You may or may not have noticed that I did a ridiculous amount of tag / award posts last week. Seven of them, to be exact. One every day of the week. I know there are other blogs that do a ton of tags, but it is a bit out of the norm for me.
I noticed lately that I was falling behind on my tags. I was getting tagged faster then I was posting tags! It was stressing me out being behind, so I decided to do a big push and get them all done!
- Monday – Inside My Head Tag
- Tuesday – Sunshine Blogger Award #5
- Wednesday – The Unique Blogger Award
- Thursday – I MESSED UP … BOOK TAG
- Friday – One Lovely Blog Award
- Saturday – THE ENTERTAINER BLOGGER AWARD
- Sunday – The Mid Year Freak Out Book Tag
Doing all of these tags got me thinking about tagging etiquette.
I have a huge fear of accidentally doing something wrong. Of accidentally stepping over some invisible line I didn’t know about. When I first started blogging I stayed away from tags because I didn’t know where the lines were. It took me a while to figure out how they worked.
Luckily, the book blogging community is amazing and I was able to figure it out pretty quickly. Plus there aren’t a lot of strict rules about tagging. Its meant to be fun and everyone is super relaxed about them.
Here are some of the questions that ran through my head at one point:
Do you have to do a tag if someone tagged you?
No! I always mention that whoever I tag shouldn’t feel obligated to participate. Its meant to be fun and if they don’t want to do it, I don’t want them to feel pressured!!
But on the flip side I try to do every single tag I have been tagged in! I *think* I have done them all, but I am not very organized and its possible I missed some!
Do you have to tag the “required” number of bloggers?
A lot of tags have “rules” outlining what is required to participate. One of these rules is usually how many people you have to tag. I am not particularly fond of this rule because a lot of them want you to tag 10 or more people! That is a lot of blogs! I get why the creator added that rule, but I don’t want to bug people by tagging them all the time.
My rule of thumb is that if I was tagged then I should tag someone. If I was just doing the tag randomly without being tagged then I don’t tag anyone. I also usually tag 3 people even if the rule says to tag more. Three seems to be a good number.
Does it annoy people to be tagged?
I can’t answer this one.
Personally I love being tagged, it makes me feel special. (but I have a feeling my opinion will change if I keep getting tagged a ton) But I know not everyone will feel that way. And I don’t want to tag the same people over and over again. Where is the line of being fun and being annoying? (Help me!)
In order to keep from bugging people I decided I wouldn’t tag anyone more than once. I have a list I use to keep track of who I have tagged and I have tagged 107 different blogs to date.
But this isn’t going to work forever, and there are so many issues with my solution:
- I will eventually run out of Blogs to tag
- What if someone wants to be tagged?
- If its been a year since I tagged them can I tag them again?
- Do they want to be tagged again?
- Do they feel left out if they notice I haven’t tagged them in forever?
- Do people even keep track of that?
- But will they get annoyed if I tag them again?
I have a problem with over thinking things.
Anyway, I still don’t know the best way to go about this. I think I am going to re-start my list soon, but we will see.
Should I ping-back to the person that tagged me?
Yes! I love seeing when people participate after I tagged them. If the person tagging you doesn’t want you to link to them then they shouldn’t have tagged you!
Should I ping-back to the creator?
Yes, I would think they want to see the fruits of their labor!
What is a ping-back?
Most of you probably already know this, but it took me a long time to figure it out so I wanted to include it in case someone didn’t know.
When someone includes a link to one of your posts it pings-back and lets you know. That way you can go see their post that links to you.
But they only work if you ping-back to a specific post. For example if you just link to “perfectlytolerable.com” I won’t get a notification but if you link to ” ” I will!
Do I have to comment on someone’s blog to let them know I tagged them?
You probably should but I don’t. I feel weird saying “oh by the way I tagged you”
Instead, I use ping-backs and just hope they accept it. (Don’t forget to ping-back to an actual post!)
When I use ping-backs I make sure to pick an appropriate post to link too. A book review, meme or another tag works well. Someone once tagged me via ping-back to the post about my Grandpa passing away. I thought that was incredibly rude and thoughtless! Don’t be that person!
What are your thoughts?
Particularly I am interested in knowing how you choose who to tag and if you get annoyed by people tagging you! But let me know any thoughts you have about tagging!!!
Perfectly Tolerable 
I tend to tag the same people over and over because I know they do tags on their blogs. I get worried tagging someone new but I think I need to switch it up because I am sure the people I am tagging over and over again are getting annoyed with me. As for being tagged. Me personally I love it. I don’t care how many times you tag me. I have 1 day a week set were I do tags and award posts so it’s nice to have those types of posts lined up. I have been tagged a lot so some of them are old but I will still eventually do them.
