Tagging On Facebook – How To & Why To

Facebook’s relatively new tagging feature is a great way to create a clickable link to someone’s profile using their name in your status posting. To create this tag while typing your status update (in the “What’s On Your Mind?” field), follow these steps:

1. Start typing your message, when you get to the place you want to insert your friend’s name type the @ symbol followed by the person’s name. IMPORTANT: you can only tag people you are friends with.
2. When you start typing that person’s name (as long as there is NO space after the @ symbol (example @Laura Rubinstein) you will see your friends appear.
3. CLICK on that person’s name in order to activate the link. Note: if you do not click on the name in the list, the person’s name will NOT become a linked tag.
4. Then continue typing your update.

You may be wondering, WHY would you want to tag someone on facebook. Well, one of the nicest things you can do for someone is to acknowledge them. And one of the best ways to use facebook and other social media sites is to share positive comments about other people.  Tagging provides an means for introducing your tagged friend to others (your friends) as well since the tag is clickable it is easy for others to check out the profile of your friend.

WHEN to tag and when NOT to tag? That is the question! It is important to note that when you tag someone, your update (with the tag) shows up on their profile wall.

So when it comes to re-posting a friend’s posting, this is where the use of tagging differs on facebook from twitter.  On twitter people love to see their posts retweeted. On facebook if a bunch of people tagged your posts, you would see your post repeated everytime someone tagged you on your wall. That could be a bit cumbersome for the you as the tagged person. All tags show up in your News Feed as well as the tagged person’s feed.

Tag when you want the tagged person to know you’re “talking” about them. Otherwise, they may miss it.  Your other option is to go directly to their wall and write to them. They will definitely see it then and a note will show up on your wall too that you commented on their wall.  When you write on another’s wall you do have the option to set your privacy settings up so that does not appear on other’s News Feeds (Settings, Privacy, News Feed and Wall).

As always, I recommend keeping your postings positive and edifying of the people you are writing about. It’s a great way to share about your friend and his/her talents as well as any benefits you’ve received from connecting with others. You know what they say what you sow, you reap.  Happy Tagging.

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