Board members often come from a wide variety of backgrounds, life experiences and age groups. Each member brings a unique set of interests, skills and talents to the group.

While this diversity serves to strengthen boards, it can cause confusion when discussing how to make the best use of newer technology and tools that use special terminology. This is especially true of social media, which organisations are increasingly dependent upon to find supporters, volunteers and donors to help them fulfill their missions.

Many boards are finding it difficult to even discuss how to best use social media networks to help their organisation. This is mainly due to the fact that social media has its own terminology, which many members might be unfamiliar with. In order to understand how to leverage social media to help your cause, you must first understand its language.

It’s likely that at least some of your board members are already familiar with some of the original social media networks, such as Facebook and Twitter. While your board members may seem to have some basic social media knowledge, social media is rapidly changing, with new networks and platforms being added all the time. This means that its language is also constantly changing and evolving. Staying up to date is difficult for even the most technologically savvy.

Social media glossary

One way that you can ensure that all of your board members are up to speed on the latest social media networks and language is by providing them with a glossary of common social media terms. Hubspot has an ultimate glossary that explains 120 common social media terms that can give board members some insight into the meaning of some of the newer social media networks and their specialised terms.

You can forward a copy of this glossary to board members by email, or print out a hard copy for them to use as a quick reference guide. In addition to this guide, you may also want to do your own search for social media terms and create your own personalised glossary.

If you do create your own glossary, be certain to include terms from social media networks that your board may be considering using for your organisation. Whether you use someone else’s glossary or create your own, be prepared to frequently update and add to your list of social media terms as time goes on to help everyone stay current.

Training

A second option to help board members become more familiar with the language of social media is to survey board members on which social media networks they are familiar with and ask them if they would like to learn more about specific networks and terms.

You could then offer to host a training session on the language used in social media as well as talk about the various ways that specific social media networks can be used to help the board achieve its goals and objectives.

Once all board members have a better understanding of terms used in specific social media networks, any confusion is eliminated, and each member has a better understanding of the social media options that are available to assist the board. Understanding social media language also gives each board member a common framework from which to make and implement plans to achieve their goals