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Do you pay attention to see if the people you tagged do the tags? If they are doing them then maybe that means they aren’t annoyed? And if they tag you back that is probably a good sign too! You can always tag me if you want! I don’t mind 😀 I especially like the fun tags that ask weird and different questions! I will be adding you to my list of people that like getting tags! Thank you 😀 And thats smart to set a day to do tags but I am not that organized haha.
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Yeah sometimes I do. Most of the time when I tag someone they comment on that post thanking me for the tag and saying they will get to it as soon as they can. I will add you to my list of people to tag as well.
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Depending on the types of questions on the tag I don’t like to read other people’s answers because I want to come up with my own answers haha so sometimes I forget to comment back. I try to go back and comment once I have done the tag but I mess that up sometimes too if I schedule the post too far in the future!
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I think you’ve put in some very good guidelines about tags here in this post. I tend to collect tags that I get and leave them mostly for weekends. It can be a bit much sometimes so I might just leave them sitting for a while. I do miss some at time, not intentional. There are also some tags that I really can’t think of answers to the questions. If I can do at least 3/4 I’ll just leave out the Qs I couldn’t answer. Recently I’ve started tagging my most recent followers/ ppl I’ve followed but I will still tag other bloggers if I think it’s one they’ll like.
As for pinging back on an appropriate post… YES!!! It is rude, I think, to ping back to a more ‘personal’ post. Yes I know we’ve put our stuff out in the public but still some posts are meant for a different type of discussion.
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Thank you! I don’t have a blogging schedule so I usually just pick them up when I don’t have another post I want to write. But I was getting super behind so I decided to bust them all out! Its probably smarter to plan ahead and set aside time for them 😀 I haven’t come across any tags yet where I couldn’t answer most of the questions. The ones I can’t answer I just say so as an answer. Do you actually remove the question or just say you don’t have an answer? My strategy of only ever tagging everyone once kind of developed into tagging new followers because I was running out of blogs to tag!
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If the tag doesn’t have too many questions I may just say I don’t have an answer for a particular question. But when it’s a lot I remove the ones I can’t answer so it’s not a bunch of repeated “I can’t” “I can’t” “I can’t” 😉
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I get why you do that, but that means the next person won’t answer the ones you removed since they won’t know its there! And then the tag will get smaller and smaller!
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I love this post sm, I never even realized ppl might get annoyed w being tagged??? *quietly thinks about my tagging behavior over the past months* I’M A SPAM TAGGER!!! OH GOD!
but i’ll just tag you forever and it’ll be fine c:
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Thank you haha and sorry for enlightening you 😉 Haha I am sure most people don’t mind! But I’ll tag you forever too and then we will be even 😀
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I don’t get tagged often, but it’s nice when I do. I’m usually just creeping around the blogosphere and copying tags as I see ones I want to do.So because of that, I tend to never tag anyone. And I wouldn’t comment that I tagged them. I will comment on a tag post if I decided to do it too and they said in their post,” let me know if you do this.” I usually pingback to the blog where I saw the tag, and the creator if they’re listed.
I try not to do too many tags at once, because when they’re book specific, I feel like I just end up mentioning the same books over and over again. Which I’m sure can’t be fun for people who read more than one of my tags.
Overall I really like tags (they’re a great way to post something when I’m not sure what I want to write about), I like being tagged, and I like reading people’s answers.
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I will add you to my list of people that don’t mind being tagged!! 😀 I’m the same way, if I just pick up the tag randomly then I don’t tag anyone. I only tag people when I was tagged in the first place. I feel obligated to keep the tag going.
When you tag people you should pingback to one of their posts so that they notice! I am awful about regularly checking other blogs and if I am not notified somehow then I may never see the tag!
I like the tags where the questions are random and not “which book fits this description” type questions. For random questions I can come up with different answers and I don’t fall into the trap of using the same book for every answer! So unless I am tagged I stay away from those ones!
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I love being tagged! I try to pick blogs that are newer to tag because I assume they haven’t done the tag yet, but usually I just invite whoever wants to join in 🙂 I always enjoy reading tags even if I don’t join in, but if I’m tagged I’m more likely to participate.
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Yay! I will add you to my list of people that don’t mind being tagged 😀 When I first started tags I would search the blogs before tagging them to make sure they hadn’t already done it, but I am lazy and that was a lot of work haha. I didn’t keep it up very long. Unless they are award tags I always open them up to anyone that wants to participate too!
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You make some great points there. I love doing tags and I do them whether or not I’m tagged. Sometimes I tag folks but most times I’m lazy or don’t have enough time, so I don’t. Some people don’t do tags and do get annoyed when tagged for tags so I try to check the blogs first to see if they do tag posts.
