Facebook Friend Tagging  [Twitter Retweet Style]

Back in September Facebook added the ability to tag your Friends and Connections, including Groups, Events, Applications and Pages in your updates (very similar to Twitter @messages). This is a really great feature and although popular with some, not everyone seems to know about it.

Here’s the simple instructions:

To tag someone, type @ and then the Friends Name/Group/Event/Application/Fan Page name:

When posted to your profile, your status looks like this:

The name is linked to the tagged Facebook profile (a notification is sent to the tagged friend with the option to remove the tag if preferred).

I immediately saw the potential for people to endorse Friends/Fan Pages/Groups etc. You can now mention them on your wall – without leaving yours and the status update is also shown on their wall. This would also save you time if you were going to post the same info on your profile plus another Profile/Fan Page/Group etc.

Straight away I used tagging to copy and share what other people were posting – like we do on Twitter – and my friend Mari Smith sent me this tweet:

Then came – Facebook Link Sharing [Twitter Retweet Style]

Unlike Twitter, Facebook sharing only allows you to share links others have posted via a simple share button which gives a link back to the profile who posted it.

For example: You see an interesting link you wish to share.

Share it with your friends:

Facebook automatically tags the profile the shared info came from [unless you removed it]:

One thing to remember on Facebook – YOUR SECURITY:

Make sure you are happy with what you are sharing and with whom! You can change the settings by clicking the small padlock icon whenever you post something.

So if you haven’t yet tried tagging and sharing, have a go. I have used tagging to thank new friends for connecting via other friends [tagging the friends in the update]. Shared videos and tagged the people in the video in the update etc… Get creative, be nice but don’t annoy people by tagging them for your own visibility gain, give value and share good links!

Enjoy.

Want to connect on Facebook or Twitter? That would be fab!