110+ Social Media Abbreviations You Need to Know – Updated

We live in an always-online world. The true definition of sleeping and waking up are blurry more than ever. From a tweet to a post to a Snap, the world has become a remarkable place that thrives online via Social Media. 

With the ‘Less is more’ approach becoming the predominant way of communicating, acronyms become a mainstream way of life. Some social media platforms even limit the number of words you can put in a post, e.g., Twitter.

And if you want to make sense of this fast-paced online world, moving past emails will be more than just beneficial. It is necessary.

And to keep up with it, it’s time to understand and even adopt some of the terminologies. It will save you both time and dignity in the modern world where you will not come off as a dinosaur of an age gone by. 

So, without further ado, here are the top social media acronyms, abbreviations, and slangs that you should be aware of:

Common Social Media Abbreviations

1. FB: Stands for Facebook

2. IG: Stands for Instagram.

3. LI: Stands for LinkedIn.

4. YT: Stands for YouTube.

5. G+: Stands for Google+

6. TW: Stands for Twitter

7. SoMe: Stands for Social Media

8. DM: This acronym is widely used on Instagram lingo and stands for “Direct Message” For sending a private message between 2 people/accounts, the acronym comes into use.

9. MT: The acronym stands for  “Modified Tweet.” When the tweet is edited or changed after being posted initially, much like a FB post, the term MT comes into use. 

10. PM: Outside of Instagram in the real world, the term “Private Message” gets shortened to PM for a private interaction between two people.

11. RT: The acronym stands for “Retweet.” Another word birthed from Twitterati where the action of retweeting got shortened. 

Interesting Read: Top Twitter Abbreviations You Need To Know

12. ASAP: This is self-explanatory as well; all see it one way or the other. It stands for “As soon as possible.” 

13. PS: Stands for “PostScript”. It comes in handy when you want to write something off-topic at the end of a letter/email, or post. 

Business Acronyms

Not only the social media world, but the corporate world is also shaking things up by using business jargon and acronyms.

From shortening business types to software development, the business world has stirred up its own storm of acronyms to stay abreast of. The following are the ones that you will encounter the most:

14. B2B: This acronym is shorthand for saying “business to business” dealing. In general terms, a business whose client is another company or a business uses this term the most. e.g.Alibaba is a B2B portal. 

15. B2C: On the other side of the coin of B2B is the “Business to Customer” kind of companies. These are businesses that sell directly to the customer. E.g., Amazon is a B2C company.

16. CMGR: You may be surprised, but this is an acronym for “Community manager.” A person who is responsible for communication with a company’s network. In other words, a middle man from the people to the company. 

17. CMS: An acronym for the people in the content industry stands for “Content Management System.” These are the systems that people running websites use to edit, create or publish content. E.g., WordPress. 

18. CPC: The people in a marketing team are often heard saying this. And it stands for “Cost per Click.” It is essentially the advertiser’s price to garner visitors to click on their link on a search engine results page.

19. SERP: Yep, you guessed it. This is an acronym from the last four words of the previous explanation. It stands for “Search engine results page.” The page shows the results after your query on Google, Bing, or any other search engine.

20. CPM: In the literal sense, this stands for “Cost per mile.” However, in today’s world, another advertiser/marketer term translates to “Cost per Thousand.” It’s the cost an advertiser pays for a thousand impressions instead of clicks.

21. CR: Stands for “Conversion Rate.” It measures the number of people who took the intended action you wanted from a website link—usually represented as a ratio or decimal figure or percentage.

22. CTA: The IT team has brought this to life. It stands for “Call to action.” Any button or anything that initiates you to act on a website is called a call to action. Buttons like “Buy Now,” “Add to Cart” are all CTAs.

23. CTR: Once you have posted a link, you want to know how many users went through to click it. Hence, you get “Click Through Rate.” A measure of how many people saw the link and how many clicked through.

24. KPI: In a job interview, this is thrown around a lot. It stands for “Key Performance Indicators.” It is a numeric metric that shows your achievement/progress from set goals/targets.

25. PPC: The same as cost per click, “pay per click” is a metric to measure advertising costs.

26. PV: Not many uses of this nowadays, but you might see it floating across. This stands for “Page Views.”

27. P2P: An interpersonal approach to business is also called a “person to person” approach. People like insurance agents and policy sellers are often found in this category of business.

