Using Facebook’s Updated Tagging Feature to Increase Your Brand’s Exposure

Marissa Mele - March 3, 2014

Tagging profiles or pages in Facebook isn’t a new concept, but thanks to a recent announcement by Facebook, those tagged posts could now appear in the feeds of customers that don’t currently follow you.

If you are unfamiliar with tagging, it is process where you put an “@” sign in front of the name of a person’s profile or a brand’s page. When you add that magical “@” sign, it creates a link in the post to the Facebook profile or page’s Timeline. In the case of an individual profile, your post could appear on their actual Timeline depending on their privacy settings (this could require moderation by the profile owner or it could automatically be added based on the privacy settings they have selected).

One of the big benefits of tagging is that the person or page that is tagged will get a notification that you tagged them in a post. If you are trying to connect with an influencer or prospective client, using the tagging feature can make them aware of your brand without you having to be overly pushy. Not only are you giving that influencer a virtual high-five by sharing their content, you are also creating a hyperlink between your post and their page or profile; thusly, helping raise their brand awareness as well. It is a win-win for both parties.

Now Facebook has been coming under some fire by marketers recently for their ever-changing updates to their EdgeRank algorithm. However, their recent announcement about tagging can finally allow us marketers to retract our claws and give Facebook a BIG thumbs-up. Thanks to their update, when your page (a Facebook Timeline for a business, brand, organization or celebrity) tags another page, your post could now appear in the news feed of people who follow or like that tagged page. How cool is that?! This can help raise your brand awareness as well as increase the reach of your posts. We are sure that you have seen a decrease in your posts organic reach so this tagging update is a marketers dream come true. A word of caution though is that this practice of tagging could become spammy and annoying to audience members so use sparingly and choose tags wisely.

There is no time like the present to start building your influencer marketing plan. Start identifying those people and companies you want to align your brand with so that you can start building brand equity. And don’t forget to start tagging your posts.