Using Search Tags in SAS Customer Intelligence 360

Sometimes finding anything quickly can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. We're in a constant information overload. As a marketer, you may be buried under a load of content and sometimes it's hard to keep it all straight. This is where search tags come in. Search tags act as digital shortcuts, helping categorize and label your assets so you can easily navigate a potentially vast amount of information. In this post we'll look at the benefits of using search tags and how to configure and use them on assets in Customer Intelligence 360.

Why Use Search Tags?

Tagging an object enables you to associate it with a known value so you can find it easier. This is a pretty simple concept. I like to think of it as associating an asset with a category, grouping them together.

Consider the three items below. We have a shirt, a tie, and a dress. I'll use the search tag "Clothes" to categorize these three objects.

Figure 1

Select any image to see a larger version.
Mobile users: To view the images, select the "Full" version at the bottom of the page.

Search tags also enable you to create multiple associations so you can have one object that is a member of multiple tag groups. So, each of these images are not only associated with the search tag "Clothes", but the first two now also have a search tag of "Ties" and the third has a search tag of "Dresses."

Figure 2

Customer Intelligence 360 takes all those search tags you've created and lists them in a global content management system (Figure 3). Here, you'll find a list of all search tags created in your tenant and the number of items associated with that search tag.

Figure 3

Creating a Search Tag

A search tag can be created independently from an object in the global settings pictured above, or it can be created inside an object. To create an independent search tag, click New Tag (Figure 3) and name your tag. After clicking Save, your new tag should appear in your global search tags list.

This tag can now be associated with an asset. Navigate to Assets and select the asset you like your new search tag to be associated with. Conveniently, when you open any asset, it automatically opens to the asset's properties page. This is where you will add your tag (Figure 4).

Figure 4

To add an existing tag, click View all Tags. A list of every existing tag appears (Figure 5). You can choose as many existing tags as you would like to associate with this asset.

Figure 5

Alternatively, you can add a new tag directly in the object by simply typing the new tag in the Add or search tag field and clicking Add to list (Figure 4). This adds that tag to the asset and also adds the new tag to your tag list in General Settings. An asterisk will appear next to the tag name indicating that this is a new tag in the global tag cloud.

Using Your Tags

Now that you've created your search tags, they can be used to filter and find your assets. On the Assets main page, make sure the Browse folders and filter items button is activated. Select the folder you would like to filter, and click the Filters tab. There you'll see a section titled Tags with a list of your tags available in that folder. Select the tag you would like to filter to. The assets associated with that tag in that folder will automatically appear (Figure 6).

Figure 6

For more information about search tags, including best practices and reconciling tags see the course titled Managing Users, Settings, Content Delivery, and REST APIs in SAS Customer Intelligence 360 in the SAS Customer Intelligence 360 Learning Subscription or the System Configuration section of Configuring SAS Customer Intelligence 360 in the SAS Customer Intelligence 360 Administration Guide.

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