Table 1.

Common terms relevant to using social media for research.

Bystander	A person who, due to their proximity to a research participant, may be included in the research record, but is technically not considered to be a research participant as there is no information obtained about that person that is used to answer the research question specific to a particular study. A bystander does not provide informed consent to have their voice, words, or image included in a research record.
Emoji	Small digital images or icons used to express an idea, emotion, etc., in electronic communication.
Engagement	Social media engagement measures the public shares, likes, and comments for social media efforts on a given platform. Engagement is a common metric for evaluating social media performance.
Facebook	An online social networking service. Users create a personal profile, add other users as friends, exchange messages, post status updates and photos, and receive notifications when others update their profiles. Users can also join groups, which can be open, closed or secret.
Friend	Facebook users connect with other users by becoming a ‘friend’, which allows each to see the other’s posts. Users can send, accept, or decline friend requests.
Follower	Twitter and Instagram users may subscribe to other users’ posts – this is known as ‘following’ and subscribers are known as ‘followers’.
GIF	Short for graphical interchange format; short animation that plays on a loop.
Hashtag (#)	Precedes a word or a phrase and is used as a way to bring together information about a topic. Users who search or click on the hashtag will see all public tweets with this hashtag included.
Impressions	The number of times a message is seen. For example, if someone sees a Facebook page update in their news feed and subsequently sees that same update when a friend shares it, this would count as two impressions.
Influencer	An individual who has above-average impact on a specific demographic or topic. Influencer marketing is a form of marketing in which focus is placed on influential people rather than the target market (e.g., asking a top social media influencer in your research area to assist with recruitment by posting to their followers).
Informed consent in research	The purpose of informed consent is to demonstrate the ethical principle of autonomy and respect for a person by providing study information to that person in a manner that is accessible and in a setting that is conducive to good decision-making so they can make a ‘informed’ choice about whether to volunteer as a research participant. The informed consent process can be conducted in person via an interaction with a member of the research team or via an electronic format whereby the study information is viewed on an electronic device or social media interface.
Instagram	A social media platform that allows users to share pictures and videos either publicly or privately.
Like	Users of various platforms can click a button to indicate that they like (endorse, acknowledge, agree with) a particular post. The number of likes is one indicator of engagement with a given post.
Notification	A message that appears in a user’s account to let them know that someone has liked, commented on, or responded to one of their posts. Notifications also may appear for content that a platform algorithm predicts a given user will want to see (e.g., a new video or news story).
Privacy policy	Used to inform consumers about how data will be managed, stored and shared by the entity.
Reach	The number of people who receive impressions; reach might be less than impressions because one person can see multiple impressions. For example, if a person sees a Facebook page update in their news feed and subsequently sees that same update when a friend shares it, this would represent a reach count of one.
Retweet	Passing on someone else’s tweet in your posts, so that your followers can see it. Retweeting means that more people will see the tweet.
Social media	Computer-mediated technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests, and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks.
Target population	Target population refers to the entire group of individuals to whom researchers are interested in generalizing their conclusions. Advertisements, products, or campaigns intended for an identified group of people are referred to as targeted. Also called target audience.
Tagging	Including someone’s user name in a post, which sends this post directly to the user’s news feed or notifications.
Terms and Conditions of Service	Agreement that sets forth terms, conditions, requirements, and clauses that a consumer agrees to accept if choosing to use a product such as a social media platform (e.g., copyright protection, data sharing practices, accounts termination in cases of abuses).
Tweet	Message of 280 characters or less sent out on Twitter. Unless tweets are made private, they are seen by anyone who looks at a profile and by a user’s followers. Users also see the tweets of people they follow in their news feed. Registered users can post tweets, but those who are unregistered can only read them.
Twitter	A social media platform where users post and interact with messages known as ‘tweets’ that are restricted to 280 characters.