The Ultimate Influencer Marketing Glossary

Hashtag

A tag used to show that social media content relates to a certain topic or theme. Always accompanied by the # symbol.

I hashtagged the post with #vegan, #vegandesserts, #vegangrub, and #veganbaking. 

Insights

On social media, the analytics that an individual gets related to the performance of their content. Some social networks require you to have a business account to access insights.

Hey, would you mind sending over your insights so we can measure impressions on the campaign content?

Like

A social media interaction that shows you approve of another user’s content. Usually represented by a heart or a thumbs up. Likes are also almost always a requirement to participate in giveaways.

Live

Short for live stream. This is social content where someone shares a live feed of video. Lives are often used to interact with the audience in an authentic and spontaneous way.

Mention

A shoutout or tag of one person by another on social media. It can be between two individuals, two brands, or an individual and a brand. Mentioning brands is a way for hopeful influencers and UGC creators to get their attention.

In this post about our products, would you mind mentioning our brand?

Post

A social media publication. This term can be used generally to talk about all the content published to social media—whether image, text, or video. On Instagram, a post is specifically image-based content posted to a user’s static feed, which distinguishes it from Stories or Reels.

Did you see her last post?

Profile

A social media page belonging to an individual or a business. Profile and account are synonyms with very subtle differences. Account relates more to the “backend” of that presence: personal details, management of settings, etc. Profile relates more to the “frontend”: a user’s handle, bio, and content.

Reel

Instagram’s answer to TikTok. Reels are short videos designed to be engaging and entertaining. They usually last only seconds and are almost always shot in the vertical orientation using smartphones.

Shadowban

Blocking a user from a social media network without their knowledge by making their posts invisible to others. Shadowbanning is different from regular banning because you don’t get notice of when and why you’re being banned.

Social commerce

The use of social networks to market and sell products. With social commerce, the entire customer journey—from discovery through purchase—takes place on social media.

Story

Instagram’s answer to Snapchat. Stories are ephemeral content, meaning they disappear after 24 hours unless you create a Highlights section to add them to. Stories can be video, photo, text, polls, quizzes, and so on.

He ended up creating an extra Story about our brand beyond what we agreed to in the campaign negotiations. 

Stream

Another shortened word for live stream. While Instagram users prefer to call these “lives,” Twitch users prefer to call them “streams.” Streams are generally viewed as very authentic and can drive high engagement rates.

Approximately halfway through the stream they’re going to promote our products. 

Streamer

Someone who streams, especially on Twitch. Streamers can be influencers who promote products during live streams instead of in static content.

My favorite streamer is running a contest today.

TikTok 

The social network, but also an individual video on that network.

I sometimes lose track of time watching TikToks. 

Tag

Like a mention, a way for one user to highlight and/or get the attention of another user. Often a @tag on a post to link another user’s page to that content.

Please tag me when you upload the photos from this weekend.

Influencer marketing terms

This section is for terms you need to understand if you’re working in influencer marketing. Some of these are general marketing terms defined withing the context of the influencer industry.

Audience demographics

The age, gender, location, language, interests, and other identifying factors of an influencer’s audience. When choosing influencers for your campaigns, you should prioritize ones whose audience looks like your target audience.

Our target audience demographics are females, millennials, living in the US, and interested in running.

Audience authenticity

How real an influencer’s audience is. Influencers can buy fake followers and fake engagements, which means part of their audience is bot accounts. An analysis tool can help you see which percentage of an influencer’s audience is authentic and which isn’t. It’s usually expressed as a percentage that shows which portion is authentic.

We only work with influencers who have an audience authenticity of 80% or higher.

Brand ambassador

An influencer that works with your brand on a long-term basis. They post content about your brand on a recurring basis, which helps create familiarity and trust among their followers.

Our brand is starting a brand ambassador program.

Campaign

In influencer marketing, a particular project that you’re working with influencers on. Brands create a campaign (often summarized in a brief) and then invite relevant influencers to participate in that campaign.

Influencer campaigns usually follow these stages:

• Definition and planning – Decide on your goals, timeline, and budget.
• Discovery and setup – Find influencers and negotiate deals.
• Launch – Activate the campaign.
• Monitoring of results – Track influencer publications.
• Analysis – Review all your results and draw conclusions.

We’re currently working on setting up our summer influencer campaign. 

Collaboration

The act of working together with an influencer. Your brand and influencers can collaborate in various ways: one-off campaigns, ambassador programs, giveaways, and so on.

