Tag someone on social media

When posting a message or photo on social media you can tag. That’s an English term for marking. A tagged person is mentioned by his or her profile name with the post or photo. This mention is also a link to his or her profile on the social medium. With some social media, the tagged person can immediately choose to also post the message or photo on his/her timeline.

You can tag someone for different reasons. For example, do you post a photo on Instagram with several people? Then indicate who is on it. Are you writing a message on Facebook about a day out? By tagging people it is clear who was there. Tagging can also be used to point out something to someone. Is there a message on Facebook that is really suitable for someone you know? Is the review about a vegetarian restaurant, for example, really something for your sister who doesn’t eat meat? Then you can tag this person in a comment below the post. The advantage of tagging is that the tagged person receives a notification. This way you immediately bring something to the attention of the right person.

In general, you can tag someone in social media comments by typing an at sign (@) first, then that person’s profile name. Some networks require you to be friends to tag someone. With others, such as Twitter, this is not necessary.

Post a message on Facebook and tag someone like this:

• Go to Facebook.com and log in.
• At the top, click in the box that says “What are you doing?” Or ‘What are you thinking about?’
• Type a message.
• click on Tag friends.
• Type the name of the person you want to tag.
• Suggestions appear as you type. Click on the correct person.
• click on Places to publish the message.

• Open the Facebook app.
• At the top, type in the box that says “What are you doing?” Or “What are you thinking about?” a text.
• Type an at sign: @.
• Type the name of the person you want to tag.
• Suggestions appear as you type. Tap the correct person.
• Tap on Places to publish the message.

• Go to Twitter.com and log in.
• Click above on What keeps you busy?.
• Type a message.
• Type an @ sign if you want to tag someone.
• Type the name of the person you want to tag.
• As suggestions appear as you type. Click on the correct person.
• Finally click Tweet.

• Open the app Twitter.
• Create a new message. Tap on the feather with a plus sign.
• Type a text.
• Type an @ sign if you want to tag someone.
• Type the name of the person you want to tag.
• As suggestions appear as you type. Tap the correct person.
• Finally tap Tweet.

• Open the app Instagram.
• Tap the plus sign at the bottom .
• Tap the photo you want to share.
• Tap on Next one.
• Optionally, choose a filter and then tap Next one.
• Tap on Write a caption and type a text.
• Tap on Add people and tap the photo.
• Type the name of the person you want to tag.
• Suggestions appear as you type. Tap the correct person.
• Tap on Finished / the check mark.
• Tap on To share.

With WhatsApp, tagging a person has a slightly different function than with other social media. By tagging someone you can write something to a specific person in a group conversation. This way everyone in the group knows who the comment is for. In the tip ‘Tagging someone in a WhatsApp group conversation’ we explain how this works.