Do you ever get annoyed by people tagging you or your business on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram or elsewhere? They are screaming for attention. Yet… when you look at their posts, they are getting attention and that post you are tagged in and you dislike is getting… traction and yes, reach.
Have you asked yourself this question: “Should I consider using this tactic of tagging more often and more people for myself and my clients?”
Before you do, read this! There are legitimate reasons to tag a person or business, and there are reasons to NOT tag a person.
In this article you will learn when it’s cool yo tag, and when it’s not. There is a fine line between friendly networking and spamming and you don’t want to cross it.
If you want to use tagging to increase your social media reach without being labeled a spammer, we invite you to read on!
When To Tag a Person of Business in a Social Media Post
You can tag someone or a business in a photo or video, or in a social media post.
Tagged posts notify the tagged person or business of the tag. Once tagged, they decide to take action including:
- Decline the tag or remove the tag
- ‘Like’ the tag by responding to the post
- Comment on the post, image or video
Tagging individuals, tagging friends as a well as tagging businesses is perfectly legitimate. Let's start with this: here are 3 reasons to tag in a social media post.
1. Resharing a Post from Social Media
The most common reason and the most legitimate reason to tag a local business, tag people or tag photos is tagging while resharing an original post or status update to another social media account.
Sharing is a form of flattery. Wouldn’t you want to know when others want to reshare your content to their own audience because it made an impression on them?
Resharing other people’s content and tagging them in posts allows for them to be seen in more than one news feed. This action taken by others expands their reach. While each platform has a system in place to send a ‘shared content’ notification to the account, tagging helps increase online visibility for those less social media savvy! Not everyone notices all shared content, but most do notice tags!
People reshare content often.
This includes
- Memes
- Videos
- Pictures
- Contests
- Tips, and more!
Sharing content and tagging is easy! It's free, and a great way to connect, network and get noticed online. Sharing is caring, as sappy as that may sound.
Find a public Facebook post, hit the share button and tag the original poster if your audience would enjoy that post! They will be happy you did. Tagging makes it easier for a new audience to connect with the original poster.
On Instagram, resharing a post is a bit trickier but not impossible.
On Twitter, resharing is a retweet and notifies and tags the original poster.
On LinkedIn, resharing a post is simple and tagging is an additional way of expanding reach.
2. Notifying the Subject About a Post or Comment
When you, business owner or social media manager, talk about someone in a post or comment, it’s perfectly fine to tag this person or business in that particular post. This could be something they said, did, wrote or shared, online or offline.
The purpose of tagging is to draw someone into a conversation where they are the star of the post!
Examples of this type of post includes
- Collaboration
- Support (for a Charity or Cause)
- Pictures and Videos
- Quotes
- Acknowledgement
- Past History
- Real Life Meetings
Use this way of tagging as you see fit, but remember to only tag those who are relevant to the topic, content and assets used in the post: case in point, as a consumer or influencer, tagging is an effective way to get noticed by a brand!
3. Asking for an Opinion
When doing research, or when seeking out experts on social media, it is perfectly fine to tag an experts in a post, provided it’s done in good taste and not too frequently. Meaning: don’t tag the same expert on a weekly or even monthly basis. They will block you so fast it will make your head spin.
Instead, make it a meaningful ask and thoughtful question that invites dialogue between multiple parties and elevates the expert’s expertise. When done right, this type of Facebook tagging or social media tagging can increase reach and expands a social media network.
Etiquette Around Social Media Post Tagging
While there are at least three good reasons to use tagging in social media posts, there are many more reasons and occasions not to!
Don’t tag
- Randomly without intent
- Frequently to the point of being spammy
- To get attention, as people will block you
- On several platforms at once
- In political or religious posts, unless previously discussed
- Business connections in opinion posts
- Previous employees in business posts
- Anyone when you rant!
Don't be annoying, spammy, and just yuck. Tag with intent to get leverage out of the tag.
Tagging Works Best On Public Posts
While all business posts are public posts, not all personal posts are. Tagging a business from a personal profile only works if an account and posts are visible to the public. Check settings before posting and tagging if the intent is to be noticed by a brand.
Businesses: Ask To Be Tagged!
Last but not least, asking for tags is a great way for a business to get access to user-generated content (UGC), shareable content.
Asking for tags when selling services and products is easy.
Add the ‘ask’, aka call-to-action to be tagged to your
- Bio
- Email signature
- Product labels
- Shipping materials
- Social media marketing posts
- Website
- Liveshows
…and anywhere you interact with an audience!
To Tag or Not To Tag is The Question
Always consider the purpose of the tag before tagging!
We have one SUPER TIP for tagging as an individual or influencer when trying to get attention of a brand.
If the intent is to have content reshared by a brand (not just noticed), don't tag their competitors in the same image! Most brands will not re-share content if their direct competition is also tagged.
Instead, create multiple posts for this purpose, tagging one brand at a time.
How do you use tagging in your marketing strategy?
I am a Certified Social Media Manager, Strategist, International Keynote Speaker, Organic Specialist and Agile marketer! Blogging is my creative outlet. Running, hiking and skiing are how I recharge. You'll recognize me on stage and online by my always present orange glasses, a nod to my Dutch heritage.
