Glossary

Glossary

The Public Affairs Brand Guide glossary is an easy-to-use reference that helps define commonly used public relations, communications, branding, and multimedia terminology. The definitions are provided to educate internal and external stakeholders and define their relationship to the agency’s work. This document will be updated as new tactics, strategies, and technologies are integrated.

Categories

Commonly Used Terms

• Call to Action: An action or message that calls on the reader to perform a certain act immediately (e.g. go to a website, register today, sign up to learn more, etc.).
• Community Partner/Stakeholder: A party that has an interest in the agency and can either affect or be affected by our actions.
• Content: Content is a communicated sentiment expressed through some medium, such as website copy, graphics, social media posts, videos, and blogs, to convey a message.
• Demographics: Statistical data relating to the population and particular groups within it.
• Digital Marketing: The use of marketing tactics through digital platforms including internet, social media, mobile devices, search engines, and other digital channels to reach clients.
• Engagement: Direct communication with clients that delivers personalized messages and creative content. A measure of this can be through public-facing channels.
• External Audience: External stakeholders outside of VDSS including community stakeholders, agency partners, and target audience.
• Flight Dates: The total run length of an advertising campaign from the activation date of the first advertising medium to the conclusion of the last.
• Impressions: A calculation of the number of people that have heard or seen public-facing content.
• Internal Audience: Internal stakeholders within VDSS including state staff and local DSS staff.
• One-Way Communication: Communications that flow from a sender to a receiver, but nothing goes back in return. The sender can use one-way communication to inform, entertain, persuade, or command the audience. This communication method is less effective than two-way communication and provides no opportunity for feedback from your audience.
• Primary Research: A methodology used by researchers to collect data directly, rather than depending on data collected from previously done research (e.g. focus groups, tracking call center inquiries, field reports, etc.).
• Public-Facing Channels: Platforms that are seen by the public. This includes the VDSS website, Facebook, Twitter, and department newsletters.
• ROI (Return-On-Investment): A measure of the performance and efficiency of an investment. A high ROI means the outcome compares favourably to its cost/investment.
• Secondary Research: A methodology that involves using already existing data. Existing data is summarized and collated to increase the overall effectiveness of research (e.g. historical research, national studies, reports by other agencies, etc.).
• Subject Matter Expert (SME): Possesses the knowledge and expertise in a specific subject, business area, or technical area for a project. In a project, the SME is responsible for speaking to that area of expertise when questions arise and/or reviewing information on the subject for accuracy.
• Target Audience: A defined group of people in which the campaign or messaging is directed at.
• Two-Way Communication: Communications that flow from one person to another person. When the message is received, the receiver can engage in a response back. Messages can be transmitted between employees, the public and other stakeholders, and feedback or a response is given.

Branding

• Brand Equity: The value, visibility, and association clients make towards a brand. Positive brand equity is associated with positive brand building, campaigns that speak to target-audience values, and delivering on initiative and agency efforts.
• Brand Loyalty: The likelihood of clients returning to VDSS for services and degree of trust clients have towards the brand.
• Brand Positioning: The process by which VDSS defines the agency to the public and delineates itself from other agencies or organizations.
• Brand Promise: Value or experience VDSS clients can expect to receive when they interact with the agency.
• Business Owner: The Business Owner is the advocate for the business reps on the project team. While not directly involved in day-to-day decisions and tasks, the business owner plays an important role on the project.
The Business Owner:
1. is typically a department level manager
2. participates in regular meetings with the project manager and team as required (monthly for example)
3. is aware of and supports the project goals and objectives
4. approves the level of participation of business reps from his/her department for the project
5. notifies the project manager if team resource availability may change because of upcoming business needs
6. approves all changes to business processes prior to them being designed into the new system
7. assists with conflict resolution between departments, particularly when integrated systems and processes are being implemented
8. gives the final approval to the project manager and sponsor that both the system and business are ready for go-live
• Project Owner: The project owner is typically, but not always, the head of the business unit receiving the product, and bears business responsibility for successful project implementation. The project owner may often act as a “champion” to the project, in partnership with the sponsor.

PR & Communications

• Broadcast: A broadcast is an electronic form of mass communication, written in memo format, used by state agency personnel for the purposes of communicating vital information to local agency personnel. The goal of a broadcast is to inform staff about new information such as policy changes, system outages, training opportunities or changes to a current procedure.
• Fusion Tout: A tout is a short feature posted on the home pages of Fusion (internal audience) and/or the VDSS public website (external audience) to share information with employees and the general public. Examples of topics that warrant a tout are national awareness months, policy changes, new benefits available to clients, and new agency initiatives and/or events.
• Mass Email: A mass email is a form of mass communication, written in memo format, used by state agency personnel for the purposes of communicating high-level, time-sensitive, “need to know” information to one or all of the following distribution categories: all local staff, all state staff, home office.
• Media Relations: The process in which we engage with editors, reporters, influencers, and journalists.
• Media: The media includes any representative from newspapers, radio stations, television stations, magazines, websites and bloggers.
• Press Release: A press release is a written or recorded communication directed to the media to announce something newsworthy to the public. Press releases are distributed to promote major announcements, awards and accomplishments, other news and activities of the agency.
• Social Media: Social media has become the new, and sometimes more preferred way of delivering a key message to a target audience. Social media platforms allow the agency to reach a large group of individuals, varying in age, demographic and need.

