What Does Tagging Mean?

Tag, you’re it! These days, social media “tags” are all the rage. You may have been “tagged” on Facebook before, and were never quite sure what it meant. What is tagging, and how can you use it to better market your business? This post makes understanding and using tags on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter simple and easy.

What Is Tagging?

Given how social media has increased in popularity over the past few years, almost everybody has heard of “tagging,” even if they haven’t used it themselves. So what is tagging? What does it mean to tag someone on Facebook? What does it mean to tag someone on Twitter/Instagram? Put simply, whether on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, tagging allows a user to identify someone else in a post, photo, tweet, or status update. This tag takes the form of a clickable name or username that will notify a person that you have referred to them in a post or photo. You may tag someone in a photo in order to identify them in that photo, or you may tag someone in a post, tweet, status update to make sure that they see it. Related: Facebook Marketing in 2016

Tagging with the @ Symbol

Thankfully, tagging has been made more or less uniform across the most popular social media platforms. Knowing how to tag someone on Facebook means also knowing how to tag someone on Twitter and Instagram. Simply use the @ symbol to start a tag. Tagging friends, or even customers, is a great way to personalize posts. You can comment, say thank you, share fun content, or announce the winner of a contest in this way. Whether you’re trying to figure out how to tag someone in a comment or in a status on Facebook, tagging works the same way. Wherever there is space to type text, there is an opportunity to tag someone.

Tagging on Facebook

For Facebook, type the @ followed by the first letter or few letters of the name of the person whom you are trying to tag. A dialogue box will pop up with a drop down menu featuring a list of names. Select the person or company you aim to tag and viola! That party will be tagged in your post via their full name, which will appear in blue.

Tagging by First Name Only

You can also tag people just by their first name. Simply tag the person as instructed above, and once their full name appears, hit the “backspace” button on your keyboard. This will delete their last name but keep their first name as a tag.  Keep in mind that, when it comes to individuals, you may only be able to tag people you are friends with. This depends on the individual in question’s privacy settings.

Tagging Facebook Business Pages

You can also tag Facebook pages or companies in this same way:

Tagging on Twitter and Instagram

Instagram and Twitter work slightly differently. You cannot tag by first or last name; rather, you tag by username. For example, if you were trying to tag Yelp in a tweet on Twitter, you’d type @Yelp along with the rest of your message. This post provides more detail on how to tag someone on Twitter.

Tagging on Instagram

For Instagram you’d do the same thing; type the @ and search by username. For a step-by-step breakdown, hop on over to this article on how to tag people on Instagram. For both Instagram and Twitter, tagging is made easier if you are already following the user you are trying to tag, as this will cause their usernames to pop up in a dialogue box for your selection (this way, you don’t have to type out the entire username).

To Tag someone on Instagram, do the following:

Step 1: Upload a photo. Select “Tag People” Take this example. Here, a company is uploading a photo of its public yoga event. They wish to tag the yoga instructor in the photo so that people can follow her. Step 2: Tap on the person you wish to tag. Step 3: Begin typing the person’s name or username in the search bar. A list of options will appear. Select the person you want, and done! For this example, say the instructor’s name were “Joanne Smith.” You’d start by typing out “Jo” into the search bar, or by typing out her Instagram username. When you find the username, click on it and the tag will appear. Then simply upload the photo as usual. To remove the tag, just tap on the tagged person and press the X next to the tag.

Tagging on Twitter

You can tag someone on Twitter two different ways. The first way is to tag them in a tweet and the second way is to tag them in a photo. By tagging someone in a tweet you’re directly communicating with the user either by asking them a question or making a comment. In the example below you can see that ThriveHive tagged G2Crowd, a user review site for software tools. Tagging a user in a photo is another option. Photos take up character space on Twitter and since tweets are limited to 140 characters, tagging a username is not always possible if you include a photo. Tagging someone in a photo is most commonly used when there isn’t enough space for a tag or if you want to include multiple tags. To tag someone in a photo on Twitter, simply upload the photo and click “Who’s in this photo” either on your desktop or on the mobile app, search for a username, and choose the correct user.   We hope this clears up any confusion with tagging so that the next time you hear someone talking about tagging or increasing your reach on social media by tagging customers or other companies, you’ll be in the know! Do you have even more questions about tagging? Leave your questions in the comments below!