I have noticed a new trend on Facebook and it is frustrating me. Have you been tagged by someone in a photo, but you’re not in the picture, because it’s not really a picture — it’s an ad?

This is happening more and more, and I’m not crazy that people are using the tagging feature to advertise their business to my friends. But there is a way to stop it!

If you have one friend that is abusing this feature the first thing you should do is ask them nicely to stop tagging you. But if you’re like me and you like to have some additional controls over what will get posted to your wall, here are some additional steps you can take.

Got to your profile (by clicking on your name in the upper left corner. Then, click on the Activity Log link under your Cover Photo on the right-hand side.

If you’ve haven’t been here before, it’s worth spending some time to check out the features. But for now, let’s click on the menu item on the left named “Posts Your Tagged In”.

Now at the top of the page, click on the “Notifications” link and select “Anyone” from the drop-down list. You will now receive an email anytime someone tags you in a post or picture. Click on the “Settings” icon and Enable the feature to allow you to review posts you’re tagged in BEFORE they appear in your news feed/timeline.

If you are a business and using Facebook to market your products and/or services, tagging your friends is NOT the way to do it. A better strategy is to provide educational and engaging content that your audience will WANT to share with their network of friends.