What you need to know about tags or #hashtags on Steemit

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By now you should know what goes wrong with a post, how to comment on a post, and how to write a diary post. If you have missed out on my posts related to these topics they are at the bottom of this post.

What remains?

Shopping!

You might like shopping or you might hate it. I am one of those who don’t like shopping.

There is one thing we all have in common when shopping is that we all look at the tags or the labels.

That my friends are exactly what #hashtags or tags are. It is what we use for our “shopping” on Steemit. The usage of #hashtags or tags is one of the key elements which is required in Steemit.

What are tags?

When shopping we look at the tag or label which will give us more information about the product, for instance, the brand, size, fabric, price, ingredients, nutrition, etc.

Without these tags or labels, we will be clueless about what to buy.

Tags are used all over the internet. It is used on the websites we search, forums, and social media platforms. These days you will also find tags on eCommerce sites.

We all have one goal on Steemit and that is for our content to be visible to other Steemians and that is exactly what tags do. It groups your content “together” under a “name” to make it visible.

Tags are a way to categorize your content, so that others can find it. The more relevant the tags are to the post, the more like-minded people will come across it. - Steemit FAQ

Why should we use tags?

There are numerous reasons why tags should be used. For me, there are four main reasons for using tags on Steemit.

1. To create readership engagement
2. For analyzing data
3. To organize posts
4. For classification

Let me share some interesting stats with you regarding the various tags used on Steemit.

Tag	All time usage
#life	3,820,428
#photography	3,233,695
#steemit	2,253,882
#steemexclusive	924,309
#betterlife	363,343
#thediarygame	296,495
#club100	50,083
#club75	48,667
#club5050	203,372

^{Data obtained from @morpheussa}

The tag used the most in the last 7 days, #steemexclusive and it was used 4,821 times.

What tags should we use?

Try to use tags that are relevant to your post, and that will be popular for other people to browse. For example, "mytriptoalaska" may be relevant to your post, but readers are probably not going to go searching for that. Using "travel" would be a better choice for a tag in this case.
All tags must be lowercase letters. Spaces aren't allowed, but hyphenated words with a single dash are. - Steemit FAQ

The tags you use are your choice. If you are selling a shirt labeled as “cotton” and it is “polyester” you are the one who will have to sit with the consequences.

The same on Steemit. There are no set rules for the use of tags. It is your choice but choose wisely or be prepared to sit with a negative result.

Before I get to the kind of tags you can use we first need to look at the clarifications of some of the tags.

Tag	Clarification
#Steemcurator01-09	NEVER to be used
#Steemexclusive	ALWAYS to be used
#Yourcountry	ALWAYS to be used
#Clubstatus (100/75/5050)	PLEASE use this as it helps curators and moderators perform their tasks
#Contest	ONLY to be used in the announcement of contest and NOT for participating in contests
#learnwithsteem	NO longer to be used

Again these tags are just suggestions however, they have proven to be successful my advice is thus to stick with them.

For my education post, I use #education or #learn.

Of importance:

• DON'T tag bots. #krsuccess is not acceptable by some of the curators
• Be careful not to use tags that are not related to your posts. You might get moderators and curators “shouting” at you. Best of all, you might lose out on votes
• Make sure you follow the guidelines of the various communities
• Make sure you read and adhere to the rules of a contest

Be mindful when choosing tags. If your tags aren’t related to your post, your post may get downvotes for mistagging. - Steemit FAQ

How many tags can I use?

Way back when I joined Steemit the number of tags was 5. This has subsequently changed.

You can use up to 8 tags per post - Steemit FAQ

How do we use tags to search for posts?

When we shop we look for a specific product or products. Well, not if you are a mom and you have the kids with you.

Supermarkets are very clever in where they place their products. “Eye level is buy level” and so often these products are not the cheapest product on the shelf.

Did you know that the most successful spot in a supermarket is not in the aisles but at the end of the aisle or at the checkout points?

In Steemit we can also search for posts related to specific tags and in four categories.

1. Trending - https://steemit.com/trending
2. New - https://steemit.com/created
3. Payouts - https://steemit.com/payout
4. Muted - https://steemit.com/muted

All that you now need to do is to add the tag you are interested into the category search.

https://steemit.com/trending/art

That my friend, this is how easy it is to shop on Steemit provided that the right tags are used.

Happy tagging and happy shopping!

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Posts:

1. The 5 main reasons why posts goes wrong
2. Make your comments and replies count! Tips to write a good comment...
   
3. How to write that perfect diary post...