Twitter has unfortunately—or thankfully, depending on how you look at it—restricted its users to 140 characters. As a result, avid tweeters have skirted around the issue by inventing and manipulating acronyms—SMH, TMLT, IRL—so that the meaning behind the message doesn’t get lost in translation.

As a twenty-something-year-old, I grew up surrounded by similar slang and acronyms back in the hay-day of instant messaging. And yet, admittedly, I struggle to decrypt this sort of Twitter terminology, as if I’m eavesdropping on a conversation I don’t belong to.

We all do this: every company, every brand and every industry communicates in its own jargon—and acronym-filled language. Often times, we are so immersed within our own industry-specific world that we don’t realize who we are shutting out. Most importantly, we need to recognize that while internal communication is an integral aspect of company culture and development, it’s also the foundation behind the outward facing message that the rest of the world hears.

In order to bridge this communication gap, here are 10 online video marketing terms that are constantly used, but not universally understood.

Owned Media

This is any property that is controlled by you and is associated with you or your brand.

Properties: Websites, Mobile Sites, Blogs, Social Media Channels

Paid Media

Any means of paying to promote content to gain attention or drive traffic back to your owned media.

Advertising: Pay-Per-Click, Social Media Ads, Display Ads, Paid Influencers, Paid Content Promotions, Retargeting

Earned Media

You’ve earned it; this is the resulting word of mouth—sharing, engagement, traffic, or any other sentiment—surrounding you and your brand.

Sharing: Reviews, Shares, Mentions, Reposts, Retweets

When it comes to these “big three,” picture it like a camera tripod; it needs all three legs in order to stand. Each of the parts is vital to the whole picture: a cohesive digital marketing strategy.

Programmatic

The marketing connotation for programmatic is a reflection of its simple definition: of the nature of, or according to, a program, schedule or method.

Programmatic is targeted marketing on steroids; it uses a set of rules, algorithms, and software to automatically trigger the release of marketing campaigns for maximum efficiency and optimization.

Value Exchange

Like the word exchange suggests, this is a give-and-take method used by marketers; you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours. This type of advertising is incentive based: it requires certain interaction in order to gain access to certain content.

Think of a social game. Value Exchange takes place when users can watch a video and earn bonus coins in return.

Retention Rate

This is a metric that measures just how far into videos that users are actually watching.

RTB (Real-Time Bidding)

RTB is the buying and selling of ad impressions on an online auction marketplace in real time.

Huh?

Think of it like EBay. It allows advertisers and publishers that are shopping for media to have a more convenient, efficient, and personalized experience; plus, more options and better prices. But, you have to act fast before your content goes to the highest bidder.

Impression

An impression reflects any time a brand or video appears on a viewer’s screen; whether or not the user interacts with the content. It’s comparable to meeting someone for the first time—the crucial first impression: just because you come in contact with that person, it doesn’t mean you will continue to interact with them in the future.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

If there was ever an acronym that was so frequently used and yet so commonly misunderstood, it’s SEO.

Search Engine Optimization is less complicated than it sounds; it’s the process of ensuring that a website can be found via search engines when words and phrases relevant to the site’s offering are searched for.

Viral

Last, but certainly not least, the definition that is inherent to ViralGains. No, it’s not some sort of infectious disease; however the phenomenon behind it is still similar: objects, online video in this case, replicate over and over due to exposure. That exposure occurs thanks to Internet sharing, video sharing websites, social media, word of mouth, and platforms—like ViralGains!

The ViralGains definition is much easier to remember: the maximization of earned media.

Understanding online video marketing terminology is only half the battle; now, it’s time to use the power of online video in your marketing strategy.