For our upcoming campaign, we’ve already closed 10 collaborations with different influencers. 

Content creator

A phrase often used as a synonym of influencer. Some people use content creator and influencer interchangeably. Others believe there’s a difference, with a content creator being someone who’s more focused on creating engaging content than just taking selfies and promoting products. Sometimes said as just creator.

Instagram prefers the term creators over influencers.

Creator economy

Used to describe the market or sphere in which brands and creators come together to collaborate on content creation, content distribution, the use of influence, and more. It’s a bit different from the traditional influencer marketing market, which focused on connecting brands to influencers’ audiences. In the creator economy, creators also get paid to create content, give feedback on products, act as consultants on brand strategies, and much more.

Disclosure

The process of stating when influencer content has been sponsored or paid for. Disclosure is mandated by government agencies like the Federal Trade Commission, and is the responsibility of both influencers and brands. Some ways to disclose paid influencer content is adding the #ad hashtag, using the Instagram sponsored tag, or mentioning it at the beginning of a video.

The FTC requires disclosure of paid influencer media even if the influencer doesn’t live in the US, but it’s possible the ad could impact an American audience. 

Engagement rate

A metric used in influencer marketing to measure how much an influencer’s audience trusts their opinions and enjoys their content. For many brands, it’s one of the most important metrics when choosing influencers to collaborate with. Engagement rates vary across social networks, content categories, and influencer tiers, and are expressed as percentages.

To calculate engagement rate, divide the total number of interactions by the total number of followers. Then multiply the result to get a percentage.

For this campaign, we’re accepting influencers with an engagement rate of 2% or higher.

Fake follower check

A fake follower check, sometimes known as an audience audit, is when a brand checks that an influencer’s following is made up of real people and not bots. There are different ways to do this: manually and automatically. A manual check involves reviewing the influencer’s profile and those of their followers to check for behavior typical of bots. An automatic check is done by software that scans the audience for you.

We run AI-assisted fake follower checks on all influencers before agreeing to collaborate with them. 

Follow/unfollow 

A strategy used by some wannabe influencers to get new followers. The “influencer” follows a bunch of accounts, waits for them to follow back out of politeness, and then unfollows them.

We’re not working with this influencer because we noticed she uses follow/unfollow instead of growing her audience organically. 

Follower range

Ranges or bands of the total number of followers an influencer has. For example: 1K-10K followers. These ranges are used to organize influencers into tiers, such as nano-influencers and micro-influencers.

Nano influencers have the lowest follower range but oftentimes very high engagement rates. 

FTC (Federal Trade Commission)

The agency of the United States government that establishes and enforces rules for protecting American consumers. The FTC requires influencers to disclose any financial, employment, personal, or family relationships they have with the brands they promote.

For this global campaign, we’ve checked that we comply with the disclosure guidelines from the FTC in America, the CMA in Britain, and a few other agencies.

Influencer

Someone who has built up an audience on social media and who holds influence over them. Influencers can drive their followers to take various actions, including sales.

My cousin is an influencer with 100K followers and has worked with big brands.

Influencer demographics

Characteristics of influencers like age, gender, location, language, and interests. These demographics are important when choosing influencers, but not quite as important as audience demographics. An influencer’s demographics and those of the audience aren’t always the same.

Consider influencer demographics when defining your target influencers. 

Influencer discovery

The act of finding influencers to collaborate with for your campaign. This is also sometimes called the influencer search. Some brands do it manually, but most use an influencer discovery tool to make the process more efficient.

My team runs influencer discovery with an influencer search tool. 

Influencer incentive

Also known as influencer compensation. What you pay an influencer in exchange for the content they create for your brand. Influencer incentive can be monetary, like fees and commissions. It can also be non-monetary, like free products and services.

As influencer incentive they’re offering a fee, free products, and commissions on each sale brought in. 

Influencer tiers

An organizational system that divides influencers into different groups based on their follower count. The influencer tiers each have their own pros and cons for brands:

Nano-influencer

An influencer who has 1-10K followers. They have highly-engaged audiences thanks to their relatable content.

Micro-influencer

An influencer who has 10-50K followers. They’re still authentic but are more experienced at working with brands.

Mid-tier influencer

An influencer who has 50-500K followers. This tier is where influencers start to become more professional.

Macro-influencer

An influencer who has 500K-1M followers. They can bring in good ROI thanks to increased reach, but have less engaged audiences.

