Understanding the New Language of Social Media
July 31, 2008
If you're new here, and interested in the latest news and insights on social media marketing, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting Ignite Social Media.
Face it, there is a new language evolving as a result of Web 2.0, and you’d better learn it if you want to be a part of the future. If you want to be on the bleeding edge of Social Media Marketing, you have to be familiar with all the latest tools and trends available, so why not get a jump on the game and know just where to look and what to say. If you are reading this, then I probably don’t have to tell you about the ridiculously named sites Twitter or Plurk. And you already know about Sphinn, Mixx and Vimeo, as well as the blogs DoshDosh and Gizmodo. But did you know about Scrumptr or Blingabble? No, you didn’t, because I just made those up. But they sound real, right?
Our language is changing as a result of our use of the web, but is there any rhyme or reason to why things are called what they are called? Probably not, but here are a few things I’ve determined if you are looking for a way to name your new tool or site. Say you have just developed a great new application that allows users to post pictures of their favorite things into some sort of social feed. You could call it something arbitrary like Gleepglap or Bintsy, or you could use my simple method to garner a little bit of usefulness behind it.
First, try summing up what your application does in a single verb. For instance, our hypothetical tool feeds photos of things to your friends, so it’s a glorified slideshow. The inclination would be to just call it Slideshower, but wait, that’s not “Web 2.0” enough.
The next step is to screw up the spelling: SlydeShowwer.
Still too long, though, so we take out some of those pesky vowels: Sldeshwwr.
It still sounds too common and “old school,” though, so we’ll just swap out some of those traditional letters and replace them with new ones. Try to use fricatives or sonorants to jazz it up: Slzswwr.
There we go. But now I know what you are thinking: How the heck am I supposed to say that? Here’s a tip, just sound it out and pronounce it like the closest word it sounds like: Slzswwr = “Scissor” with an “L” = “Slcissor”. (Checks can be made payable to Jeremy Griffin)
There are probably easier ways of doing this if you are looking to name a blog or even your start-up. You might want to be careful, though, or you might end up being a bit perverse sounding like the unfortunate Utterz or Profilactic. When in doubt, just take whatever word you want and spell it differently (i.e. Cuil) or drop the “e” (Flickr, Tumblr, Zooomr, Twitxr, etcr.). Or lastly, you can just take two or more blog pertinent words and smoosh them together to get a great blog title with instant popularity. You are welcome to try any of these: DailyBlogThoughts, BlogLifeWorld, BlogPageLife, DailyThoughtBlogJournalWorld. For more on naming your blog, check out this article.
The new language of Social Media isn’t difficult to understand, young grasshopper. All it takes is an open mind, a sense of humor and a remedial understanding of semantics. It really isn’t any harder than catching a fly with chopsticks.
As an added bonus, here’s a list of Social Media names. Some are real, and others I have made up. Can you decide which ones are which?
• Rcrdlbl
• Zkout
• Grazr
• Blippr
• Fapplr
• Tarsus
• Lunchr
• Frbbr
• Glurgelet
• Pubaer
• Strklet
• DngDng
• Bizak
• Yakkle
• Dunklr
• Jiffr
• Gwap
• Blurpr
• Hombrly
• Blist
• Baagz
• Smorbitn
• Daphodyl
• Spongefish
• Collagr
• Yigg
• Glunk
• FrogGlasses
• Jamendo
• Krompter
• Cluztr
• Fawnt
• Puzzr
Comments
8 Responses to “Understanding the New Language of Social Media”
Got something to say?
Web 2.0 companies are trying to create a name that is memorable and brandable - unfortunately, they’re just going about it the wrong way. Maybe it’s just me, but after Flickr, every web site that uses the drop-a-vowel-and-end-with-r idea appears uncreative right off the bat. I don’t usually have high hopes for those sites.
Shawn Farner’s last blog post..Give me Scrabulous or give me death
Blingeeis a site that makes things Blingabble, so your made up example was pretty close
Jeremy, funny article! As the co-founder of blippr, I can add my two cents… take it or leave it:
$0.01) It’s really hard to secure a good domain name, let alone one with six or less letters, that can be pronounced easily. Of course, as you pointed out, not all of the companies you listed–or made up–are necessarily easily pronounced.
$0.02) More companies are going this routed because Flickr (and all the imitators) proved it can work. We, for one, named our company knowing full well it was a cliche name, but that it actually worked for what we were trying to do.
Okay, those are my two cents. However, if you want a third cent, read on, I say!
$0.03) Most people forget, even “Google” is a misspelling of “googol”.
Keep up the great writing! I really did enjoy your article.
Slow day at the office today?
Nathan Gilliatt’s last blog post..links for 2008-07-31
Nicely done. As part of my job is trying to figure out how to do publicity through the new and myriad forms of social media, I will continue to tune in for your ever-wise commentary!
I think I am going to go buy dngdng.com right now.
Jeremy you might consider domaining as a hobby
Thanks for the comments, all. Let me know if you want a custom domain name. I think I might have a knack for it.
And don’t worry, Nathan, we like to have fun around here, too.
Hey, as one of the “Yakkle” guys, I feel like Steve Martin in the Jerk when he saw his name in the phone book! Thanks for “finding” us and mentioning us too. We’ve gotten several positive comments on our name as being recognizable and memorable. It was not our first choice…..we went through a few others too.