Does Facebook Tagging Have Spam Potential?

Facebook has smartly added the ability to tag things other than photos, such as status updates. This is a feature I’ve wanted to see from Facebook for quite some time. There are plenty of opportunities for sharing something with a small groups of friends or even one user in particular, but it may be something I want to share with all of my Facebook friends as well. Tagging allows you to post something for all to see, but making sure that friend or group in particular is almost certain to see what it is you’ve added to your wall.

But that could also make things pretty messy, and lead to a great deal of tagging spam. If individuals or entities abuse the tagging system, it will diminish the value of the new feature significantly.

The beauty of tagging is that it alerts the tagged person of the action. And that plays to people’s sense of individuality, making them feel pretty darn special. Someone loves them so much that they took the time to tag them in a photo or a status update or a shared bookmark posting on their wall. Instead of having to choose one or the other, all items shared on Facebook now act more like photos in their ability to be shared and tagged across one’s network. This also means that the tagger’s network is extended greatly, as their shared content will now be accessible to the tagged person’s social graph.

This beauty of tagging is also the curse. It’s too easy to spread content across Facebook in this manner. And if you take away the “special” factor when you tag someone, they are less likely to respond to tagging all together. In the same way application notifications have taken over users’ Facebook experience, making it almost daunting to look at your new alerts, tagging outside of photos could simply piss people off.

We’ve already seen it happen with photos. An event planner wants to promote their event, so they tag all their friends for the flyer. Yes, this will get their attention (who doesn’t look to see what photo they’ve been tagged in?). But it also makes some people angry that they’re using the tagging system in order to get people’s attention. This is bound to occur even more frequently and for more reasons now that users can tag more than just photos and notes.

The good thing about Facebook coming out with the feature itself is that it diminishes any third party applications of taking the bad rap for providing a potentially spammy feature. There are some great applications on Facebook, created by third parties, which are devoted to tagging and better sharing content across one’s Facebook social graph. However, Facebook’s decision to launch this option directly means that Facebook has more control over the regulations that will need to be modified and enforced by Facebook. The regulations will also need to be adhered to by users and other entities alike.

It’s a tricky plight to have, seeing as the ability to share efficiently is a goal for Facebook. Providing this service while knowing that very service could become a channel for mass spamming means that Facebook has to walk a fine line. In the end, Facebook will have to continue on its path towards becoming more open and cooperative so that users can easily share content with friends. This will help Facebook retain users for an extended period of time, as they attempt to move with trends and changing needs instead of letting users default to other services that provides the features they currently desire.

As long as Facebook is able to keep users happy, they will be able to effectively roll out new features such as tagging, despite their spamming potential.

image credit:Ian Schafer