Mega-influencer

An influencer who has 1M+ followers. These have great reach but are out of reach for many brands due to their high fees.

Apex influencer

An influencer with 100M+ followers. These are the most famous influencers out there, like Khaby Lame on TikTok.

We’re sticking to the nano- and micro-influencer tiers for this campaign. 

Source: How to Find and Work with Instagram Influencers by Shopify.

Influencer outreach

Contacting influencers. Most brands do this via email or DM. When you do influencer outreach, it’s a good idea to contact double or triple the number of influencers you really need, since not all will get back to you. Make your emails as personalized as possible for best results.

Lots of brands do influencer outreach with personalizable templates and a bulk email tool. 

Influencer vetting

The act of checking that an influencer meets your desired criteria. Influencer vetting includes analyzing performance metrics, checking for fake followers, and making sure that content is relevant and brand-safe.

We’ve vetted all these influencers as potential collaborators, so now let’s reach out. 

IRM (influencer relationship management)

Similar to CRMs used in sales, an IRM helps you do influencer relationship management. IRMs typically include outreach tools for getting in touch with influencers, and pipelines for managing the status of different collaborations.

I set up our IRM so we’re ready to track relationship statuses as our campaign progresses.

Media kit

A document that sums up an influencer’s profile, skills, experience, and past performance. Basically a resumé or CV for influencers.

Let’s get this influencer’s media kit to check their audience demographics. 

Paid post

Any type of social media content an influencer publishes because your brand has paid them.

This collaboration includes 2 paid posts.

Pitch

An initial message that tries to convince the other party of something. Pitches can come from brands trying to attract influencers to their campaign. Or they can come from influencers trying to sell their services to brands. Pitches should be created carefully so that you come across as an attractive option to the other party.

We get lots of pitches from influencers, and the ones that stand out are the ones who show they really understand our brand. 

Pods

Also known as autolike communities. These are groups created so that members like, share, and comment on each others’ content, therefore getting a boost in engagement. Pods are often used by wannabe influencers and aren’t indicative of an engaged audience.

When we vet influencers, we check to make sure they don’t belong to a lot of pods. 

Product seeding

Also called influencer gifting. This is a strategy where brands gift products to influencers without negotiating any type of exchange or contract beforehand. The end goal of the brand is to get organic social media content created by influencers who love their products.

For brands just starting out, product seeding is a low-cost, low-risk way to dip your toes into the influencer marketing water. 

Proposal

An offer from one party to another party for collaboration. Influencers can make proposals to brands, and brands can make proposals to influencers.

Our proposal is $300 plus free products in exchange for 1 Instagram post and 2 stories

An example of an influencer proposal to a brand on Moonio. 

Reach

The total number of followers an influencer has. Reach gives you an idea of how many people your content could reach if you collaborate with that influencer.

We’re more interested in engagement than reach when it comes to choosing influencers to work with.

Relevance

How aligned an influencer is with your brand and what it does. Relevant influencers are one of the keys to success in influencer marketing.

As a slow fashion brand, eco-conscious fashion bloggers are highly relevant to what we do. 

UGC (user-generated content)

Branded content created by users organically, without any type of agreement with the brand. Many brands get the user’s permission to repost this to its own social accounts. UGC is highly authentic and lends great social proof to a brand and its products.

We repurpose all of our UGC as paid ads and testimonials. 

UGC creators

Content creators who get paid by brands to create content that isn’t, but that looks like UGC. UGC creators aren’t always influencers and usually don’t post the content to their own social profiles.

We’re working with UGC creators to create all the content for our social ads. 

Talent manager

A person who represents an influencer. Also called an influencer manager, or influencer representative. Managers will usually be the one who negotiates with your brand and follows up on any issues during or after publication.

Talent managers drive up influencer fees, so make sure to factor them into the budget. 

Target audience

The group of people you want your marketing initiatives to reach. Target audiences include demographic (age, gender) and psychographic (goals, pains) characteristics. Brands define target audience through a mix of user data, feedback, and market research. When working with influencers, their audience should sync up with your target audience.

Social media slang

Finally, if you want to work with influencers, you need to understand how they speak. These social media slang definitions will help you do that. These slang terms are common across social media, but especially on TikTok.

Bop

A song or album that’s really good.

Have you heard the last Harry Styles single? It’s a bop. 

Cap / No cap

Cap is a lie, and capping is lying. If you say “no cap” it means “no lies.”

