Steemit Tags 101; All you wanted to ask but never knew you should.

One of the first questions I asked myself when I first arrived at steemit was
”Ok now, I’m here. Which hashstags should I use?” (Yes, really!)

What I did back then was to visit the FAQs steemit page and I had understood that hashtags (or tags) are a very important element of steemit.

But still, some information was missing and I had to figure it out in the process. In this post I will include everything I have learnt in my 3 months here.

Please do comment, add, correct wherever needed!

Let's start immediately, shall we?

What are these .. tags?

According to the Steemit Frequently Asked Questions tags are defined as:

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.

How many tags can you use in your posts?

You can use up to 5 tags per post. The first tag is mandatory and represents your posts main category. It cannot be altered. The rest of the tags are not mandatory and if used, they can be edited up until the payout time of your post.

Why have I seen posts with more tags than 5?

source

While Steemit.com only allows four of these tags (on top of the category, totaling five), the blockchain does not have such limits. For this reason, some 3rd party applications inadvertently allow users the ability to attach additional tags.

Yes, but how can I know which tags I should use?

Be mindful when choosing tags. If your tags aren’t related to your post, your post may get downvotes for mistagging.
All tags must be lowercase letters. Spaces aren't allowed, but hyphenated words with a single dash are.

Are there any guidelines to follow?

Yes, you can see the below tips which you can use in a creating way to find your own tags

Is there anything I should pay extra attention to?

As steemcleaners mention at their post there are two types of tags.

Generic Tags

Generic tags can be used for a wide range of themes. For instance #blog can be used for anything that could fit in any blog category. #travel can be used for anything travel related. #photography can be for any photo you post and as mentioned in the above post

#Blockchain, for example, can be attributed to a discussion of the STEEM blockchain or of any blockchain project. #Food can be used to share recipes, discuss the chemistry of ingredients, talk about world hunger, or to simply post a picture of one's dinner.

Proprietary tags

These are used for specific projects. For instance when you post through busy, the hashtag #busy will be applied. The same is applied for #utopian-io posts, #steepshot posts etc. There are also tags such as SteemStem regarding communities that promote science postings on steemit.

Posts using these proprietary tags are typically scrutinized by the community they represent for quality.

IMPORTANT! Pay extra attention when using any proprietary hashtag.

Every community has guidelines or rules that you should be aware of prior of using their hashtag.

If for instance you would like to write a scientific post and would like to use steemstem hashtag, it is advised that you read their post about Being a Member of the steemSTEM Community

Please note that tags are of great importance in steemit as they help define the content of every post, therefore using quality hashtags is a must.

Tags are meant to represent the topic of the post. Adding a lot of tags is not necessary and does not generate more viewership but instead dilutes the quality of the post by making it look spammy and scammy.

What should I avoid when using tags?

You should not apply tags that do not fit in the content category. For instance, the #introduceyourself tag is used for the introduction posts of new members. This tag should NOT be used for any other reason. If for instance you wish your post to be read by new members, add the tag "minnowsupport" or any other relevant, such as "guide" or "steemithelp"

If you are deliberately using a tag that does not fit your content in order to win extra visibility, this is considered ‘Tag Spam’ and this may result to act from the @steemcleaners

The @steemcleaners define Tag Abuse as the ”Unintentional application of the wrong tags to a post”. This is usually caused by people who misunderstand the scope of the specific tag(s). If you would like to make sure that your tags fit into its

What if I enter a hashtag in the text, is it traceable / searchable?

To be honest I have not seen if it is possible to include a hashtag in the body text and it can be searchable. I will however see if the ones used here (using a random one such as #greek-trail in order to see if my post will appear when searching for it.

[Update] I believe that adding hashtags in your text are also searchable, as they are clickable and transfer you to the relevant search page.

How can I navigate and see the Tags?

• Visit the Trending Page (Upper left of your steemit screen) in order to see the most popular / trending hashtags
  https://steemit.com/trending
  

  

• Clicking on any of the tags in your interest (I have clicked steemit here)
  Will show you the most popular (and rewarding) posts that include that tag.

• If you would like to see all tags, click on steemit logo > scroll down > View All tags and you will reach all tags with number of posts / comments / amounts of payout here

• If you want to search a specific tag into steemit you can or (a) click on a tag when reading a post or (b) click on https://steemit.com/trending/greek-trail change greek-trail with anything else you would like.
  [If there is another way please let me know]

And a little bit of hashtag history!

Did you know that hashtag as a symbol first appeared in August 2007 (17 months after the official launch of twitter)?
Chris Messina was the person who suggested categorizing all these twitter posts by using the (pound) # symbol in order to create specific ‘channels’ as he called them

But Twitter rejected the idea telling Chris that ”These things are for nerds. They are never going to catch on” source
It is important to mention that Chris never wanted to exploit and/or patent that idea, he specifically answered to quora’s questions and stated that

They (The hashtags) are born of the Internet, and should be owned by no one. The value and satisfaction I derive from seeing my funny little hack used as widely as it is today is valuable enough for me to be relieved that I had the foresight not to try to lock down this stupidly simple but effective idea.

I hope that this will be a useful post for the community and please do comment for any additions or corrections.

Please make sure to read this post by steemcleaners too!

I wish you to conquer whichever steemit tags you desire!