# Tags

Tags are labels you attach to people to organize and categorize your audience. 

## What is a Tag?

A Tag is a simple label attached to a person. Tags have no inherent meaning to Bento. They mean whatever you decide they mean. You create them, name them, and apply them based on your own system.

Common uses for tags:

- Lead source tracking ("facebook-ad", "webinar-signup")
- Interest categories ("interested-in-product-x")
- Customer status ("customer", "churned", "vip")
- Campaign participation ("black-friday-2024")

## Adding Tags to People

Tags can be added to people in several ways:

1. **Flows**: Apply tags as part of an automation (i.e., someone submits a form, they get the tag "newsletter-subscriber")
2. **API**: Send tags when creating or updating subscribers
3. **Imports**: Include tags in your CSV uploads (column "tags" in your CSV)
4. **Manually**: Add tags to individuals from their Profile


> Tags are created automatically when first used. You don't need to define them ahead of time. This makes imports and API integrations much easier, but do be careful to not accidentally create thousands of tags by mistake.


## Removing Tags

Tags can be removed just as easily:

- Manually from a person's profile
- Through Flow actions
- Via the API
- During import operations (column "remove_tags" in your CSV)

When you remove a tag, it's gone from that person but still exists in your system for others.

## Tag Naming Best Practices

Since tags are free-form, keeping them organized matters:

**Use a consistent naming convention**
- Lowercase with hyphens: `webinar-attendee`
- Or underscores: `webinar_attendee`
- Pick one style and stick with it

**Include context in the name**
- `source-facebook` instead of just `facebook`
- `product-interest-shoes` instead of just `shoes`

**Date-stamp time-sensitive tags**
- `campaign-black-friday-2024`
- `event-conference-march-2024`

## Tags vs Fields

Both tags and fields store information about people, but they work differently:

**Use Tags when**:
- The value is binary (they have it or they don't)
- You want to quickly filter by "has this tag"
- The information is categorical

**Use Fields when**:
- You need to store a specific value (number, date, text)
- You want to use the data in personalization
- The information might change over time

## How Tags Connect to Other Concepts

Tags integrate throughout Bento:

- **People** have tags attached to their profiles
- **Segments** can filter by tag presence or absence
- **Flows** can add or remove tags as actions
- **Forms** can apply tags on submission
- **Emails** can be personalized based on tags

A solid tagging strategy makes everything else in Bento more powerful.