One Facebook feature which many users are still unaware of is status tagging, which lets you reference your friends within each of your updates.. We get regular emails from people how to accomplish this and while the functionality may feel normal for Twitter users, most people still aren’t on Twitter, which makes tagging your friends a less intuitive feature. In this article we explain how to tag your friends and why you’d want to.
How To Link People In Your Facebook Status
Tagging your friends in a status update or any other post to your profile is pretty easy. In the publisher, you simply use the “@” sign and begin typing your friend’s name (as pictured below). Facebook enables users to tag their friends as well as Facebook Pages that they’ve become fans of and events that they’re attending.
After selecting the item that you want to tag and clicking on the event, person, or page that you want to tag, the object will automatically become hyperlinked within your status update (as pictured below). While this process is pretty obvious for Twitter users, many Facebook users still have yet to figure out how to take advantage of this feature.
Why You Would Want To Tag Friends
So why would you want to tag your friends, events? It’s pretty straight forward. In the case of friends and Pages, it’s a form of acknowledgement that encourages the other party to interact with you. However, in the case of events, you may simply want to raise awareness of something you’ll be attending in the future or recently attended.
Simply put, tagging provides additional context to what was previously limited to the reader’s interpretation. Currently the Facebook tagging feature is limited to status updates and cannot be used within comments however numerous people have requested this capability. While there’s no timeframe on Facebook adding this feature, we’d expect them to include it eventually.
Have you already taken advantage of the status tagging feature? Do many of your friends use it or do you think it’s still limited to Facebook power users?
![[Inside Social Apps 2012]](http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/allfacebook2/images/ISA2012_336x100_F_RegisterNow.gif)
![[AllFacebook Stats: Facebook Analytics for Your Business]](http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/allfacebook2/images/stpro_allfacebookstats.gif)
![[How can Facebook change your business?]](http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/allfacebook2/images/FMB_A_MAY2011_336x100_F.gif)
This feature no longer works on my page since the redesign. Do you think it has something to do with the number of friends and fan pages that I have?
Comment by Jenni Brand — February 24, 2010 @ 7:22 am
would be nice if when you tagged a fan page it showed up on the fan page wall.
right now if someone tags a fan page of mine there is no notification which makes it much less useful.
Comment by Kevin Cawley — February 24, 2010 @ 8:29 am
Wow, you guys are harsh! OK, it's not breaking news but a useful reminder, all the same. Whilst I use this feature for tagging friends and groups, I had forgotten to use it for pages. I can @mention my fan page every now and then to remind friends with the same interest to visit page more often or become a fan if they're not already. Also useful when posting on a group's wall as members don't seem to get notified about regular updates.
Comment by Alison Bannister — February 24, 2010 @ 8:38 am
I think tagging is a great way to keep people in the loop. It's easier than reading a 1000 farmville updates.
Comment by Steve Miller — February 24, 2010 @ 10:13 am
@Kevin: Someone just tagged my fan page yesterday, and it showed up in my fan page's wall. It doesn't show up in the notifications, though.
Comment by Matt Kruse — February 24, 2010 @ 10:24 am
Dude. Thy name is Redundancy.
Comment by Greg Luther — February 24, 2010 @ 10:16 am
Welcome to early 2009.
Comment by Daniel 'Lionel Richie' Inniss — February 24, 2010 @ 10:32 am
No one uses it because it puts the post on the target’s wall, which it shouldn’t, and you can’t edit the text of the link. It puts the person’s full name, for example, rather than just their first name. Pretty useless, except for the rare case of linking to an event or a public page.
Comment by Matt Kruse — February 24, 2010 @ 10:54 am
slow news day?
Comment by Mark Mayhew — February 24, 2010 @ 11:36 am
“While this process is pretty obvious for Twitter users, many Facebook users still have yet to figure out how to take advantage of this feature.”
Thanks for making Facebook users sound stupid. How about “many Facebook users know about this feature, but find it useless”?
Comment by Facebook User — February 24, 2010 @ 12:26 pm
I enjoyed reading the article. I've seen this mentioned before, but never knew it was just for status updates. Now I know why I couldn't get it to work.
And for what it's worth, Grumpy Posters, there are a lot of new FB users out there who'd like know these things. If you've been around since the dinosaurs and know everything there is to know about FB why do you need to read this blog? And no, I don't know the author.
