Within the last few years, tagging has evolved into a popular way for individuals to make personal order of the huge amount of content available on the Web, to share categorized content with their friends or anyone else who’s interested, and to vote about content that matters to them.
In the context of a community, tagging is an exciting, easy to use feature that encourages participation by both established contributors and casual browsers who might be too busy or too shy to post. Unlike browser bookmarks, which are stored locally on each user’s computer, tags are shared in your community and are always accessible.
Tagging is an easy way to find interesting things again or to put your own spin on content you see on the Web. Although each individual has different motivations, these are some of the common reasons people tag Web content:
· To organize material - posts, blogs, threads - so it’s easier to find later. Tags are an excellent navigational device: they help users remember what they saw or briefly summarize what a post or thread was about. They also help users quickly zero in on posts about a specific topic or find others who are interested in the same topics.
· To gain status or recognition in a community. This is the same force that drives community members to devote countless hours to reading and answering posts. Seeing their names in lights on a Tagging Leaderboard gives these users the same sort of psychic strokes they get from being power contributors or VIPs.
· To participate in an informal knowledge creation project. One of the interesting aspects of tagging is the way it allows users to act locally, but contribute to something of value for the entire community. By tagging items for their own personal use, users help to create something that benefits other community members as well.
· To call attention to or vote for the things they think are important—both for their friends and for the community at large. The more often a tag is used, the more prominently it’s featured, and the more attention it draws to tagged items.
How does tagging work?
A tag is a single, informal keyword or phrase that describes a topic, theme, or some other element of a post. Each post may have multiple tags.
A tag cloud displays tags used frequently within a forum, a category, or the entire community. The more a tag is used, the larger it appears in the tag cloud. A tag cloud can give you a quick sense of the hot topics in each area of a community.
TAGGING A POST
Find the “Add Tag” link at the bottom of the post you’re tagging.
Click the link and add your tags.
1. Click the “Add” button. Your tags will now appear in the post and be added to the tag cloud.
