To tag or not to tag, that is the question!

Tagging folks in your content is an important path to your post becoming visible online.

But please, tag responsibly.

The other day while scrolling on the socials, I felt popular. 

In my notifications, I noticed I was tagged in several different posts both on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Ohhh - look at me being all fancy…

Eh, not exactly. 

Upon further investigation, I saw that 2 of the tags were from a couple connections that I really didn’t know that well - they included me in a farm of other tagged connections as a way to increase engagement on their posts.  

The other 2 tags were SPAM posts trying to sell me on photographic services. 

In each case, I removed my tag. 

Why? 

Because these posts had absolutely nothing to do with me. 

At all. 

Quite frankly, when I’m tagged in content that has nothing to do with me, I’m annoyed to the point that I sometimes MUTE the connection - or, in the case of the SPAMMERS, block them all together. 

Here’s the thing, folks:

We are bombarded daily with all kinds of information on social media, and when you do the mass tag thing without that content being connected to them in some shape or form, you’re simply adding to the noise. 

So, why annoy the shit out of other people? It’s counter-productive. 

Now, am I saying that tagging, overall, is a counter-productive thing? 

Absolutely not. 

But use it responsibly and appropriately. 

For example, I created an end of year video post for 2021. I selected one image from each of the sessions I conducted throughout the year and created a montage to the beat of the music in the background.

When I posted it to Facebook, I tagged 52 connections. 

“But isn’t that mass tagging - the thing that’s working you up into a lather?”

Not exactly.

The key difference was that each tagged connection appeared in that video at least once. 

Now, there were at least 20-30 other virtual, book boudoir, live event and portrait clients that didn’t fit in the video. Did I tag them, as well?

Nope. I didn’t want to annoy them with watching a video that didn’t include them.

The point here is that when it comes to tagging, be courteous to your colleagues and don’t SPAM TAG them in the hopes that they’ll consume, engage and share your content. 

It’s lazy, and quite frankly, I’m not even sure that tactic works! It sure as hell doesn’t work on me, and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one. 

If you’d like to share your work with colleagues, how about you simply ask them to do so?

DM, email, possibly pick up the phone? And if they find it valuable, ask them to share on their own feeds. 

Listen, I know that’s more work, and hey, most people might not even pay enough attention to give a shit about them being part of a mass tag list. 

But blindly tagging folks to create these farms of names at the bottom of your post could potentially come back to bite you in the ass by annoying certain people. 

So why even give that a chance to happen?

Turning to you…

What are your thoughts on mass tagging posts in the hopes of creating more engagement on your social content? Completely agree/disagree with my take? Cool - please share your thoughts below.