Facebook is constantly expanding its operations and experimenting with new features to emerge as a one-stop-solution to all your social media needs – staying connected with friends, keeping a track of latest viral trends on the internet, getting your daily dose of news, exploring job avenues and discovering like-minded people who share your interests and skills. In a bid to inch closer to realizing this ambition, the social networking site is in the process of testing the profile tags feature that has been developed on lines of the ones popularly used by LinkedIn.
Profile Tags
The upcoming feature of profile tags is a creative tool that is being designed with an aim to let users put themselves out there by describing their interests and highlighting their key personality traits. These tags will be available as free-forms, giving users the scope to use their imagination to put out a creative and attractive description. From single word descriptions pertaining to your professions – let’s say blogger, photographer or surgeon – to a mix of personal and professional attributes – travel enthusiast and web developer, for example – and even emoticons can be used as profile tags.
With this new feature, you can not only add tags to your own profile but also to that of your friends’. The tags posted on a friend’s profile will be subject to approval before being visible on their profile. Similarly, you will receive notifications of profile tags generated on your profile by your friends, much like the Timeline Review for relationship requests posted by your extended family or friends. Here, you’d have the option of either approving the tag, declining it or let it hang fire by keeping it pending.
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The profile tags generated by you and the ones you approve will appear on your profile, and your friends will have the option of hitting the ‘like’ button on these. Over a period of time, the tags will appear on your profile in a descending order of popularity based on the number of likes generated on each. An official from Facebook has confirmed the news of the this feature being tested to The Verge, adding that the initial testing phase is being carried out in New Zealand. There is no clarity over when the feature will be made available to users worldwide.
What this Means for Your Facebook Profile?
Since Facebook’s existing profile page already allows users to put out an elaborate personal description, it is natural to wonder what difference these tags would make to your profile. How the profile tags play out exactly remains to be seen and can be established only after its global launch. It is most likely going to serve as a platform that allows you to put across your key personality traits in an informal manner. In addition to this, these profile tags can be a quick window for getting to know a person better, without having to go through their entire profile.
If used effectively, profile tags can emerge as effective networking tools that can bring like-minded people together and open up new avenues for your interests, passions, hobbies and even career.
