|Discussion
How to ensure consistency when applying labels?
How do you ensure consistency when applying labels? Especially when there are many different people contributing content.
I am developing a taxonomy guide at the moment, defining what each label means. I am planning to share this guide with our people, and perhaps print out a copy for the people who contribute content more often.
I am also reviewing our content to update the labels so they are tagged more consistently.
Is there anything else that I can do to ensure consistency when people apply labels?
Thank you
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I am in the same boat! I wasn't here when we implemented and I want to do a big clean-up. So I am also interested in others feedback.
I am also curious if there is a way to search for labels besides clicking on them from within a piece of content. I'd like to get rid of labels we aren't using and create ones that are more relevant - and just as you said, update labels on existing content as I can.
Great question! When we first launched, our use of labels was a giant fail. We had about 20 different topics, and everyone tagged things differently. Many people over-tagged, in an attempt to make sure their content would be found, but it ended up being impossible to narrow down content via a label filter.
When we relaunched 3 years later, we did away with all labels except in 2 very specific channels. When staff file a report from R&D trips, we ask them to label by country visited and year. In order to get people to do this consistently, I have reminders all over the relevant Files pages. I remind people about it in meetings about once every 6 months. While we STILL have staff who forget or misuse labels even under this new, specific system, it's much better than it is before. But I attribute the relative success to limiting labeling options, not expanding them.
I don't know if that's helpful at all, but that's been our experience.
Molly, when we relaunched, I simply removed the previous labels, and that automatically removed them from any content they had been used on. We didn't re-label anything with our new set of labels...it was only a deletion so that was easier. Hope that makes sense.
Hello there!
In addition to the notes made above, check out the Igloo University article: Using Labels as well as Igloo's best practice for Creating a Label and Tag Strategy. This goes over some ways to ensure it's not overwhelming for folks to choose, and how to organize them most effectively.