While a lot of us have adopted social media as a standard form of communication, plenty of us still have no clue what certain terms mean. Thankfully, these terms are generally easy to understand once you’re given a push in the right direction. This guide should serve as a first step to understanding social media terms.

1. Tag

Tag can refer to a number of different things, depending on how it is used. Often, in blogs or other content you can attach a keyword to a blog. Those keywords are known as tags. This makes it easier for search engines to register the content you post as pertaining to a certain topic.

Tag might also be used in reference to tagging someone in, or linking someone to, photos. Facebook photo tagging now uses facial recognition software to help you tag friends in photos.

The most recent form of tagging actually refers to mentioning friends in your posts and status updates. Now, if you tag them in your updates, they will be notified of your post and it will show up on their wall for all of their other friends to see.

2. Troll

A troll in this instance is a person that uses social media as a way to provoke people. Trolls often make taunting or offensive comments on pages or in groups in order to provoke anger.

3. Friend

In social media terms, friend is actually an action that refers to adding someone to your social network. So, next time you hear someone discuss “friending” someone, all they’re saying is that they added someone as a friend.

4. Stream

Stream is another one of those double-meaning terms, depending on how it is used. Stream may pertain either to someone’s Twitter or Facebook home page that contains updates and posts from everybody in their social network. It can also refer to receiving a constant stream of information, often in the form of a webcast.

5. At mention

An at mention, or @ mention, works on Twitter much like status tags work on Facebook. You can mention someone in your Tweet, precede his or her name with the @ symbol and they will be alerted to your post. This also allows the post to show up in his or her home page.

Although social media terms can easily become hazy, the purpose of this guide is to help clear them up. If you’d like an even more extensive guide to social media terms take a look at this article.