Instagram has really changed the way everyone perceives graphical content. It has given everyone- whether for business or personal use- an opportunity to be connected through the use of pictures and videos.
It also gave creatives a platform to express themselves and show off their creativity.
Instagram went from something people just used to have fun to becoming an app that is so important influencers could make a living out of it. A lot of businesses also connect with their clients through the app, thereby boosting their business.
Instagram has really taken bold strides to incorporate features that would help make it easier to connect with other accounts and also make it easier for you to draw people’s attention to your post.
One important feature on the Instagram app is the ability to tag other accounts to your posts made on your account.
You might be wondering what exactly a tag is. A tag is a really easy way of helping individual and business accounts reach more audiences than a message or a single picture posted on Instagram.
When you tag an account to a particular post, it could help to make sure the user sees the post, which meanwhile, they might just have scrolled past without paying much attention to it.
The type of tag this article focuses on is the username tag, and this is not to be confused with the also popular and equally useful hashtag.
Hashtags are basically keywords that are typically used when making a post by adding the “#” sign, then again followed by a keyword.
This basically means if you want a post that you make to be searchable under a particular keyword, you would just type the keyword and add the hashtag to its front.
Once a hashtag has been added to a post, it would automatically become clickable. It also helps your post to feature in a section that contains lots of posts that have been uploaded under that keyword category.
Meanwhile, username tags are done using the “@” symbol then followed by a username. There are several reasons to tag other accounts in their posts.
Sometimes, it could be to identify the account of the creator of a particular good or service when it comes to businesses.
Influencers use this method of tagging a lot so that their followers can easily access the account of the producer of the products they are influencing.
Normal users who are not after business or influencing can also use the tag feature to identify the persons in a video or picture just for its fun.
It could be a picture from a midday brunch or a friend’s birthday party. Tagging is really not limited to anything.
The only crux when it comes to tagging people is that it is highly advisable you are following whomever you want to tag. It makes things very easy and straightforward.
Most times, if you are already following an account, Instagram would automatically suggest the account’s handle before you even type it at all.
Typically, you are meant to tag everyone you want to tag before you make your post.
But this does not mean you cannot make adjustments and still tag the accounts you want, even though you have posted already. So the important question is how to tag someone on Instagram after posting?
The best way to tag an account in a post after you have posted already is just to go back and edit your post. It is relatively easy and not complicated at all.
Here is an explanation of how to do it;
First, you have to choose the post you want to tag the account on and then click on the “…” icon.
Then you click on Edit.
Click the “tag people” button that would be found at the bottom of the post.
Click on the post to tag the account you wish to tag.
Search for the account name you wish to tag and then click on their name.
Click “Done” on the top right side.
Once you have done all these, any account you wanted to tag would have been tagged already. You can do these steps for any post, no matter how long it has been since you made the post.
I would also explain the process you would go through if you want to tag someone on Instagram before you make a post at all.
How You Can Tag Someone on Instagram
If you do not even have any idea about how to tag accounts in the first place, then this section is for you.
First, you would have to open your Instagram app and log in to your Instagram account.
Then you would create a fresh new post by selecting the “+” icon at the bottom center of the screen.
If you want to upload a picture or a video, you have to go to the menu under the picture and then ensure the gallery is chosen.
Then you can swipe up to scroll through the gallery and click on the picture or video you want to post.
If you want to post a fresh new video or picture, you can just click on the word “photo” to take a new picture or “video” to record a new video.
Once you have your preferred picture or video ready, then you can click on “Next” in the top right corner.
Then click on “Tag People.”
You would be taken to the Instagram share screen.
You could add anything you want here, like comments, hashtags, or even a location, then click on “Tag people.”
Your post would be shown on a new screen. You can click wherever you want the tag to appear.
This really helps if you want to post a picture of a group of people, and you want to identify each person based on their account. This method also works for identifying products made by specific brands.
When you click on the picture, you would see some words written as “who’s this” pop up where you have put the tag.
The next thing to do is to search for the person’s Instagram username in the search bar at the top of the screen. Make sure you know the correct spelling of the username you want to search for.
The account username you are searching for might just appear automatically in the drop-down menu, or you might have to click on “enter” to view the search results.
Once you have seen the username you are looking for, then you can click on it.
You can follow this process over and over, depending on the number of people you want to tag.
You can then save the tag and publish the post.
How You Can Tag Someone in the Comments Section on Instagram
Most times, when you think about the comment section, you would probably feel it is just for your audience who wants to comment on your post and a means for you to reply to their comments too.
But this is not the case. If you do not want to tag the actual picture, you can decide to tag people in the comments of the post instead.
It is faster than going back to the post you have already published to tag accounts, and it also gets the same job done.
The account you tag in the comment section would be notified about the post, and other users would also get to see that the account was included in the post too.
Here are the steps you can use to tag someone in the comment section:
Click on the comment button.
Type “@” followed by the account’s username of the person you want to tag.
Click on their name, and then you can add any other comment you want to make.
Click on Post.
How You Can Tag Someone in an Instagram Story
The Instagram story was created later after the whole app was already in use, but it is a very valuable addition.
Most brands use it to pass out information that would not fit in with the scheme of their usual posts or announcements that they do not want on their general timeline.
