Many of us in the content creation game got here because of our love for media, charming personalities, and hard work. Very few of us made it into this field because of our love of mathematics and statistics. Despite that, algorithms will determine whether you live or die as a creator. These algorithms will examine your work and decide how, when, and if to recommend your work to others. So, how do you survive this chaotic numerical caesar? Three letters will be critical to this process: T, A, and G.

Tags are a content creator’s best friend! So, how do you use tags? Tags, often known as “hashtags” on some social media platforms, are little words or phrases you can use to help the algorithm recommend your content to appropriate viewers. Tags are indicated by a # symbol, called a pound sign, number sign, or a hash (hence hashtag.) Tags are used to describe the content of the media, for example, a video, as well as other notable metrics such as the creator or medium. Some common hashtags you’ll see online include “#sweepstakes” for posts relating to sweepstakes contests, “#selfie” for selfies, “#blackcreators” for content created by black creators,”#vlog” for vlogs (video blogs), and “#LGBT” for LGBTAQ+ content and creators.

So, tags are words and phrases preceded by a hash sign that encapsulates you and your content for viewers and the algorithm to categorize and recommend. As a quick example, let’s pretend you’re uploading highlights of your podcast about life on your college campus to YouTube. For that video, you should use several tags. I recommend the following tags: #Podcast, #PodcastHighlight – These will promote your upload to individuals who enjoy podcasts #College, #CollegeCampus, #OnCampus, #LifeOnCampus – These describe some of the content and themes of your upload and give demographic information to the algorithm #Pennsylvania, #IUP, #IndianaUniversityOfPennsylvania – Using my college as an example, these tags give demographic information and will push the content towards local college students. #NameOfPodcast, #NameHighlight – Lastly, and most importantly, get your hand out there! Whatever the name of your podcast is, put it in the tags! Multiple times even if it’s a highlight or a VOD (full unedited upload of a live stream.)

With that explanation, hopefully, you now understand how to use tags when uploading online content! If you enjoyed this post or it helped you learn anything, please follow my blog and share it with a friend! What tags would you use to describe the last thing you uploaded to social media? Comment below with your answers! Thanks for reading!