To me, tags are just a quick, fun post to do. No need to stick to the rules. 🙂
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Thanks 😀 And thats smart to just check for the existence of any tags. I used to check to make sure they hadn’t done that specific tag but that took waaay to long! I stopped doing that and just figured they wouldn’t do it again if they had already done it. But it never occurred to me to check to see if they do tags at all! Thanks 😀
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Same here. It takes too long to check every blog to see whether or not they’ve done the tag. For me, it’s much easier to take a quick peek at the blog to see whether or not they do tags. That’s quicker and easier to find out.
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This is a great post, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone actually talking about tag etiquette! I’m probably the black sheep in blogging, but I do not participate in tags. They just aren’t my thing, and I’ve established a certain content on my blog and I don’t really want to change it. So anyone who has ever tagged me, I’m sorry but I won’t be participating! It’s not you it’s me! BUT I do enjoy reading tag posts on other blogs😁
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Thanks 😊😊 I will mark you down on the “don’t tag me” list 😀 To each their own! I like doing tags because I think they are fun but I completely understand that some people don’t want to do them! Does it annoy you when you do get tagged or do you not really care since you know you aren’t going to do it anyway?
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I love that you made a post on tag etiquette! Honestly the thing that bothers me most is how so many people don’t bother to tag the creator of the tag. But they took the time and effort and creativity to come with the tag and deserve to get credit for it! Other than that, I’m not very strict about tags. I rarely if ever actually tag others. I never mind being tagged, but I rarely do the ones I’m tagged for and instead end up doing random ones I wasn’t tagged for lol. I feel like tags are just supposed to be fun, not stressful!
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Thanks 😊 Yea that bugs me too! If someone tags the person that tagged them but not the creator I will follow it back a few links to see if I can pick the creator back up again, but I can’t always find them. I have created one tag and in the rules I put to tag me and then I included the link to my specific post so I could get the pingback. But I have found some that just linked to my main page so I didn’t get a pingback and I found a few that didn’t mention me at all. I am ridiculously proud of my tag and get super excited when anyone does it, so I always try to tag the creator!
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Loving this post. I love doing tags but it takes me a while to come up with answers and questions lol. And sometimes I get lazy. I really need to think about how I tag though. Because you bring up some really valid points! 😉
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Thanks!! Depending on the tag I sometimes really struggle with answers as well. Most recently the “Nope” book tag I couldn’t come up with answers and had to enlist my friend Phil to help me remember what I didn’t like 😂 I am sure how you are tagging is fine! I just tend to overthink things haha
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What’s funny is when I read other people’s tags I’m quick to come up with my own answer. But as soon as I have to do one, my mind goes blank lol. I tend to overthink things too! I’ve been looking at the comments here for some insight. Very helpful!
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If the questions have anything to do with picking a book to fit a description I don’t like reading anyone else’s answers until I have written my own because otherwise I can only think of their answers! And I don’t want to just copy their answers haha but my mind goes blank too!
There have been some super awesome comments here 😀
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Great post, I also stick to tagging three people 😀
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Thanks 🙂 3 seems to be a good number!
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You’re welcome 😀
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I’m so happy you made this a topic because I stress about my tagging habits all the time!! Can you tell I’m an over-thinker too?? Lol. I absolutely loved getting tagged for things, but I know not everyone will feel the same. Lately I’ve been doing tags and not tagging anyone back because I’m worried I’m bugging all the bloggers I follow. But that also defeats the purpose of a book tag doesn’t it?? I tend to tag the same-ish blogs over and over, but I try to spread it out over longer periods of time. I also try to go on everyone’s blog first to make sure they haven’t already done the book tag I want to tag them in (I’m saying the word “tag” a lot, ugh). Also, if there are people who have been active on my blog recently I try to show them love by tagging them in things, but I never expect anyone to participate. It should be something fun well all do to get to know one another! I’m with you on the required numbers of bloggers though, I hate that! I almost always disregard that rule. In the beginning I used to try so hard to get the number of followers every time, but I felt so annoying doing it! Now I just stick to 3-ish people.
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Ha! We are like the same person! That was exactly how the questions all ran through my brain! Even the break to point out that you are saying “tag” a lot sounds like something I would say! I created this post because I was way overthinking it and thought other people might have the same thoughts! Or at very least they can reassure me that I am not bugging people by tagging them! When I first started doing tags I only did the ones I was tagged in because it was so stressful to pick that many blogs to tag the required number of people! But once I stopped doing that it got a lot better! 3-ish is a good number!
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Seven tags in a week! That’s too much, haha (although honestly I’m behind on tags too). I used to get so many tags as well and couldn’t keep track of them all – now I do some, but I’m pretty picky about what I want to do, and I don’t necessarily tag people (mainly because I’m busy and I’m doing the tag to have something up since I might be too busy to create a post). I don’t get annoyed though – I definitely appreciate being tagged. ^_^
It’s also hard to pingback on Blogger though (they really should add that option, but I highly doubt it’ll happen), so when I DID get tagged, I never even knew I got tagged. Oops.
