How to use tags

Tags are virtual sticky notes added to profiles to describe a characteristic that can help you target people with what they care about most.

Updated over a week ago

Where to Start

Tags are virtual sticky notes added to a profile to describe a characteristic. A tag can be added automatically when a person takes action on your website or contacts a broadcaster. Many organizations find it useful to create a tag library to define a naming taxonomy. Most tags remain on a profile unless they are removed manually or via batch action. The exceptions are tags from filters and shared tags.

Tags appear on a person's profile. If you click the Add tag button next to the list of tags, you can add tags. To delete a tag, click on the X on the tag.

Adding tags from website pages

When you set up a new page on NationBuilder, you can add a tag to people under the Settings tab of that new page. This will later help sort people in your database based on a particular action they took.

Here is a list of some of the places where these tags can be set:

  • In an Event page, you can add a tag to people who RSVP, and a different tag to people who attend the event. You can specify these tags from Event Settings > Advanced. You can also search for people who've RSVP'd for or attended a specific event using the 'has RSVPd (specific event)' filter.

  • In a Donation page, you can add a tag via the Donation settings tab. There are two ways to track what happens on a donation page: you can track all donation records with a tracking code, and you can add a tag to every person who donates via the page. Once someone donates to your organization via any donation page, they will be categorized as a donor and can be searched via filters in People section of your control panel. 

  • In a Volunteer page you have two ways to add tags: 

  1. Everyone volunteering via that page can be given a tag via Volunteer Settings > Settings.

  2. When a person signs up for a specific role. Specify that tag from Volunteer Settings > Roles.

When someone volunteers for your organization, this becomes a filterable characteristic in your database. You can filter for all volunteers from the People section of your control panel. So, you never have to tag people "volunteer." If you have more than one volunteer page, it may make sense to tag everyone who takes action on a specific page.

  • On a Petition page, you can add a tag to all petition signers under Petition settings. However, as with Event pages, you can also filter for people who've signed any petition, or a specific petition in the People section. 

  • On a Feedback page, you can specify auto-tagging for anyone who leaves feedback from Feedback settings > Settings.

  • On a Survey page, anyone who responds to the survey can be tagged from Survey details > Settings. People who select specific answers can be tagged as well. Set answer response tags from Survey details > New question.

  • On a Blog, if you allow people to submit posts you can specify a tag for them from the Blog tab.

If your nation has multiple websites, and it is important for you to distinguish which site your supporters are interacting with, one option is to use a structured tag format to help you identify which website your supporters have interacted with. For example, if you have two sites (ex: "site1" and "site2") which both have 'Volunteer' pages, you would want to have them set to automatically tag your supporters with "site1-volunteer" and "site2-volunteer", respectively. This will allow you to identify not only which of your supporters are volunteers, but which site they opted to volunteer from.

Additionally, if it is important to you that you track every page your supporters are interacting with, you can set your pages to automatically tag people with the "slug" of that page. For example:

  • the page yoursite.com/sign_up_now would be set to automatically tag all new signups with "sign_up_now";

  • people who sign petitions at yoursite.com/petition would be tagged "petition";

  • people who sign up to volunteer on yoursite.com/canvassing would be tagged "canvassing";

  • etc.

NationBuilder automatically tracks which page new supporters originate from (People > Filter > Origin), but using this tag method will allow you to additionally see all the pages with which they have interacted.

Auto tagging using filters

By editing the Settings of a saved filter, you can add a tag to people who match filter criteria. Tags added via a filter are unique as they will automatically be added to profiles who match the filter criteria and they will automatically be removed from profiles that no longer match the filter criteria.

Start by going to the People section.

1. Click on the filter button to find the filter you would like to use to auto tag people.

2. Click on Edit. You'll be taken to the filter Settings

3. Add the tag you wish to auto tag people who fit this criteria with under "People in this filter should have this tag." 

⚠️ Make sure that this tag hasn't been/isn't getting applied via any other means (e.g. manually), as this can result in data loss, should any of the people with that tag not meet the saved filter's criteria.

4. Click Save filter.

Note: tag data is placed in the queue to be updated every night at 9pm UTC. 

Here's an example:

I want to know who the people are that have opened an email blast in the last 3 months, or were added to my nation in the last 3 months so I can reach out to them.

So, I set up this filter, which searches whether someone is emailable, and has opened a blast from me in the last 3 months or was created in my nation in the last 3 months. Then I saved the filter. 

Next, I tagged everyone in this filter as Active outreach.

Now, everyone who meets this criteria will have this tag (it will update as people meet the criteria). This data is not always readily visible on profiles, so this makes it easier for me to view and to reach out to those people as hot leads since they have recently interacted with my nation.

Viewing your tag list

You can view a list of all tags in your site, click on People > Tags. You can create a new tag from this view as well. Any tag within your system can be added to people on a list via batch update.

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