26 Social Media Acronyms You Must Know

“Omg, afk, rn, my bf lol bc he’s on imgur w this tl;dr posts and nty. Lame af, imo. Oh, brb, I gtg. Ttyl!”

Which basically means:

Oh my god, away from keyboard right now, my boyfriend laughed out loud because he’s on imgur with this too long;didn’t read post. Lame as f*ck, in my opinion. Oh, be right back, I got to go. Talk to you later.

Social media acronyms and abbreviations, also referred to as social media slang, are an inevitable part of working in digital marketing. These sadly looking, deprived of poetry strings of letters slowly, yet painfully, kill languages with every single acronym sent out in a private message or a comment. The late great Shakespeare must turn in his grave seeing what’s happening with the English language.

Well, he’s been long gone and things took their own turn and this is the world we have to communicate in.

Acronyms are the sign of times in which we’re running short of time, that’s why we try to communicate as fast as possible. Hence, acronyms seem to be a natural step for language.

Below you can see 21 examples of social media slang. Some of them you probably know, but other are brand new. Enjoy the reading!

1. ASAP AS POSSIBLE

the ASAP means as soon as possible, however, with AS POSSIBLE it means twice that fast. Great entrepreneurship lessons from the world’s best boss, Michael Scott.

2. AWOL

1. Absent Without Official Leave
   Originally, it comes from the military and describes a soldier that left one’s post without the official order from the superior.  
2. Away While Online
   Refers to a person who’s online but beyond reach.

I’m AWOL for the next hour.

3. AMA

Ask Me Anything

Can be AMA often found on Reddit. In general, it’s a format where the audience can ask the interviewed person anything. It’s getting more and more popular in videos. Like in this one with Matt Damon:

4. BTW

By the Way

BTW, you can try Brand24 in a free trial. It’s absolutely cracking.

5. CTO

Chief Technology Officer, the one person that actually does something at the company. 

Like our CTO, Piotr Wierzejewski, who also happens to design extremely minimalistic presentations. The minimalism in his last presentation was so extreme that it was barely visible. It’s the quality, never the quantity.

Piotr Wierzejewski is the CTO of Brand24.

6. CREAM

Conversion Rules Everything Around Me

A slang term used exclusively by marketers in reference to conversion as the ultimate goal at work.

Conversion Rules Everything Around Me, CREAM get the money, dolla dolla bill y’all.

Even the famous Wu-Tang Clan rap group praises CREAM.

7. CEO

Chief Executive Officer, cappo di tutti cappi, the boss, the big cheese, kahuna, kingpin, or a just guy that earns exactly 637 times more than you.

It’s the person of the highest rank within a company who makes the most important decisions.

Mike Sadowski is the CEO of Brand24. Here’s his Twitter.

Don’t you even bother counting the falling money. It’s still more than you earn.

8. CTR

Click-through Rate

It’s the ration of users clicking a specific link to the total number of visitors who view a page, email or advertisement.

It seems the CTR imprpoves week by week.

<too boring no photo>

9. DM

Depeche Mode, Disease Management, Dextromethorphan or simply Direct Message on Twitter.

Direct Message stands for a short message sent privately to other user. People use it to connect and have a chit-chat. Alternatively, DM can be called the biggest SPAM delivery service on Twitter.

10. ELI5

Explain like I’m 5

It’s used by people who struggle with the understanding of a certain issue. They basically ask other people to explain something in possibly simplest way.

ELI5, do animals find things funny?

11. FTW

For the Win

It’s been extremely popular since many years on the Web. Used as an enthusiastic ending of a sentence in a comment, message or a post.

12. GRIFFIN

Get Revenue In Freaking Fantastically Incredible Numbers

Since our CRO, Mick Griffin, is an outstanding salesman, we created a dedicated acronym that relates to an extremely effective and successful salesman.

You know me, GRIFFIN for life!

Then, it turned up that it was Alec Baldwin who first appreciated the salesmanship of our CRO a long time ago in Glengarry Glen Ross movie which is a great movie about sales.

13. HTML

HyperText Markup Language

First of all, no, you’re not a programmer if you know HTML. HyperText Markup Language is the standard markup language for creating websites. Actually, it is’s also used in newsletters, landing pages and elsewhere.

14. IMO 

In My Opinion

IMO, Brand24’s recent feature update is a blast! Check it!

15. KPI

Key Performance Indicators

Let’s just skip to the next one. Why should I disturb your nice day?

16. LOL

Laughed out Loud

It’s used to express a great amusement in an online chat. Sadly, lol lost its original purpose as people overuse it and now hardly anyone laughs out loud while using it.

Statement: Jim just put Dwight’s stapler in jello!

Worthless reply: lol

17. MTFBWY

May The Force Be With You

No one knows it better than starwars.wikia.com:

“May the Force be with you” was a phrase used to wish an individual or group good luck or good will, one that expressed the speaker’s wish that the Force work in favor of the addressee. The phrase was often used as individuals parted ways or in the face of an impending challenge.

It’s avidly used between Star Wars fans.

18. NSFW

Not Safe for Work

Refers to the Internet content that gets people fired. This one’s used to describe online content that is considered inappropriate for displaying publicly or in a typical workplace, for example, nudity or explicit language.

This website is kinda NSFW.

19. OMG

Oh my God!

It’s a popular online exclamation for disgust or surprise.

OMG, we just reached 30k customers!

CRO Mick Griffin making it rain.

20. PR

Public Relations

Jerry’s handling their PR.

21. ROI

Return on Investment

What’s the ROI of our newsletter?

22. SaaS

Software as a Service

It’s a model of delivery where software is licensed on a subscription basis.

Brand24 is a SaaS company.

23. SADEK

Success, Attitude, Drones, Execution, KPIs

It comes from our CEO Mike Sadowski’s nickname Sadek. Guess why.

He’s the guy we need. He’s all about SADEK.

24. SEO

Search Engine Optimization

It’s a process of improving a website to make sure it appears high on the list of search engine results.

I paid $4000 for SEO and got only 2 new customers!

25. WCW

Women Crush Wednesday

Sadek: My WCW is Jeniffer Lawrence.

Griffin: Mine is Beyonce.

26. YOLO

You Live Only Once

It comes from Drake’s song The Motto. Usually, it works as an excuse for doing something stupid and irresponsible. Also, some use to say it before sending a newsletter to a massive group of people.

Guy 1: Hey i heard that you broke ur leg falling off the balcony at that party
Guy 2: Ya but hey YOLO