Comment by Kimber Scott — February 24, 2010 @ 5:48 pm
What happens if you run a fan page and a disgruntled fan creates a tagged status update and it is now posted on the fan page? This has happened to me and I have no way of removing the post because it isn't actually on my wall. Since I am personally not a friend of this person when I log in as the fan page administrator I cannot see nor delete the post. I have contacted Facebook and no one replies. In the meantime I have this nasty post on my Fan page and I cannot delete it. HELP!
Comment by Tory — March 15, 2010 @ 11:20 am
ever since facebook was updated, the "tagging" feature isnt working. at least its not working for me…whats going on with that..?!
Comment by Pam Gagnon — March 17, 2010 @ 10:27 am
Can I do this on the Facebook Blackberry Application?
Comment by sheri — April 29, 2010 @ 7:09 am
this is another cool feature
Comment by david — May 4, 2010 @ 9:00 am
why do facebook has LiMiTED fan pages..? they say the limitation is up to 5000 but I haven't reached that yet…
Comment by Carol Nicole Cueto — June 1, 2010 @ 1:06 am
why do facebook has LiMiTED fan pages..? they say the limitation is up to 5000 but I haven’t reached that yet…(i guess)
Comment by Carol Nicole Cueto — June 1, 2010 @ 1:07 am
CAN YOU TAG PEOPLE IN POSTS USING YOUR BLACKBERRY ?
Comment by mimi — June 6, 2010 @ 10:11 am
it doesn't work for me at all?
why is that?
Comment by Leyla Rzayeva — June 19, 2010 @ 2:04 pm
why can't you tag friends in replies… useless…
Comment by anon — June 29, 2010 @ 8:31 am
When I tage a Fan Page in MY user update, my post does NOT appear on the fan page. Is there a reason why? Do I need to adjust my privacy settings or something?
Comment by Angel Rodriquez — July 9, 2010 @ 11:06 pm
My friend tagged me in his status, but it's now showing up on my page. Anyone know why? Thanks
Comment by Mike Darrinson — August 8, 2010 @ 1:36 pm
This functionality does not work from an iPad.
Comment by Dolph — September 14, 2010 @ 1:18 pm
Why I can't tag someone on my status update ?? I try and try about the @ thing, but it didn't work. >.<
Comment by Lhiem — September 19, 2010 @ 3:05 am
apparently you cant tag people using the blackberry app… which SUCKS
Comment by Jay — September 27, 2010 @ 11:23 pm
Thank you sooooo much, I did not know you could do that, You just gained a new fan
Comment by Sea — October 21, 2010 @ 10:03 am
Hey everyone – I've been using this feature to help promote an event page (http://www.facebook.com/BoBQuarterly). It's working great & hyperlinking to the page, however when I tag a page of mine, the post is not showing up on the page wall. Any ideas why this is not showing up??
Comment by Katie — November 1, 2010 @ 5:39 pm
I am trying to tag from my computer. Doing the @then capital letter…still not working. What gives?
Comment by Elizabeth — November 11, 2010 @ 12:29 pm
the @tag was great to use on pages to support each other. Cant use it on a PC either never mind the phone apps
Comment by Alaska Dog News — December 7, 2010 @ 6:20 pm
I have been tagging for months. I changed to the new profile look yesterday. Today, tagging stopped working for me. Is anyone else having this problem.
Comment by Heather — December 10, 2010 @ 3:29 pm
No !!
Comment by NeeNee — December 10, 2010 @ 9:40 pm
How do you tag people in your status after the new design that came out a few weeks ago?
Comment by Sandra — December 14, 2010 @ 1:23 pm
Yeah, have the same problem
Comment by Guest — December 15, 2010 @ 6:11 am
Me too!
Comment by KarenLel — December 15, 2010 @ 2:20 pm
I cant tag someone either. Is it my laptop or something?!
Comment by tanessababy143 — December 15, 2010 @ 6:44 pm
I'm still using the old page design (haven't changed to the new format yet) and I'm not able to tag at all in my status. I have friends on both styles of pages and they don't seem to have any problems. Another fb mystery I guess
Comment by Guest — December 15, 2010 @ 11:04 pm
since FB redesigned itself I can't tag ppl in my status…This needs to be fixed immediately
Comment by M.Johnson — December 17, 2010 @ 11:39 am
I cant tag any more, it is most annoying.
Comment by Guest — December 31, 2010 @ 11:30 am
some can still post tags.. im annoyed im not one of them….
