Instagram tags are used to engage with the Instagram user associated with the name, it’s normally used with the “@” symbol, followed by the username of the person or profile name you want to tag in your post, it should look like “@username”.
When you tag someone on Instagram, you’re trying to get their attention, they’ll of course get notified through their notification filter unless they disable tag notification and it’s a way to let them know you want them to notice your post.
Most Instagram users will notice when you tag them unless they don’t actually care or they just saw you tagged them but refuse to engage with your post or story.
You can tag multiple users on your Instagram Stories but you shouldn’t end up tagging all your followers at once unless they’re very few. It’s not an official figure though, but it’s recommended you don’t exceed more than 30 tags in your posts and stories.
You can tag people or profiles in your posts, stories, comments, and shares. Once you start adding tags, all your followers will populate the list so that you can choose the profile you want to include.
On the other hand, there are hashtags and some people confuse them with tags. Hashtags denoted by the “#” symbol is just a form of Instagram Tags, they’re used to engage in conversation with a certain topic.
If a hashtag is created on Instagram, it will have its own Hashtag page and any post that mentions that hashtag will be included on the Hashtag page.
Posts are sorted by recency, a new post will appear at the top, there are some factors of course like engagement and the authority of the user that posts using that hashtag.
Hashtags are very popular, so much that people ignore using @username tag but only use Hashtags, and that’s because hashtags attract more followers and provide more exposure to your content whether in a post or in Stories.
In this post we’ll share how to tag someone on Instagram Stories and posts, we’ll also share some important information you need to know about tags and hashtags.
How To Tag Someone On Instagram Story
Instagram Story is the most trending content on the platform but only stays for 24 hours before slipping into the archive. You can post photos and videos on stories, there are also stickers, you can use tagging stickers for the stories you want to share. Here is how to tag someone on Instagram Stories:
- Launch your Instagram app and tap on the “Your Story” icon.
- You should then take a photo or select an image from your gallery.
- Then you tap the “Sticker Icon” that’s at the top of your right screen.
- Then you can see the “@mention” icon, you tap on that also and type the username of the person you want to tag, you’ll see some profile suggestions from the closest people you interact with the most, you can select anyone without the need to type from your keypad.
- Then you publish the story by tapping on “Send to” to share your story with the world.
- That’s just how simple it is to tag someone in your Instagram Stories.
- You can make additional changes like changing the font size by using your two fingers on the text you want to edit and then slide the finger apart. You can also change the angle of the text.
- After publishing the story, you can now share it by tapping on the story. You can as well decide to save the story by clicking the “Save” option instead of publishing. You can also send directly to the DM when you tap on the “next” option and then select the recipients, then you tap on “Send”.
How To Tag Someone On Instagram Post
- Launch Instagram and hit the new post button.
- Choose the picture you want to post and tap “Next”.
- You’ll see the option “Tag people”, you need to tap on that.
- You can now type the usernames of the people or profiles you want to tag. Once you start typing a list will be populated so that you can select your choices.
- You can still keep typing the usernames, but you have to make sure there are no typos.
- When you’re done, you should tap on the “Share” button.
Why You Can’t Tag Someone On Instagram
You have seen that tagging people isn’t a big deal, once you add the tags they should appear and the user and profiles tagged will receive a notification.
If you however find that you can’t tag someone on Instagram, there is definitely a reason. Let’s take a look at the possible reasons that will prevent you from tagging someone on Instagram;
- You added the wrong username: It could be that you misspelled the username or the username you typed doesn’t exist. It’s better to select your tags from the list populated for you, the moment you start typing a few letters, the name of the user will be shown especially if he is among your followers.
- The user has blocked you: some people can block you and you won’t receive notifications for it. It could be you have annoyed them on the platform or offline daily activities. If someone blocks you on Instagram you cannot tag them, every other interaction is not possible also. To find out whether someone has blocked you or not, you should try visiting their profile. If you can view posts on their profile it means they haven’t blocked you, if however you just see empty space with only the name of the profile, it’s a sign they have blocked you. If that’s so, you can only tag them after they’ve unblocked your account.
- They have deleted or deactivated their account: If their Instagram account is deleted, it’s as good as the account doesn’t exist, and tagging them won’t be possible. Nothing you can do here also but to just ignore the account, if they also deactivated their account, it’s not possible to tag them since the account isn’t active.
- You’re tagging a private account you’re not following: Before you interact with a private account, you have to be approved as their follower. If you followed them but you still can’t tag them, it means they haven’t approved your follow request on Instagram. You need to send them a DM to remind them of the follow request so that they can approve you.