28. ROI: Whether you work or do anything else, we are all looking for this. “Return on Investment” is what we all look for. Ranging from monetary gains to characteristic benefits, ROI is the metric that helps anyone decide if something is worth spending money on.

29. F2F: Not a term used widely in the COVID-19 pandemic, but “Face to Face” interactions are being missed across the globe.

30. IAM: When you are busy and receive a call, “In a Meeting” gets abbreviated. A polite way to decline a call or message. 

31. P/E: One used by investors and business analysts a lot. It stands for “Price to Earnings”, which helps determine the valuation of a company or a business entity.

32. SMB: While the term startup is thrown around a lot, the actual definition is “Small and Midsize Business.” Anything less than 50 employees is a small business, while a midsize business has less than 250.

33. MSME: Sometimes, startups/companies are also called enterprises. And with the inclusion of even smaller companies, it becomes “Micro-Small and Medium Enterprises.”

34. SoLoMo: A recently coined term, it stands for “Social, Local, Mobile.” This marketing and growth tactic helps local vendors reach target customers through their social media via geo-location.

35. WOM: Another marketing tactic Word Of Mouth. When a happy or unhappy customer narrates their experience firsthand to another person, it is known as “Word of Mouth” branding. It can be good or bad and depending on either, it can be a deciding factor for many businesses in an area to garner clients.

Technical Abbreviations and Acronyms

Now that the business world has stepped up its game to come up with many acronyms, the IT world takes the stage. Ranging from shorthands for software, process names to actual usable things and contexts, every second thing is associated with it. Here are the most widely used ones:

36. API: One that is used by app developers a lot. “Application Programming Interface” is a set of rules, functions, and procedures that help decide and describe how the software will interact with other software and with the end-users.

Interesting Read: What Is an API & Why Does it Matter for Social Media?

37. ESP: Something that is hard to come by. It stands for “email service provider,” which is any service that allows you to possess an email address. E.g., Gmailand Yahoo! Are ESPs.

38. HTML: Yep! The very thing you read in middle school. It stands for “HyperText Markup Protocol.” And it is the language that website developers and designers code in to build web pages.

39. RSS: The orange-colored wifi-like logo on a webpage stands for “really simple syndication.” Essentially, it’s a feed that pulls all the content from that platform into one convenient place for ease of access.

40. SaaS: “Software as a service” is a specific method of delivering software to a user. In the case of SaaS, you can access the software online.

41. SEM: This, along with other search-engine-related acronyms, is used a lot nowadays. It stands for “Search Engine Marketing.” SEM comes into play when you want to optimise your content to appear higher in search results on a search engine. It can be both organic or via paid advertising.

42. SEO: People like Neil Patel have dedicated their lives to this. “Search Engine Optimization” is a way to make your pages/website more visible to people by appearing higher in the search results. 

43. SMO: Once you have optimised the search engine, it’s time for “Social Media Optimization.” Like SEO, this is optimising a social media platform to do marketing tactfully and precisely to help you accomplish business goals.

44. SMM: It stands for “Social Media Marketing.” Can you recall those suggested ads or promoted posts while scrolling through your feed? Yes, they are all a part of SMM.

45. TOS: Something of a rarity, “Terms of Service” is used significantly less as an acronym. However, it is undoubtedly worth reading before you start using any platform/app/tool.

46. UI: It stands for “User interface.” The app, website, or tool that a user interacts with is called the user interface.

47. UX: Another term that is a direct descendent of UI. It stands for “User Experience.” It is a metric that helps decide how a user feels after using a website, app, or tool. 

48. VPN: With the recent surge for privacy, “Virtual Private Network” is all the rage. A tool that masks your existing internet connection, a VPN helps protect your connection/laptop from spyware and hackers.

Top Social Media Acronyms

The piece-de-resistance – the actual world where all the acronyms came to life. It is the Social Media platforms. With entire sentences being gobbled up, social media has redefined language in its own unique and unfathomable way. So, here are the top social media slangs that you will come across in day-to-day browsing:

49. AFAIK: Short for “As far as I know.”.

50. AMA: The newest trend from the influencers about baring it all for their audience. “Ask me anything” is a way to have questions and answers from the audience. On Instagram, they are popular in stories.

