Social media glossary
Plain-English definitions of the social media and creator-marketing terms that matter — with links to the free tools that put them to work.
Metrics
Engagement Rate
The percentage of your audience that interacts with your content through likes, comments, saves and shares.
Reach
The number of unique accounts that saw your content at least once.
Impressions
The total number of times your content was displayed, including repeat views by the same person.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
The percentage of people who clicked a link, thumbnail or call to action out of everyone who saw it.
Conversion Rate
The percentage of people who completed a desired action — a sale, sign-up or follow — out of those who had the chance.
Vanity Metrics
Numbers that look impressive but don’t reflect real value, like follower count or raw impressions in isolation.
Reach & Discovery
Algorithm
The ranking system a platform uses to decide which content to show each user, and in what order.
Organic Reach
The number of people who see your content for free, without paid promotion.
Shadowban
An unofficial reduction in a post’s or account’s reach without a formal notification.
Hashtag
A keyword or phrase prefixed with # that categorises content and helps people discover it.