- You tagged a suspended account: Accounts under suspension aren’t active, which means the account is disabled for some reason but has a chance of recovery. You can only tag the account when it’s enabled by the Instagram Team.
- You didn’t mention @, If you’re typing the usernames and you forget to include the @ symbol before adding the usernames, the tag won’t work. Check the tag and see if the @ is always included, when you confirm this and you check your post or story, you’ll find the tags included.
If you can’t tag someone on Instagram, you can apply some fixes to solve the problem fast. Let’s take a look at some of the important steps you need to take when you can’t tag someone on Instagram;
How To Fix I Can’t Tag Someone On Instagram
- Double-check the username and make sure it’s correct.
- Make sure that the @ symbol is always included.
- Use text by selecting the “A” icon to input the usernames using @ symbol before them.
- If you haven’t followed the user you’re trying to tag, you should send them a follow request.
- Restart your Instagram, this will help you fix technical errors that are preventing the app to function properly.
- Publish your post and later on, you can edit and add the tags.
- Wait and try again; it can be possible there is a technical problem on Instagram servers preventing you from adding the tags. Trying again later might allow you to add the tags when the problem is fixed from their end.
- Contact support; if you realize the problem is only tied to your Instagram account you should contact the support team to help you resolve the problem you’re facing.
Who Is Able To See The Tagged Video Or Photo On Instagram
If you tag someone on Instagram, they’ll be the first to receive notification about your post or story because they’ll receive a notification you have tagged them and the link to the post will be provided.
This doesn’t mean that only the people you tag will see your post, your followers will see the post or story in their feed. Even if you’re running a private account, your followers can see the post in their feed but will be hidden from the general public.
Who Can Tag You On Instagram
Anyone can tag unless they’re not your followers if you’re running a private account. Secondly, if you have blocked them, they can’t tag you nor have any form of interaction including liking and commenting on your posts.
A Brief About Hashtags
We’ve explained a little bit about hashtags from the introduction, we’ll now share more light on Hashtags. You should understand that you can include both Tags “@” and Hashtags “#” in the same post or story. It’s a way to even attract more exposure to the posted content on Instagram Story.
Using the right hashtags on Instagram has a great impact on your promotion strategies. Everyone wants to use hashtags with massive subscribers, not knowing that can actually cause more damage rather than benefits.
You can end up getting the wrong followers and when used the wrong ways, you can end up being penalized by Instagram robots or algorithms.
You need to learn how to use hashtags effectively and the best way to learn that is by understanding how hashtags work before you actually tag someone in your stories.
Understanding Instagram Hashtag Pages
On hashtag pages, you’ll find content related to that specific hashtag, every day new hashtags are created on trending events happening across the globe.
And once you make a post on Instagram and you use a particular hashtag, it has the chance of showing up on that hashtag page.
Hashtag pages will help you get a new audience and also get more exposure to your post and stories. You shouldn’t however expect your content to be placed at the top of these hashtag pages, you’ll have to earn some engagement from your followers before you’re able to get noticed on hashtag pages.
When a user makes a search on Instagram and your post is the latest on the hashtag you’ve added to your post, then your content can be placed at the top and that means more exposure.
You have a little chance when there are a lot of posts on any hashtag, that’s why targeting hashtags with a lot of followers isn’t always the best move when it comes to tagging your posts.
Also, you should understand that editing your posts later with hashtags won’t promote your post to the top of the hashtag you added.
That’s to say your post will not be bumped, if you want your post to have a chance of showing up at the top, you should consider creating a new post.
Targeting a less popular hashtag gives more chances of staying at the top of the hashtag page than targeting a popular hashtag with lots of followers.
Some make the mistake of targeting hashtags for celebrities thinking it will earn them exposure, but you’ll find that their post is nowhere to be found when you check the hashtag page.
This is just a brief on how hashtags work on Instagram, there is more to it in terms of how the Instagram algorithm works in terms of deciding which post or story to place at the top on every hashtag page.
Always encourage your followers to engage with your content if you want to get more exposure from Hashtag pages, by engagement I mean they should like, Comment, and Share your content.
If you want more exposure to your content, you should always add the right Hashtags in your stories, the benefits are many. You’ll end up with new followers which means increasing your fan base.
That’s it for this post on how to tag someone on Instagram, let us know if you have any thoughts in the comments regarding the use of tags and Hashtags.