To Tag Or Not To Tag Other Writers In Your Story?
By: Tina Viju
Tags: Writing, Writing Tips, Writers On Medium, Ｍedium, Tagging

Last year, I was tagged in a story by a new writer. Half of Medium was also tagged in it. ‘Clever strategy!’ I thought. He had managed to get more eyes on his story. His story was good and it deserved the extra traffic his tactic got.

A few weeks later we were all tagged again and again in other stories of his. This time the vultures came out with venom dripping from their fangs. People rudely called him out for tagging and wasting their precious time.

I felt bad for the poor guy. First of all, he was new and just figuring out the ropes. Besides, he had just tagged writers and had not asked for their first born’s soul.

Medium has after all made tagging a feature so that writers can use it. Apart from a Private Note, this is the only way to contact someone. However Medium does discourage overt tagging as it can be viewed as a form of blatant marketing.

Like everything, there are pros and cons when it comes to tagging.

Pros

It’s the easiest way to get a reader’s attention. That algorithm isn’t helping anyway!

Plus, you can’t deny that feel-good feeling when someone tags you in their story. Wow, they actually thought of me? Personally, I am touched. I won’t lie, it’s a boost to my floundering self-confidence.

Isn’t that what we all chase as writers, to be recognized for our work and to build connections with other writers?

Sometimes our stories are inspired by another story of a writer. We want to acknowledge how they stimulated our creative juices and thought process. We want to give due credit. What better way than tagging and letting them know?

Cons

Tagging though useful, can easily turn from a kind gesture to an annoyance. A lady on Twitter once shared a parenting story of mine. I at once jumped the gun. Believing she would therefore love all my stories by default, I started tagging her in all my tweets.

My tagging came to an abrupt end when I got this message from her — “Who the hell are you and why do you keep tagging me? Leave me alone!”

Ouch, that hurt, but I learned my lesson.

So maybe tagging is not the optimal way to go about getting someone to read my story. It’s like summoning my kid and force-feeding her the vegetables I cooked. Readers should click on my story because they want to and not because I have tagged them.

Tagging can sometimes make writers feel left out. We all have our favorite writers or friends on Medium, whom we regularly follow. Sometimes a bunch of writers will be tagged for a writing prompt or they will be applauded in a story.

We love it when we are the ones being tagged but, it can make other writers feel left out and dejected.

Plus it can give rise to the ‘I scratch your back, you scratch mine.’ mentality where people feel obligated to clap because they were tagged or praised.

I want readers to clap for my story only if it really appealed to them and not because they feel like they have to reciprocate the favor. If I clap for your story, you don’t have to clap for mine unless you actually liked it.

In the end, the key is to strike a balance. Use Tagging as a helpful tool to notify someone or reference their story but not as a free marketing tool. Let your writing speak for itself. It will market itself, if its good stuff.