Learn English – a one or two word phrase for “Social Media following”

single-word-requestssocial-mediaword-choice

I am writing an application and need to find a short way to describe a shared group of people who follow certain aspects; for example, hashtags in Twitter or fans of certain pages on Facebook.

I had considered the term audience but that doesn't really fit. But what about the expression advocates?

Best Answer

I would appeal to the tone you wish to set to determine how you label your group;

  • Herd is one that was previously used but fell out of fashion, you might also appeal to flock or pack or murder or other animal herding terms. Obviously, this approach has a group mentality embedded in it, but also a strong sense of identity.
  • Crew has a kind of class-feel to it. You might consider other collectives in a way to reach out to that sense of identity.
  • Mission or congregation, or evangelists, is one way to send out strong signals that you encourage users to proselytize on your behalf.
  • Node has a nice feel to it, set is okay, other technical terms suited to your audience are another direction. These might be good in a niche usage but will be limited in their scope.
  • For a broad, almost universalist scope fan and follower work, i.e. your customer is the same as a Neil Hamburger or Ashton Kutcher follower. For words in that vein I like reader.

The tone of the app would obviously dictate how far you can go with this. At the same time it is good to keep an ear to that tone for clues as to where you might go. I’d be curious to know some more about the app and audience you are shooting for.

Related Topic