ICYMI: OMGWTFBBQ IYKWIM (Re: But seriously...)
Random marketing acronyms and jargon I've learned over the years you might run across (also what's the deal with BeReal, also Chappell Roan)
Top 3 Hot Topics Today:
Acronyms R RLY F.U.N.
Being Real about BeReal
We gotta talk about Chappell Roan
Acronyms R RLY F.U.N.
F is for Friends that do stuff together!
U is for you and me…!
N is for N-E-where and N-E-time at all down here in the deep blue sea!
I’m sorry (not sorry) that if you know that song, it’ll be stuck in your head when you read this Substack (lol - it’s a Spongebob reference for those who don’t know). Anyway, that was my FUN introduction to something that I personally don’t think is super fun but is part of “the job” of being in marketing: the jargon/”biz” talk.
Coming from a science and public health background, we had shorthand stuff too, but sometimes in marketing, sales, and business, some of these acronyms I’ve learned had me like like “OK BUT WHOMST CREATED THIS?!” — but I digress because over the past couple of years, they have started working my way into my brain and now a lot of them are second nature. The goal of this topic is to get you familiar (or refresh your memory) with different acronyms that you can incorporate into interview questions or look into further so you can be ITK (in the know — this isn’t a “real” acronym but I guess I just made it one LOL).
Let’s get into it:
SMM/CM - Social Media Marketing/Community Management: this one may be used in job listings or you may see someone refer to themselves as an SMM (Social Media Manager) or CM (Community Manager).
UI/UX - User Interface/User Experience: this will usually come into product and digital marketing, but also seen across video games, software, apps, etc. UI’s goal is to make things as easy and enjoyable as possible for users to interact with the product where as UX encompasses the the user’s journey and feelings while using with the product.
CTA - Call to Action: this is the main action you want a user to get through a marketing message. In video content you may have heard CTA’s such as “like & subscribe”, “ring the notification bell”, “leave a comment”, “hit that plus to follow”. In e-mail or digital advertisements, they may be a button to “download the app”, or “click here for a coupon” or “add to calendar”. It might be silly to think about, but having clear and obvious CTA’s can be a tool to try and increase your CTR…
CTR - Clickthrough Rate: this leans into analytics, but the CTR looks at the percent of your audience that moves through your marketing funnel or “clicks through” from one step to another. These analytics may come through your CRM…
CRM - Customer Relationship Management: CRM systems will allow you to track a lot of information about your audience and customer base, whether it’s how many people open the e-mail you sent out so you can see how effective an e-mail subject line is to being able to segment out who you want to contact based on products they may have purchased earlier.
KPI/OKR - Key Performance Indicators/Objectives and Key Results: leaning back into the analytics side, these are usually accessible business-wide to look at success metrics. Simply put, KPIs help you track your progress and performance but could be stand-alone and don’t show the bigger picture. OKRs look at longer-term results, let’s say quarterly, and help provide context to inform strategy.
ROI - Return on Investment: a percentage or ratio used to determine if a certain marketing initiative is efficient and profitable. For example, paying an influencer $500 to do an ad-read and thus netting $2000 worth of sales. That would be a “net positive” ROI
MoM/YoY/YTD - Month over Month, Year over Year, Year to Date: when reporting analytics, it may be important to look at how things perform over time so that you can tell a story with how users are interacting.
B2B/B2C/SaaS - Buisness to Buisness, Buisness to Consumer, Software as a Service: these acronyms help differentiate who the product is being sold to and may inform different types of marketing initiatives and marketing funnels. Examples of B2B companies are Slack, Google, and Zoom, whereas B2C companies include Nike and Apple. If you look at the B2B companies I listed, they fall under “B2B SaaS” - Buisness to Buisness, Software as a Service as opposed to Nike and Apple selling physical products and not software. Examples of B2C SaaS could be Duolingo or Apple Music.
Okay, that was a LOT of letters and explanations, but hopefully, it has demystified some of these terms when you come across them down the road! There are a lot more of these business-y, marketing acronyms and jargon so this may be a “part 1” of sorts if y’all want me to break down more!
Being Real about BeReal
Ok, let’s BE REAL: social media apps come and go and they’re fun to play with for a couple of days, maybe weeks or months even, but the ones with staying power seem to be just copying each other’s features. So what’s the deal with BeReal?
If you don’t know about BeReal, it is a French app that launched in 2020. It was developed by Alexis Barreyat who worked for GoPro. Even though it launched in 2020, it started picking up steam and popularity in early 2022. According to Hubspot, BeReal is the fastest-growing social media platform with 313% growth, a lot of which is attributed to Gen Z.
The TL;DR (acronym again… see what I did there?) is that this app will notify all users at a specific time, simultaneously, to take a picture with both their front and back camera. There are a few catches, though. One is that you only have a 2-minute window to post “with everyone else”, otherwise you’ll be “late”. And you must post to be able to scroll and see your friends/followers pictures. This 2-minute window will go off at different times of the day so you won’t know where you are or what you’ll be doing when you get the alert to post.
There are no filters like snapchat or Instagram stories and leans into the idea of releasing these 2 minutes sporadically so that you don’t have time to curate the perfect shot or add filters… you’re “Being Real”. I’m on BeReal but I use it sparingly. Sometimes I miss the “2-minute alert” and post. Sometimes I try to have a week-long streak. Sometimes I don't post on it because of the fact I forgot or didn’t see the alert. But it’s an app that lives on my phone that fills a little space of not caring, not advertising, not overthinking about myself like I tend to do on other apps so maybe there is something. Do y’all use BeReal? What are your thoughts either way? Let me know!
We gotta talk about Chappell Roan
We all need more queer, femme, dark yet bright, nostalgic chant-driven pop from time to time, don’t we?
Because I sure as heck do.
I heard about Chappell Roan less than a month ago and I can not get enough of her music; she’s on my good morning playlists, she’s on my workout playlists, she’s on my good night playlists.
She got the opportunity to open for another young, femme mega-popstar, Olivia Rodrigo (whom I also just adore to death) for Olivia’s GUTS World Tour. Chappell has been making music since 2017, but most recently released her debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (she was born and raised in Missouri).
If you want a taste of why I love her, check out Naked in Manhattan for a fun, carefree, song that just makes you wanna sing along. Or, if you want a silly, frivolous 80’s glam b*tch track moment, Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl is the song for you. Other artists that remind me of Chappell Roan include Rina Sawayama, Maggie Rogers, and Carly Rae Jepsen, so if you like those vibes I think you’ll enjoy Chappell as well!
That wraps it up for this edition of Digital Thiccness! Thanks for making it all the way down here week to week. It really does help me grow when you share my substack around or my tweets/skeets as well. So sincerely, thank you for the support. We’ll be celebrating a FULL MONTH of being on Substack soon so I’ll do a little 30-day retro on what I think about having my own Substack/newsletter/blogging website including the pros and cons, the sustainability of it all, the big picture goals, and more!
Please, as always, drop any suggestions or answers to the questions on any or all of the above topics including if you knew or didn’t know of some of the acronyms listed, if you’ve heard of BeReal, or have listened to Chappell Roan (or if you have other music suggestions)!
Until next week…!
Stay strong. Stay thicc. *Big hug*