51. BFF: An oldie from a goodie- F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Lisa Kudrow coined the acronym for “Best friends forever.” The rest is history.

52. BRB: The shorthand for “be right back.” A perfect way to convey to someone about being away for a short while. 

53. BTS: This stands for “behind-the-scenes”. From watching bloopers of our favourite stars to how the stars live their life, BTS stories are loved by everyone. Furthermore, digital marketers use this to give a sneak peek about the work going on in their organisations to build hype and trust.

54. BTW: Quick and straightforward; it stands for “By the way.” 

55. DYK: For someone who loves The Big Bang Theory, this was Sheldon’s favourite pastime at lunch. Small tidbits of knowledge via “Did You Know” facts—E.g. Explanation about the Soup Sticks.

56. ELI5: Sounds like a sci-fi movie character name. But, it translates to “explain it to me like I’m five.” A term that comes in handy when someone has gone too technical for your understanding, and you want them to dumb it down—the way Sheldon Cooper did for Penny in the Big Bang Theory. 

57. FOMO: A social media buff is someone who might be well acquainted with this. The “fear of missing out.” Be it a birthday or just an update from your idol, FOMO has plagued every social media user at one point.

58. FTW: This one is quite famous in the gaming/sporting industry and stands for “For The Win”.

59. FYI: Another word that you might have heard on Keeping up with the Kardashians, “For your Information,” or as they call it, FYI!

60. GTG: When closing out a conversation, “Got to Go” might come in handy more times than you might think.

61. ICYMI: Posting something from your past that didn’t get noticed? Use this acronym to remind your audience “in case you missed it” and show them how long you’ve been killing it. 

62. IDC: Stands for “I don’t care.”

63. IDK: Widely used everywhere now. It stands for “I don’t know.”

64. ILY: The three magical words, as they call it- “I love you.”

65. IMHO: Expressing an opinion without stepping on anyone’s toes? Using “In my humble opinion” will come in handy.

66. IRL: Be it Eminem or Elon Musk- Both are inspirational people “in real life.” Furthermore, it can also be used in describing relationships, scenarios in two different situations.

67. JK: “Just Kidding” is used to indicate that something you said was not meant to be taken seriously.

68. LMAO: Don’t take it literally, but “Laughing my ass off” is the perfect way to appreciate someone who is actually really funny and won’t take offence.

69. LMK: Asking for something from someone? Use “let me know” to close out your sentence.

70. LOL: Used too much now! It stands for “Laughing out loud.”

71. NBD: When some issue or problem is not too significant; just say, “No big deal.” and walk off! 

72. NVM: Make someone disregard your last message or if you’ve tried making the other understand, say “Never mind” to cool things down.

73. RN: It stands for “Right Now.” Display your current emotions, actions or opinions with an RN.

74. WYD: Just another way of asking, “What you doing.”

75. OH: If you have “overheard” some information and want to keep the word to yourself, we understand!

76. NYT: The old-school dialogue “Name Your Trade” has now been changed to  “New York Times” in the modern era.

77. OMG: Self Explanatory. Short for “Oh My God.” Yep- Janice’s signature monologue on F.R.I.E.N.D.S show!

78. OMW: Making someone wait for you? Text them “on my way” to let them know you’re en route. 

79. PPL: Because typing “People” is just too mainstream.

80. QOTD: If you follow a quotes/sayings page on Instagram, you’ve probably heard of “quote of the day.”

81. OOTD: From the fashionistas come the “Outfit of the Day.” 

82. ROFL: The one that is funny and relevant- “Rolling on the floor laughing.” The one you do when you watch a cat video or a failed compilation on Youtube!

83. MRW: When you just want the world to know about how you feel in a particular situation. “My Reaction When” is the perfect setting for that. 

84. TFW: Related to MRW. However, you are describing the feeling. So “That Feeling When” is what defines it best.

85. SMH: At the end of disappointment, we end up “shaking my head.” There aren’t many rules to use this phrase but express disappointment, disgust, disbelief or shock by shaking your head!

