Social media glossary
Social media terms, in plain English.
Social media is online communication where people share content, follow accounts and join conversations about their interests, work and communities. Learn the difference between reach and impressions, how to calculate engagement rate and what TikTok's FYP means. Then use the free profile scan to check your own public numbers.
A
- Average likes
- Total likes across a sample divided by the number of posts. Use this to describe typical results instead of choosing only your best post.Sample account: 5 posts with 500 likes altogether average 100 likes per post.Average likes on Instagram
B
- Bot follower
- A follower account controlled by automation. Ganicly's audience-quality tool compares public post engagement with the benchmark for the account's size.An audience-quality result compares post engagement with a size benchmark, rather than counting bots.Also called a fake follower.Instagram fake follower checker
- Brand deal
- An agreement to create promotional content for a company. Separate audience size from post performance when presenting your results: followers, average likes and average comments measure different things.Sample creator report: 100 average likes describes the post sample, not one standout result.Average likes on Instagram More on this
C
- Caption
- The text attached to a post. It can explain the image or video, include hashtags and ask readers to take an action.A bakery caption might describe the loaf and ask readers which bread they would choose.Instagram caption length checker
- Caption length
- The number of characters in a caption. Ganicly averages this across recent posts, counting an empty caption as zero.Sample account: captions of 100 and 200 characters have an average length of 150 characters.Instagram caption length checker
- Carousel
- An Instagram post containing several images or videos. Ganicly counts the whole carousel as one post, rather than counting each slide separately.Sample account: a carousel with 5 slides contributes 1 post to the engagement sample.
- Comment
- A message left on a post. In Ganicly's Instagram engagement calculation, public comments are added to likes before the total is divided by followers.Sample account: 80 average likes plus 20 average comments gives 100 average interactions per post.Instagram engagement rate calculator
- Completion rate
- The percentage of viewers who watch a video to the end. It measures finishing the video, rather than simply starting to watch.Sample account: 60 viewers finishing out of 100 viewers gives a completion rate of 60%.
- CPM
- An advertising-cost metric based on impressions. In Instagram reporting, distinguish repeated content displays from reach, which counts distinct accounts.A CPM figure describes advertising exposure, not the number of followers added.
D
- Daily cap
- The most followers a Ganicly plan can deliver in a day. This daily limit grows with your account; a smaller account cannot receive a larger plan's full monthly range.An account under 1,000 followers has a daily limit of 60.More on this
E
- Engagement pod
- A group whose members agree to like or comment on each other's posts. The term describes how those interactions are organized, not a separate engagement metric.A pod member's comment contributes to the same comment total as any other comment.
- Engagement rate
- Likes and comments expressed as a percentage of followers or views. Ganicly uses followers on Instagram and views on TikTok when at least 3 sampled posts have view counts; otherwise TikTok uses followers.Sample Instagram account: 80 average likes plus 20 average comments, divided by 5,000 followers, gives 2%.Instagram engagement rate calculator More on this
- Explore page
- Instagram's discovery area for browsing content, rather than one creator's profile. Finding a post on Explore describes where it was discovered, not its engagement rate.A viewer finds a baking post on Explore, then opens the baker's profile.
F
- Follow-back rate
- The percentage of accounts you follow that follow you back. Keep this separate from the percentage of profile visitors who become followers.Sample account: 10 follow-backs from 100 accounts followed gives a follow-back rate of 10%.
- Follower ratio
- Followers divided by following. Ganicly displays the result to one decimal place and grades it using its own scale.Sample account: 2,000 followers divided by 500 following gives a ratio of 4.0.Instagram follower to following ratio checker More on this
- Followers
- Accounts subscribed to your profile. Ganicly's follower checker shows the public total alongside following, post count and the time it was checked.Read the timestamp beside the count to know when that total was checked.Instagram follower count checker More on this
- For You page
- TikTok's personalized recommendation feed, often shortened to FYP. What you watch, like, search for and follow helps shape the videos you see.The guide uses liking 5 cooking videos as an example of activity that can shape later recommendations.Also called the FYP.More on this
G
- Growth service
- A service that helps a profile build its audience. Ganicly promotes your public profile and delivers real followers from its own base, matched to your niche, countries and reference accounts by its own AI technology.Core's published monthly range is 1,000 to 1,500 followers, subject to your account's daily limit.More on this
H
- Handle
- An account's username, commonly written with an @ symbol. Use the public username for a Ganicly lookup, not the display name; no Instagram or TikTok password is needed.Enter the username shown on the profile, rather than the business name above its posts.TikTok follower count checker
- Hashtag
- A word or phrase prefixed with # to label a topic. Ganicly's checker shows the top 12 recurring hashtags by usage across recent posts, excluding sponsored posts.Sample account: #ceramics appearing in 4 posts has a usage count of 4.Instagram hashtag checker More on this
I
- Impressions
- Impressions answer “How many times was this displayed?” They include repeated displays to the same person, so they measure exposure rather than distinct viewers.If 1 person sees a post 3 times, that produces 3 impressions and a reach of 1.
L
- Like
- A reaction recorded when someone uses a post's like control. Ganicly uses public likes to calculate average performance and how evenly results are spread across posts.Sample account: posts with 50, 100 and 150 likes average 100 likes.Average likes on Instagram
- Lookalike account
- A reference account whose audience resembles the audience you want. Choose accounts that help describe your intended audience alongside your niche, countries and language.A ceramics studio can choose pottery-focused accounts as references for its desired audience.
N
- Niche
- An account's main topic or specialty. For an Instagram bakery profile, “sourdough baking” describes a more specific niche than “food.”In Ganicly's targeting setup, name the topic that best describes your intended audience.
P
- Post consistency
- Ganicly's score for how evenly likes are spread across recent posts. It measures performance spread, not publishing regularity, and needs at least 3 posts.Sample account: posts with 100, 100 and 100 likes receive a consistency score of 100.Instagram post performance checker
- Posting frequency
- How often an account publishes, expressed as posts per week. Ganicly uses recent post dates, excludes pinned posts and also shows days since the latest post.Sample account: 6 posts across a 2-week sample span gives 3 posts per week.How often to post on Instagram: 3 to 5 a week
R
- Reach
- Reach answers “How many different accounts saw this?” On Instagram, each account counts once, even when it sees the content repeatedly.If 1 person sees a post 3 times, reach is 1 while impressions are 3.
- Reel
- Instagram's video post format. Ganicly's Reels-share tool compares video posts with stills across your recent post sample.Sample account: 4 video posts out of 10 posts gives a Reels share of 40%.Reels vs posts on Instagram More on this
S
- Save
- Bookmarking content so you can return to it later. On TikTok, saves are among the interactions that help shape recommendations.Saving a recipe bookmarks it for later; liking it records a different interaction.
- Shadowban
- An informal term for content being limited or restricted without a notification. Use engagement rate to describe measurable post performance.Lower engagement is a measured result; calling it a shadowban is an interpretation.
- Story
- A photo or video published in an account's Stories area. Ganicly's Instagram Story viewer shows current stories from public accounts, including the time left.A current Story appears separately from the posts used to calculate profile engagement.Anonymous Instagram story viewer
W
- Watch time
- The amount of time someone spends watching a video. Viewing duration and repeat watches help shape TikTok recommendations.Sample account: watching a video for 20 seconds records more watch time than watching for 5 seconds.
See these numbers on your own profile.
The free scan puts your engagement rate beside the benchmark for your account size, then adds posting rhythm, recent posts and recurring hashtags. It checks public activity, not saves, shares, reach, impressions or watch time.