Comment by jpx3m — January 11, 2011 @ 11:10 am
it didnt work for me!
Comment by fuk u! — January 13, 2011 @ 11:35 pm
why wont my facebook let me tag people?
Comment by tjk — January 28, 2011 @ 6:10 pm
i know … it's not workin out 4 me as well !!
Comment by luliita — February 1, 2011 @ 9:13 am
yea, mine @name is also not working and I tried it using both Google Chrome and Internet Explorer
Comment by CMA — February 4, 2011 @ 4:43 am
i tried the "@" and it dont work on Mozzilla Firefox
why dont it work?
Comment by Jess Wheeler — February 20, 2011 @ 6:00 pm
yes i think we all are having the same problem…
im not happy about this…
Comment by Jess Wheeler — February 20, 2011 @ 6:05 pm
Hey there. My @ sign won't work either on my business page. Can the admin please answer this question? Pretty please
Comment by Rewrite Beautiful — February 25, 2011 @ 7:19 pm
It isn't working for me either, I rarely even do it but the one time I want to it doesn't happen >.<
Comment by Dave — February 26, 2011 @ 11:06 am
This feature works only 10 percent of times. I don't know why.
Comment by momoko — March 6, 2011 @ 8:14 pm
Update: Now facebook added tagging in comments also.
Comment by Robin Thomas — March 12, 2011 @ 10:53 am
well there seems to be alot of people that can not tag in their status including me, but there doesnt seem to be anyone answer the ? of why,,, the new redesign was suppose to make it better, but i have had nothing but trouble, i can comment on people status because the comment button isnt there, or it just says press enter, and it just makes my cursor move down… face book needs to fix these problems, or they should have a file that we can download that will make all the applications work again… coz so far i am not happy with the new design….
Comment by leah childs — March 18, 2011 @ 9:07 pm
How do you tag in comments? The @ process works fine for me in status updates (always has, have never had an issue, even with the changes) but I cannot seem to get the comments to work
Comment by Wendy Just — March 21, 2011 @ 1:15 pm
thnxxxxxxxxx
Comment by nikhil; — March 22, 2011 @ 1:42 am
I can only tag a fan page if I put my privacy settings on "everyone." I prefer to have it set to friends only. I have noticed that just recently my tags for fanpages are not showing up on the fan pages unless I change this privacy setting.
Is there a way to tag pages without putting my privacy setting on "everyone?"
Comment by KJack — March 28, 2011 @ 11:54 am
It is pretty godamn useless
Comment by 12bigheavy — April 9, 2011 @ 10:01 pm
me too,,, it just make me @#$%^&*… i dont know why i cant tag, but my friends always tagging me.. -__-#)/
Comment by suya — May 17, 2011 @ 3:24 pm
As of 05/11/2011 I can’t tag any pages (except my own) from my Fan page. Anyone else have this problem start recently? How did you correct it? Thanks!
Comment by PurposefulPractices — May 17, 2011 @ 8:46 pm
i swear man. . .same probm dis side. . it dusnt show all d names. . . juss few ov dem. . . . freqaK facebook honour is
Comment by shini — May 26, 2011 @ 4:49 pm
Same problem – not found a work-around yet
Comment by Dave — June 28, 2011 @ 1:24 pm
I just found out it works on explorer but not firefox, sucks but at least it worked.
Comment by DapperDan — July 23, 2011 @ 2:29 pm
i tried with most mobiles and the @ tagging doesnt work, which i find stupid cause most of the time u use ur cellphone.
Comment by marlow — August 22, 2011 @ 10:17 pm
this feature was great even when it updated and you didn't need the @ you just started typing their names. however since the big redesign it does not seem to work. Is there a setting that has been switched on as default?
Comment by Steve Makepeace — October 2, 2011 @ 12:30 pm
[...] you can embellish Facebook comments with linked tags to people who aren’t your [...]
Pingback by Facebook Lets You Tag Nonfriends In Comments — October 6, 2011 @ 12:15 pm
I can't get my bus FB page to tag anyone from my Likes list. Any suggestions
Comment by Jay — October 9, 2011 @ 9:03 pm
Can you still not tag ppl using your blackberry? I was wondering why I couldn't tag.
Comment by Nicole Leite — October 19, 2011 @ 1:25 pm
Iphone is way better that blackberry in my opinion.
Comment by tag your friends — October 26, 2011 @ 10:37 pm