Tag, you're it!

When I first started blogging, I heard the word “tag” thrown around a lot and thought to myself, “What the heck is a tag and why do I need to tag my writing?” As some of you are first-time bloggers and users of Web 2.0, I thought I’d share with you what I have learned about tagging.

A tag is a keyword or short phrase that writers assign to articles to describe or identify the content of their post. Tags allow readers to quickly locate topics of interest. So by tagging your journal with appropriate keywords, you allow your post to quickly be found by members who are browsing or searching for posts on those specific topics.

For example, if you are writing a journal about an amazing woman named Sally Nguyen who runs a shelter for victims of sex trafficking in your community, you can tag your journal with the following keywords: Sally Nguyen, sex trafficking, human trafficking, shelter, women, rehabilitation, and any other words keywords that describe the content of your journal. This way if someone is searching for information on human trafficking, your journal entry will come up in the search.

When creating a new journal, the “Tags” field is listed under “Title”. Here you can write your keywords and short phrases, each separated by a comma, to draw more traffic to your journal. The tags will appear in a list on the right side of your journal post, under your profile picture.

If you’re reading someone else’s journal and want to find other journals that discuss similar topics, you can click on any of the tags listed. This will take you to a page of all journals that have been tagged with the same keyword.

Happy tagging!