary.

Agent
A personal digital assistant (PDA) that consists of second-generation artificial intelligence designed to learn and automate the routines of the user.

Analog
A format in which information is transmitted by modulating a continuous transmission signal.

Blog
A truncation of “web” and “log”, a blog is an informational column posted on the web. This is one of the most commonly-used tool by digital marketing agencies.

Bozo Filter
A feature supported in email that enables users to block messages from specific individuals.

Compatibility
The possibility of transferring a work of media art from one recording format to another.

Connected Culture
A term derived from Jerry Allocca’s book Connected Culture: The Art of Communicating with the Digital Generation that refers to the ways people now relate to others. A recommended must have from digital marketing agencies.

Cloud Computing
Storing, managing and processing data via a network of remote servers hosted on the internet instead of on a local server or a personal computer.

Cyberspace
A three-dimensional information network in which all services appear as audiovisual presentations in virtual space.

Data Network
Equipment and software used to transmit information between two or more users regardless of relative time or location.

Digital
The electronic, binary, numerical recording and presentation format used by computers.

Digital Footprint
A trail users leave from online activity.

Digital Life
A research and educational program that integrates the digital world with the physical world.

Digital Media
Any electronic device and media platform that allows users to interact with one another.

Digital Storytelling
A short form of digital media production by and about everyday people. This approach is most commonly used by digital marketing agencies in promoting their clients’ products and services.

Digitizing
Capturing an object, image, sound, document via an analog signal in digital form.

Embedded File
A multimedia file, such as graphics or sound, that is inserted into a web page.

Environment
A digitally-created space where the user can move as if in a physical world.

Filter
A program that accepts a certain type of data as input, transforms it and outputs the new data. This is typically used for screening information which is of interest to the user.

Firewall
A software and/or hardware system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network.

Generator
A computer program that consists of a limited, logical system of conditions and which operates within these limits in an unpredictable manner.

Google Analytics
A method to measure website traffic from a variety of social channels. This is used by digital marketing companies in gauging their online efforts’ effectiveness.

Google Glass
Google’s project program for developing a line of hands-free, head-mounted intelligent devices that can be worn by users as eyewear.

Gorilla Glass
An advanced glass technology that is used in screens for mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, PCs, and TVs.

Hot Spot
An area of a graphics object or a section of text that activates a function when selected or a specific place where a public wireless broadband network service is available to mobile visitors.

Hypermedia
A multimedia presentation wherein all materials consist of digitized data.

Interactive
Computer systems that allow users to accept input from human users.

Interface
The method of controlling the computer and presenting the data.

Internet
A global network community that connects millions of computers from more than 100 countries together.

Navigator
Netscape’s browser which runs on Windows, Macs, and other platforms.

Network
Two or more computer systems linked together.

Mosaic
An application that simplifies accessing documents on the internet.

Mozilla
The original name for Netscape’s browser, now called Navigator.

Online
Turned on, connected and ready to deliver and/or receive data.

Organic
A way to generate a natural placement on search engines.

Platform
The underlying hardware or software for a system.

Search Engine Optimization
Known as SEO, this process includes strategies and techniques to increase the number of visitors to a website. This process is used by digital marketing companies in maintaining their online presence.

Social Media
Any number of web-based platforms and applications that allow users to interact with each other online via Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and more.

Social Media Optimization
Known as SMO, this is the process of creating viral publicity via a variety of social media outlets.

Sprout Social
A tool that helps manage and monitor company profiles on the web.

Tag
To add descriptive words to a photo or video online; or a command inserted in a document that specifies how it should be formatted.

User
Anyone who uses a computer.

Viral Marketing
A marketing technique that encourages people to pass along a message to produce positive brand awareness.

Virtual
Not real as the physical world is.

Web Morality
How people use morals to guide online activity.

Web Novel
A novel published on the web; also known as a blook.

Website Optimization
Procedures used to get a website to rank well in search engines.

Wireless
Connectivity to the internet via radio waves rather than wires or cables from a home computer, laptop, smartphone, etc.

Know these terms by heart, since this can help you in establishing your own digital presence. These helpful terms from digital marketing agencies can surely help you find your way towards an effective digital media strategy.