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I’ve crossed over into the jargon-spewing world at work, and that sometimes leaves some of my colleagues out in the cold during meetings. So here’s a first in a series of posts to clarify what those abbrevations mean!

SME – Small and Medium Enterprises
It varies from country to country. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) defines it on basis of no. of employees:
small – less than 20
medium -  21 to 200
large greater – than 200

SMB – Small and Medium Business
See SME.

CRM – Customer Relationship Management
Generally includes all aspects of the above. Too wide to define here. Read Wikipedia for more.

However, in my line of work, it generally involves record keeping for client’s customers, as well as tools to help the business interact with the customer.

CMS – Content Management System
Like the above, there are many different types of CMSes. In my line of work, we generally work with Web CMSes, which are used to build business websites that especially require their content to be editable by non-html speaking humans.

SEO – Search Engine Optimisation
This is more an art than a science, imo (in my opinion). Beware the companies that tell you that they have calculated methods to drive up your search engine rankings, as search providers like Google and Bing change their algorhithim regularly.

However, real proper SEO does exist, and should be common sense for good website builders and PR agencies anyway. This includes stuff like getting the website architecture done properly, as well as making sure that you’re connected to the right organisations and individuals online and off.

WTF – the reaction to the above jargon by the average person

Disclaimer – The above are very generalised definitions. For further definitions, there’s Google and Wikipedia.