Metadata

In the context of social media, the descriptive information and data that provide context or additional details about a specific piece of content, such as a post, image, video, or other media shared on a platform, is called metadata. It is essentially the behind-the-scenes information that helps platforms, users, and algorithms understand and categorize content. Metadata contains a wide range of details that can help content classify and display itself adequately. These can include timestamps, geolocation tags, hashtags, captions, usernames, file types, dimensions, and engagement metrics, among others. The way in which platforms and users optimize these details can amount to a formidable discovery engine—the discovery engine of social media. On the surface, it can certainly appear that what fuels the discovery engine is the content itself. And indeed, content is the most essential fuel. But the content hasn’t just appeared in the world; it has been authored and tagged, and it occupies a particular space in a particular time. What users can perform and what brands can perform is, at a cellular level of engagement on a post, perform discovery.