And oof, did someone really do that? Most people go for the most recent post because that’s what they think the blogger will notice. Though pinging you on a post about your grandfather… that’s a bit awkward and partially rude as well. It’s like saying, “My condolences to you is a tag…” I’m sure they didn’t mean it that way, but eek…. awkwarddd.
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I wasn’t sure if I could keep it up for a week! That is why I did this post after I was successful and not before I tried!
I didn’t even think about how the different blogging platforms work! I have WordPress and I have noticed that it is easiest to interact with other WordPress blogs. I wonder if you were to link to one of my posts if I would get a pingback? Or if that is strictly between WordPress accounts?
And they really did! I usually pick the first post too, but I make sure its a normal post and not something personal! I gave them the benefit of the doubt that they probably didn’t notice what the post was, but I deleted the pingback and didn’t do the tag haha.
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Hmm… I’m tempted to test this out haha, but on the other blog I’m at or a test one since I’m now on WordPress. 🤔🤔🤔
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Let me know if it works! Or feel free to link back to me to test it!
Also completely random but I absolutely LOVE the little dragon in you logo! Its adorable and I want one for my blog haha
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I’ve thought about all of this too! Being a relatively new blogger myself, I also worried that there was etiquette I wasn’t aware of. And another blogger, Lili over at Lili’s Blissful Pages, reached out to me to tell me about how to use ping backs! It was so sweet of her!
Personally, I love being tagged for stuff! It makes me feel loved 🙂
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That was super nice of her to help you out!! I love the book blogging community! They are awesome!! I have asked plenty of questions of other bloggers on what is ok to do and what isn’t and they have all been so nice to me about it and noone made me feel stupid for asking tons of questions!
I’ll add you to my list of people who don’t mind being tagged! I like being tagged too!
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Everyone really is so nice! It does make me feel better to see that other people sometimes feel as lost as I do too haha
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Yes, love this post. I totally agree about tagging 10 or more blogs. I think only a couple will do from now on. Not only is it a lot of work, it will require tagging the same people over and over. Some people probably get annoyed but then again, they can choose to ignore it. I like to tag people that are active on my blog. I don’t want to tag people that never comment or like anything.. I feel weird doing that. LOL. I love being tagged for things too but sometimes I feel like others don’t feel the same! Maybe it’s because I’m new and it makes me feel special and like people are actually reading and liking my blog!
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Thanks 😊 And 10 really is a lot! I try to do new blogs that are following me or people who are active a lot too! But I am worried about bugging them, so I haven’t tagged anyone more than once! I will add you to my list of people that enjoy being tagged! I have been blogging for almost a year and I still get that thrill when people tag me! I don’t know if it will go away the longer I am at it, but for now it still makes me feel special!
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Totally feel you and I’m glad you like to be tagged too! I’ll keep that in mind for the future. 😁😁 I guess, we will see how we feel about it next year! 🙂
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This is very interesting. I try to do tags, but am so far behind. I should do what you are doing and post so I actually follow through. I agree, 10 is a lot. I am very cautious about tagging, I do not want to bug people or make them feel like they have to do the tag. I love being tagged, so I guess I should be more active completing them. I do not mind if someone tags me for different ones, as long as it is something I feel comfortable doing. I read people’s responses to some tags and think, wow, I couldn’t have answered some of those questions. Great post Brittany.
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I wasn’t sure I was going to get all 7 done so I did this post after instead of before 😂 I didn’t want everyone to know if I failed haha. I worry about bugging people too! I always try to write that they shouldn’t feel obligated to do the tag and I also open it up to people that weren’t tagged! Thank you 😀
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I do the same.
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I feel super weird when tagging people, I feel like I’m asking them (?) Also, I don’t have a lot of blogs to tag so I’d be tagging the same the people time and again. It so much easier to say “I tag everyone who wants to do this”
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That makes sense. I feel a little weird too! I tend to tag a lot of new to me blogs to keep switching it up! I like saying “I tag everyone who wants to do this” but that doesn’t always work like with award tags haha I feel like those ones I actually should tag someone
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I know, in that case I go to my comments and choose the latest blogs
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Thats smart! 😀
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I totally relate! Especially to the “tag 10+ blogs”…I don’t have that many blogging friends 😂 But I personally LOVE being tagged in awards and book tags (even if WordPress doesn’t always notify me 🙄)!
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Its so hard!! And I will add you to my list of people who love being tagged!!! 😀 I will make sure to use a pingback so hopefully it lets you know!
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