Web & Multimedia

• A-roll: A-roll, A roll, A-reel or A reel is the main footage in a video. For example, if an interview were being recorded, the exchange between the interviewer and interviewee would be considered A-roll.
• API: An API or Application Programming Interface is software, typically used in website development, that allows two applications to “talk to each other.” For example, a website which completes or suggests recommendations to complete an address may be using an API to talk to another application that provides address information, such as Google Maps.
• B-roll: B-roll, B Roll, B-reel or B reel is supplemental or alternative footage included within a video to support the main footage. For example, a video of an interview with a home builder may also contain footage such as imagery of housing communities and homes under construction.
• Call Out: A defined area on a website, typically at the beginning of the webpage content which provides a call to action to a visitor of the page.
• CMS: A CMS or Content Management System is a web software which allows websites to be built and maintained by average users without requiring advanced knowledge of coding languages.
• Collateral: Collateral is a “catch all” term used to indicate graphics, websites, videos or other resources needed for a campaign, website, video or collective project.
• CSS: CSS or Cascading StyleSheets is a file and coding language which controls the look and feel of a website.
• Domain: A domain is the top level web address of a website and essentially is the address to the homepage of a website. For example, www.dss.virginia.gov is the VDSS domain; another example would be familyfirstvirginia.com.
• End User: The term "end user" refers to the consumer of a good or service, often who has some innate know-how that is unique to consumers. In a literal sense, the term end user is used to distinguish the person who purchases and uses the good or service from individuals who are involved in the stages of its design, development, and production.
• Homepage: A homepage or home page is the main web page of a website.
• HTML: HTML or Hyper Text Markup Language is the fundamental coding language that allows websites to be built and function on computers and mobile devices.
• In Context/Contextual Links: A contextual link or incontext link is a clickable text link found within the written content of a webpage. It is typically done to keywords within the content of the page and assist with Search Engine Optimization.
• Intranet: As opposed to the internet, an intranet is an internal staff-only site for storage and sharing of resources and information. For VDSS, this has been branded as Fusion.
• Landing Page: A landing page is a standalone web page for a specific area of a website. These are typically created in conjunction with a marketing campaign, but can also be used to promote highly trafficked locations on a website. They typically have less links than the homepage and serve a single purpose. For example, the Careers landing page directs visitors to employment and career information related to VDSS.
• Logo Lockup: A lock-up is the final form of a logo with all of its elements locked in their relative positions. For the sake of maintaining consistency in all mediums, the lock-up should not be taken apart or altered in any way. A good lock-up will create a sense of cohesion between the elements.
• Logo: A logo is a graphic mark, emblem, symbol, or stylized name used to identify a company, organization, product, or brand. It may take the form of an abstract or figurative design, or it may present as a stylized version of the company's name if it has sufficient brand recognition.
• Microsite: A microsite is an individual web page or a small cluster of pages which are meant to function as a discrete entity within an existing website or to complement an offline activity. The microsite's main landing page can have its own domain name or subdomain (e.g. AdoptVa.com, SafeSleep365.com, SupportVAKids.com).
• Navigation: Navigation is an area on a website which provides links to other areas within the website. This is typically located at the top of the webpage on either the left, right or center of the page and is displayed in a consistent manner throughout the website.
• Horizontal Navigation: Website navigation, typically displayed at the top of the website, that is displayed in a single line across the top of the webpage
• MegaNav: A specialized navigation format, typically used in conjunction with Horizontal Navigation, that displays all links to pages based on the primary navigation item in a single dropdown.
• Vertical Navigation: Website navigation, typical on the left of the website, which is displayed in a vertical direction with one link directly below or above another
• Responsiveness/Mobile Friendly: Responsiveness is a term used to describe a website or application which adjusts its presentation in response to the device being used. It is closely related and sometimes interchanged with the concept of Mobile Friendliness, which is a design rubric that supports mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones.
• Search Engine: A search engine is a function on a website that provides a list of suggested pages related to the search terms that a visitor enters into the search field. Search engines can be designed to search a single website, a collection of websites or the internet itself. The Google search engine is an example of a search engine.
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization): SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a collection of tactical initiatives performed on a website to increase a page's searchability or positioning in search engine results.
• Stock Images(Imagery): Images purchased from a photography reseller. These could include free images or paid imagery from resellers, such as Getty Images, Unsplash or the VDSS Digital Image Library(staff only).
• Subdomain: A domain is a secondary level or child of a top-level domain. For example, http://cpsaccountability.dss.virginia.gov is a subdomain of the top level domain, https://dss.virginia.gov.
• URL: A URL or Uniform Resource Locator which is simply an address to a webpage, for example https://www.dss.virginia.gov/family/dcse is the URL to the Child Support Landing page.
• Vanity URL: A Vanity URL is a URL that is used typically for marketing purposes to direct visitors to a specific web page within a larger website. These are used to reduce the likelihood of typos or spelling errors and makes it easier for visitors to access the page. For example, pebtva.com is a vanity url that takes you to the PEBT Resources page on the public website.