I’m gonna get my entire to-do list done today, no cap.

Cheugy

Pronounced “chew-gee.” Describes someone who’s out of date, off trend or trying too hard. According to the NYTimes, Gen Z most often uses cheugy to refer to millennial women.

That trend is so cheugy.

(Clown emoji) 

Denotes stupidity or foolishness. Usually found in the comments when someone has done or said something silly or stupid. Also used when someone feels like a clown or a fraud.

I told my crush that I can drive it’ll be fine 🤡

Drip

Cool or trendy, means someone has a great sense of style. The opposite of cheugy. Drip is akin to what older generations would refer to as swag.

She has some serious drip. 

👁️👄👁️ (Eyes and lips emojis)

Expresses shock, surprise, or speechlessness but with a tinge of irony. Ex-TechCrunch writer Josh Constine said this emoji “means you feel helpless amidst the chaotic realities unfolding around us, but there is no escape.”

Fam

Family, or the group of people you think of as family. For many influencers and content creators, this could include their audience.

Alright fam, let’s do this. 

Flex 

Refers to bragging. This comes from bodybuilders who flex their muscles to show off. It now means the same thing but in a metaphorical sense.

That’s a bold flex. 

🔥(fire emoji)

Or just fire. Means something is exceptionally good.

This look is fire.🔥

Goals

Used to express when someone sees something that’s what they aspire to. Can be about appearance, jobs, relationships, or whatever else is desirable to the speaker. Used as an adjective instead of a noun.

Her life right now is so goals. 

Glow up

A positive personal transformation, usually related to appearance, style, talent or power

Wow, she’s really had a glow up since I saw her a few years ago! 

Hits different

When something is singularly good/better.

This new recipe for hummus hits different. 

Hot girl summer

Used around summertime to talk about having fun and not caring about what others think. It’s an inclusive phrase about confidence and feeling good originally coined by rapper Megan Thee Stallion, who has a song with the same name.

Who else is ready for #hotgirlsummer

IYKYK

If you know you know. This phrase describes an inside joke or something that only a specific community of people would understand.

Russ & Daughters cream cheese….IYKY

Main character energy

When someone gives off confidence or presence and makes themself the center of attention, like the main character of a movie. This term is all about self-love and romanticizing your life.

She’s serving real main character energy right now. 

Mukbang

Video content that shows someone eating. Mukbangs are sometimes ASMR, meaning they don’t feature any dialogue and focus on the sounds of the person eating the meal. Comes from the Korean word 먹방, (meokbang), which itself combines the Korean words for “eating” and “broadcast.”

My dog tried steak for the first time in this steak mukbang. 

Shade

Shade is trash talk, contempt, or sassiness, often subtly directed at its target. Throwing shade is directing that contempt at someone, like making a sassy comment to them or ignoring them completely. No shade means no disrespect.

She was throwing some serious shade the other day.

Slay

Means you’re killing it. It’s a term of encouragragement and is particularly popular among the drag community. Also used as a noun as slayage.

Slaps

When something is excellent or enjoyable.

These carnitas tacos really slap. 

💀 (skull emoji)

Also dead or ded. For Generation Z, this expresses that the user thinks something is funny. Comes from the phrase “dying of laughter.” The skull emoji replaced the cry-laughing emoji (😂) favored by Millennials.

Hahahahahaha ded 💀

✨ (Sparkle emoji)

Gen Z’s way of emphasizing words or phrases, but in a funny or tongue-in-cheek way.

That’s ✨ great ✨ and I am ✨so✨ excited.

Sus

Short for suspicious. Used to show when someone or something seems suspicious or dishonest.

He seems a bit sus to me, bro. 

Tea

Gossip. Spill the tea means to spill the gossip.

What’s the tea lately?

TFW (that feeling when)

Refers to an emotion or situation that other people would find relatable.

TFW there’s a thunderstorm and you’re about to take a nap.

Vibe check

A “check” on someone’s energy or personality to see if they pass or fail your standards. Vibe checks can be permanent, more based on someone’s personality, or temporary, based on something they do or say,

On our date he yelled at the server, definitely doesn’t pass the vibe check.

Yeet

Means “yay!” and is used to show excitement. Yeet originally came into use as an exclamation shouted while throwing something at high speed, and it can still hold this meaning today.

-Wanna see that new movie tonight?  –Yeet! or Someone just yeeted a bottle into the crowd.

By Moonio