Tags are everywhere on the web from blogs to hashtags to email tagging and beyond. These seemingly innocuous words can accelerate content discovery or stop it dead, thus making a difference in sales. Thus, tags help a business get ahead.
What is commonly referred to as a tag is really a quick way to note a category. Hashtags fall in this category as well. Since the internet helps humans generate massive amounts of data, tags are how we organize that data, like a digital filing system with tags as the folder labels. Tagging data, including specific data, allows for cross-referencing.
In a blog website or email management system, tags note data relevant to that entry. For a blog, tags group similar posts on similar subjects. Within an email management system, it allows people to be grouped into more than one list without overlapping what they’re sent. No one wants 12 identical emails sent to them after all!
Social media takes this idea of cross-referencing to a new level. Many of the platforms actually allow the following of specific hashtags rather than just people. This allows the discovery of entirely new categories relating to the client’s interests. That linking can lead to a whole new set of information.
Determining which tags to use can be a monstrous task. However, generally, it starts with figuring out how many tags or hashtags are appropriate to the platform. For example, Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags, but hashtags on Facebook don’t actually mean a lot. After that, it’s a matter of determining what tags suit the purpose.
In the end, tagging content comes down to a little bit of trial and error. The best research only does so well when combined with real life, and tagging content is not any different. So take some time to look at what’s already on the platform and the tag generators, and then turn it loose. Time and statistics guide from there.