Tag-happy: Social Media Etiquette

Ashley Wymer | @ashleywymer Tagging is a glorious thing. It allows social media users to interact with one another on a more personal level and connect even more users in a single place. Businesses, however, must be very cautious when utilizing this social media tool. If not correctly used, tagging by businesses can come across as spam and turn off a plethora of potential clients.

A common practice in social media strategy is to tag other successful companies in posts and photos. On Facebook, for example, you can tag other accounts in photos or posts. In Twitter, you can utilize hashtags to spread a message about a specific topic or event.

This strategy is smart because it puts your company on the radar of the tagged company’s followers. This opens your business up to a whole new wave of potential followers, and hopefully, consumers. The entire goal of social media aims at gaining as much sight and interaction on the web as possible. Tagging bridges the gap between two people, pages or companies by merging their views from followers and expanding reach.

To take advantage of this incredible opportunity, companies should keep a few things in mind:

• Don’t tag every company you see. It looks spammy and just plain desperate. Keep your tags to a minimum or risk offending potential clients. Besides, you could accidentally associate with a less-than-respectable source and risk smudging your company’s image.

• Be tasteful in your tags. No company wants to be associated with something they deem inappropriate or too controversial. If you tag a company in a risky post, they will be offended and likely delete the tag.

• Choose your companies wisely. Don’t just pick random profiles and hope for the best. Do your research, find out what companies compliment your cause and look at their number of followers. Ever heard the saying about how the friends you have say a lot about you? That rule applies online too.

• Don’t get “tag-happy” and fill a single post or picture with dozens (or even hundreds) of tags. It is impersonal and, like tagging every company you know, shows little to no discretion in social media etiquette.

A simple tagging rule of thumb is to bear in mind that it is a two way street. What your followers see is what theirs will. So be respectful, courteous and discerning in your tags and watch your followers grow.