86. TBH: Well, we all are taught “to be honest.” from childhood. However, sometimes we tend to forget it.

87. TL;DR: Got a text or post that was too long? Just type “Too long; didn’t read.” and tell them to write it in short.

88. WYA: From the makers of WYD comes “Where you at?” A perfect follow-up question for almost every situation.

89. WTF: No explanation needed- our response to everyone’s situation as an adult! “What the f—-” 

90. YOLO: An acronym with several deep meanings- the prime one being “you only live once.” You would probably find this used on traveller’s posts or inspirational posts. However, some notorious chocolate lovers (like ourselves) have molded it to “You obviously love Oreos.”

91. CMV: Challenging someone in a debate or just sharing an opinion that might be mistaken. You end up telling them, “Change My View.”

92. TBT: Got something old but worthwhile to people that happened on a Thursday? Or are you posting it on a Thursday? Whatever may be the case, “Throwback Thursday” will come in handy. 

93. FBF: Something nostalgic that happened on a Friday in the past? “Flashback Friday” is the perfect way to showcase it.

94. WBW: Often dubbed as hump day for being in the middle of the week, “Wayback Wednesday” is another way to take a trip down memory lane.

95. WCW: Celebrate women in your life, or women worldwide, and use “Woman Crush Wednesday” as the driver for that post.

96. FWIW: Giving someone a piece of advice or wisdom often involves the phrase, “For What It’s Worth”—a more inclusive way to put forward your opinion without calling someone out.

97. H/T: Stands for “Hat Tip” or “Heard Through.” Primarily used in media houses for virtually crediting their sources without naming them.

98. NSFW: When you want to share something with a “Not Safe for Work” colleague, better share it after hours – maybe personally. 

99. ISO: Though it’s an organisation’s name “International Organization for Standardization,” it is also used in place of “In Search Of.” You can find this phrase mostly on forums that brokers sell and purchase goods or services from.

100. PSA: Something that our governments do regularly. “Public Service Announcement” is something they want to tell the general public.

101. OC: If you want to showcase your own work/photo/post on social media instead of using someone else’s, “Original Content” is the one.

102. OG: When you want to reference something more remarkable than it is now, like the ‘67 Ford Mustang Fastback, use “Original Gangster” to make it feel that way.

103. WFH: The most overused acronym in the present COVID-19 Pandemic times. “Working From Home” or “Work from Home” is the way of work-life. However, with the situations brewing, a new acronym is just around the corner- LAW- Living at Work.

104. TFTF: Another way of thanking your ever-expanding social media family is “Thanks for the Follow.” 

105. TGIF: It’s the day we all have been waiting for all week. The start of the weekend. “Thank God It’s Friday”

106. EM: Asking someone to send you something via official communication channels? “Email Me” is the acronym you are looking for.

107. 411: No one really knows where this was born. But it stands for “Information.”

108. AF: Emphasize any feeling, person, thing or place with “As F**k.” You are starving? Say “I’m hungry AF.”

109. AFK: Another gaming slang. It is often used to let your clan buddies know that you are “Away from Keyboard” for the time being. It can also be used with your pals before you go offline or stop the conversation. 

110. BAE: We all have best friends/partners. And we value them “Before Anyone Else.”

111. BC: Another fatality of the social media curse. It stands for “Because.” However, if you explore India, you will find it being used across the nation as a curse word called “Be* Ch**.”

112. FFS: When you just want to make a point out of exasperation, “For F–––‘s Sake” really gets the point across.

113. FML: Just a total sigh of discontentment or an unfortunate anecdote. “F––– My Life” can be seen being used often in situations when people end up in huge messes one after the other.

114. GOAT: No, not the animal. They’re calling it “Greatest Of All Time.” Someone like Diego Maradona, Dr. Dre, or Jay-Z. Because they are!

115. HMU: an excellent way of saying get in touch is to say “Hit Me Up.” They are often seen on Snapchat and Instagram.

116. IDGAF: Because you don’t care about what goes on in others’ lives. So, “I don’t give an F–––” makes perfect sense.

EndNote

Social media managers know how important these acronyms are in the internet world because it is LITERALLY another language to speak with Millenials and the Zoomers. But this language isn’t hard to master.

Consider this list the next time you want to tweet or share your thoughts, and you’ll be good to go! Bookmark this list and Ctrl + F your way through this blog to find what you want!