Atom: The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol (APP for short) is a simple HTTP-based protocol for creating and updating Web resources.

Authority: A value attributed to an author of User Generated Media (see definition below), typically the writer of a blog, message board or forum. The Authority of the writer is based on their knowledge of the subject matter and reputation for accurate reporting on the target topic(s).

Blog: Short for "web log", an online journal, kind of periodic column on the web. A blog is a web site that is usually updated frequently by its author, in a standard format, with the most recent entry at the top, and older entries archived. Several authors can contribute to a blog, and consumers are typically welcome to post their own comments in response to an author's (or other commenter's) opinions.

Blogroll: Blogrolling is a relatively new name to a very old tradition. Most Web sites have traditionally had a links page, where a webmaster points to their favorite Web sites. Weblogs have carried on the tradition. But rather than having a separate page for their links, they typically have their favorite links on the side of their page. This "sidebar" section is called the blogroll section of a weblog.

Brand Monitoring: According to Webster's: Andiamo Systems!
OK, an impartial definition from Forrester Research: "The ongoing analysis of mainstream media and consumer-generated content to identify trends relevant to a company's marketing activities and competitive landscape."

Comment Spam: A spam comment is an unwanted message placed on your site as a comment or TrackBack on a post. ("Spam" is a common internet term for junk messages, much like junk email is called spam mail.)

The comment that is posted can be an innocent message like "nice site!" or it can be an advertising message, and it usually includes a link to another site. The linked site could be a business site, an offensive or pornographic site, or it could also be a normal looking weblog.

Spammers post these messages to boost their rankings in search engines. By leaving the link on your site they have more incoming links to their site and this will make their site show higher in search results. To do this, they write scripts that submit comments to hundreds or even thousands of sites in an automated manner. This tactic works even if neither you nor your site's readers click on the links on the comments.

Influencer: Publishers which are most influential at a given point in time or over a time period within a specific conversation. This value is based on authority, relevance and popularity.

Link Rot: Link rot is the process by which links on a web site gradually become irrelevant or broken as time goes on, because web sites that they link to disappear, change their content or redirect to new locations. The phrase also describes the effects of failing to update web pages so that they become out-of-date, containing information that is old and useless, and that clutters up search engine results. A "404 Not Found" message is an example of Link Rot.

Permalink: A permalink is a URL that points to a specific blogging entry even after the entry has passed from the front page into the blog archives. Because a permalink remains unchanged indefinitely, its use avoids link rot. Permalink is a portmanteau word made from permanent link.

Podcasting: Podcasting is a word creation of "iPod" and "broadcasting". Podcasting describes the distribution of audio or video files over the web for listening on mobile devices and personal computers. A podcast is placed on the Internet as a web feed in XML format (RSS or Atom syndication) for anyone to download or subscribe.

Return on Investment (ROI): A measure of the profit realized and/or costs saved at a company, or as the result of a specific project within the company. ROI measures how effectively the firm uses its capital and resources to generate profit; the higher the ROI, the better. An ROI calculation is sometimes used along with other approaches to develop a business case for a given proposal.

RSS: RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and is a way of distributing dynamic content (content syndication), using the XML format, to subscribers of that content. In order for users to subscribe, they need to sign up for a RSS reader (news aggregator).

Bloggers use RSS to distribute their content, essentially 'pushing' content out to subscribers of the content rather than relying on readers to visit the site to determine if there is new content. RSS is also useful for anyone else who publishes news or newsletters on a regular bases. Podcasters also use RSS.

SaaS (Software as a Service): Software as a service (SaaS) is a software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, typically the Internet.

Sentiment Analysis: An area of natural language processing and computational linguistics. Generally speaking, it is a technique to detect favorable and unfavorable opinions toward specific subjects (such as organizations and their products) within large numbers of documents. SA offers enormous opportunities for various applications, providing powerful functionality for competitive analysis, marketing analysis, and detection of unfavorable rumors for risk management.

Social Networks: A form of online community. In these communities, an initial set of founders sends out messages inviting members of their own personal networks to join the site. New members repeat the process, growing the total number of members and links in the network. A huge factor of growth of these networks is due to Word of Mouth (WOM) more than the traditional email "friend get a friend" approach above.

The idea was mainly to let users build online profiles that advertised their interests and to help them connect with friends and friends-of-friends and strangers who share interests. Sites also offer features such as automatic address book updates, viewable profiles, the ability to form new links through "introduction services," and other forms of online social connections.

The first social networking web site was Classmates.com, which began in 1995. Other sites followed, including SixDegrees.com, which began in 1997. MySpace is the most well known social networking site, and there several others including Facebook, Freindster, Yelp!, and a more business-oriented site, LinkedIn.

Trackback link: The purpose of Trackback is to let a site know that you are referencing them on your on site (typically a blog).

Usually, a Trackback will append a link to your site from the other blog. The TrackBack URL is different than the regular permanent link URL. The downside of Trackback is that it can be abused for spamming purposes, so you should make sure to have some strong anti-spam tools enabled on your blog.

User Generated Media: Also known as User Generated Content (UGC). User-generated media (UGM) refers to various kinds of media content that are produced or primarily influenced by end-users, as opposed to traditional media producers, licensed broadcasters and production companies. The term came into the mainstream during 2005 in web publishing and new media content production circles. It reflects the expansion of media production through new technologies that are accessible and affordable to the general public.

These include digital video, blogging, podcasting, mobile phone photography and wikis. In addition to these technologies, user-generated content may also employ a combination of open source, free software, and flexible licensing or related agreements to further diminish the barriers to collaboration, skill-building and discovery.

Vlog: Video blog is a blog that includes video. Regular entries are typically presented in reverse chronological order and often combine embedded video or a video link with supporting text, images, and other metadata.

Vodcast: Video podcast (sometimes shortened to vidcast or vodcast) is a term used for the online delivery of video on demand video clip content via Atom or RSS enclosures. The term is an evolution specialized for video, coming from the generally audio-based podcast and referring to the distribution of video where the RSS feed is used as a non-linear TV channel to which consumers can subscribe using a PC, TV, set-top box, media center or mobile multimedia device.

Web Feeds: A web feed is a data format used for serving users frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it. Making a collection of web feeds accessible in one spot is known as aggregation. The kinds of content delivered by a web feed are typically HTML (web page content) or links to web pages and other kinds of digital media. Often when web sites provide web feeds to notify users of content updates, they only include summaries in the web feed rather than the full content itself.

Word of Mouth (WOM): The act of consumer creating and/or distributing marketing-relevant information to another consumer. WOM is not a new concept at all but has grown much more important within the last few years. The evolution of the internet has introduced a number of new channels for customers to communicate with each other that are perfect playgrounds for word of mouth marketing: Blogs, discussions boards, forums and various other forms of online communities.

Word of Mouth Marketing: An effort by an organization to encourage, facilitate, and amplify marketing-relevant information to other consumers.

XML: The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a general-purpose markup language. Its primary purpose is to facilitate the sharing of data across different information systems, particularly via the Internet.