There are several reasons that might make you want to tag someone on an Instagram story. If the story contains a picture or video of a person, it is a good idea to tag such a person’s account.
This way, other users can click the tag and view the account of the person in the video.
You could also tag someone if the content you are about to post would be relevant or interest them in any way.
Once you tag them, there would be a notification that would alert them that they have been tagged so that they do not miss the story.
Here are two different ways you can tag an account in your Instagram Story:
Add text to the Instagram story and then tag the account in it.
When you get to the Story Editor interface, you will tap the “Aa” icon in the screen’s top right corner.
Type in the “@” symbol and then enter the username of the account you would like to tag. Once you have done this, Instagram would automatically start to give you suggestions for accounts you might want to tag as soon as you start typing.
Click on the profile photo t choose the account you want
Instagram would then add an underline to the selected username.
If you just want to add only the tag or in the middle of other text, you can use this method;
You can use a “@” Mention sticker.
When you get into the Story Editor interface, just click on the sticker icon.
Choose the @Mention sticker.
Start by typing the username of the account you want to tag. Instagram would immediately start to pull up likely account suggestions, and they can click on the profile picture to choose a preferred account.
How You Can Tag Someone in an Instagram Caption
It is actually very possible to tag an account in your caption instead of the actual picture itself. This method is usually very helpful when tagging businesses.
You could talk about the business in the caption and still tag the business account. This will help prospective clients to be able to easily access the profile of the business.
The advantage of this method is that users on Instagram actually love reading captions, so your tags are more likely to be noticed when you include them in the captions.
You can follow these steps if you want to tag an account in the caption of the post;
While writing the caption, you are meant to type “@” and then followed by the username of the account of such a business or individual.
Click on the username immediately it comes up.
Select “Done.”
Quick Note:
The caption of a post is also the place where one can use hashtags. If there are any hashtags that are related to your post and you feel like using them, this is the appropriate place to include them.
How to Use Tags in Instagram Contests
Instagram contests are an activity that is relatively common on Instagram. Users are given some requirements to fulfill, and at the end of all the activities, a winner would be chosen.
Username tags and hashtags are very useful when it comes to Instagram contests. These types of contests are usually done because it allows businesses to be able to connect with a larger number of people.
This is major because of the incentive to gain free prizes. A lot of people would be interested in following the page of the business or even sharing and reposting their content as long as it means there would be a probability of gaining prizes at the end of all the activities.
If you want to organize your content, the best way is to use hashtags because they will enable you to organize all the promotions and then filter all the responses you get correctly.
The idea would be to use a hashtag that would be unique to your business so that the responses would not mix with that of other general Instagram users.
Proper Ways to Use the Instagram Tag Feature
When you decide to use the tagging feature on Instagram, you must make sure you use it appropriately. Normally, Instagram would allow you to use up to thirty different username tags and hashtags per post, but it is advisable not to use more than five to seven at a time.
The reasons for this statement are as follows:
Following this advice would prevent you from tagging or mentioning a particular person or keyword excessively.
Most people appreciate when people tag them to posts that interest them, but when you do it too much, it can be a disturbance and become annoying.
When you configure your mind to having a limited amount of tags, you would always ensure you only tag the most important accounts.
When you use too many hashtags on a single post, Instagram’s algorithm might pick up such activity as spam. This basically means it would give the impression that your post is not giving out valuable content, and you are just all about the views and reach you can get on your post.
This would do more harm than good to both your account and your post.
Too many tags actually make your post unpresentable and really difficult to read. Most times, when a post has this characteristic, users generally ignore it and move on to more legible posts.
You obviously would not want this, so you must ensure you do not bombard your posts with tags.
Note:
You must always ensure you double-check the tags and hashtags that you use on your posts even before you publish them. This is to prevent mistakes such as typographical error, using a wrong tag, or even mistakenly using banned tags.
Granted, you can always edit your post if a mistake is noticed, but it is best to make sure everything is in the right order before you even publish your post at all.
Why Are Tags Important On Instagram?
When you tag individual accounts or business profiles on Instagram, it really helps to widen your brand’s reach on the Instagram platform.
You do not even need to own a brand or business before you can use tags on Instagram. You can also use it to build your individual social media account by gaining more followers.
In the same way, hashtags help you gain more reach and a bigger audience tagging people with the account username would also help you gain a larger audience.
How Can You Tag Someone in an Instagram Story after Posting?
It is actually very easy if you want to tag someone on an Instagram post after you have already published your post, but when it comes to an Instagram story, the case is really different. It is actually impossible to make any edits to an Instagram story once you have posted it.
This also covers tagging someone in your story after you have published it. Instagram stories were made with the idea of quick and temporary information dissemination.
So, Instagram probably did not feel any need to make stories editable. There are only two solutions to this type of situation.
You could either decide to delete the post entirely then make a new post where you would have tagged the account from the start, or if it was really late before you noticed the error, you could just leave the post and make the post again another time.
The second idea is that the total time an Instagram story lasts is twenty-four hours, so if the story had almost finished its course, there is no need to repost the story on that day anymore.
The best thing is to prevent errors at all by always cross-checking your stories before you post them. This is to avoid you having to delete and repost your stories everything.