Explaining tagging in simple English

Most of this document so far has explored the ways in which you can build your brand through interacting with your audience and engage your consumers through compelling content. But how do you organise this wealth of entertaining editorial, audio or video content which underpins the very concept of social media, helping an internet user access what they want quickly easily, and comprehensively?

Of course we already know that search engines are an excellent source of relevant information – the ultimate in permission marketing. However tagging is a relatively new way of classifying and referencing content to make the World Wide Web a far more organized place!

Not a marketing tool in itself, advertisers need to be aware of tagging and how it works in order to gain further insight into online behaviour in the same way that an understanding of keyword use within search advertising is also essential for planning an effective online campaign.

Phil Macauley, Head of Planning and Strategy, Yahoo! Describes the process of tagging in the following way:

“A tag can best be defined as a keyword or term used to classify content; to allow you to organize things in a way that makes sense to your brain. Tags are usually chosen informally and personally by the author/creator of the item. They are typically used to classify computer files, web pages, digital images and internet bookmarks. For this reason, “tagging” has become synonymous with the Web 2.0 movement.

The rapid growth of tagging in the last few years is testament to how easy and enjoyable people find the tagging process.

The main reason that tagging is so important in the context of Social Media is that it enables us to share cultural knowledge about our ever changing digital experiences. We’re not just categorizing our favourite pictures and sites; we’re also optimizing their future findability. Tagging is in effect enabling us to create and share community “stepping stones” between our respective digital lives.

Furthermore, tagging provides immediate self and social feedback. Each tag tells you a little about your own personality and preferences and you find out the social context for that bit of self-knowledge. How do others view that item? Together this piecemeal feedback creates a cycle of positive reinforcement, so that you are motivated to tag even more, creating a network of tags (this tag is connected to that tag, which in turn is connected to this tag, etc, etc).

As well as having social implications there are commercial considerations that tagging creates. Tags can act as a customer satisfaction index, with dissatisfied consumers submitting links to sites and product pages with tags such as “poor product quality” or “unhelpful staff”

Examples of websites that use tags

Del.icio.us - A social book marking site that allows users to bookmark many sites and then tag them with many descriptive words, allowing other people to search by those terms to find pages that other people found useful.

Flickr - A service that allows users to tag images with many specific nouns, verbs, and adjectives that describe the picture. This is then searchable.

upcoming.org – A social events calendar that allows people to discover new events, share them with friends, and add their own.

As a marketer, consider how tagging can be used to keep in touch with consumers and strengthen your own online presence. If you’re posting a video on YouTube, think about what people would like to see. Even on your brand’s own site, think about how the content can be organised for the user to access the information relevant to them in the easiest possible way.