diff --git a/app/presenters/social_relay_presenter.rb b/app/presenters/social_relay_presenter.rb
index eab42a4f3..8d240b923 100644
--- a/app/presenters/social_relay_presenter.rb
+++ b/app/presenters/social_relay_presenter.rb
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ class SocialRelayPresenter
 
   def tags
     return [] unless AppConfig.relay.inbound.scope == "tags"
-    tags = AppConfig.relay.inbound.pod_tags.present? ? AppConfig.relay.inbound.pod_tags.split(",") : []
+    tags = AppConfig.relay.inbound.pod_tags.present? ? AppConfig.relay.inbound.pod_tags.split(",").map(&:strip) : []
     add_user_tags(tags)
     tags.uniq
   end
diff --git a/spec/presenters/social_relay_presenter_spec.rb b/spec/presenters/social_relay_presenter_spec.rb
index 27d132994..d5932864d 100644
--- a/spec/presenters/social_relay_presenter_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/presenters/social_relay_presenter_spec.rb
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ describe SocialRelayPresenter do
 
     describe "pod tags" do
       before do
-        AppConfig.relay.inbound.pod_tags = "foo,bar"
+        AppConfig.relay.inbound.pod_tags = "foo, bar"
         AppConfig.relay.inbound.include_user_tags = false
       end
 
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ describe SocialRelayPresenter do
 
     describe "pod tags combined with user tags" do
       before do
-        AppConfig.relay.inbound.pod_tags = "foo,bar"
+        AppConfig.relay.inbound.pod_tags = "foo, bar"
         AppConfig.relay.inbound.include_user_tags = true
         ceetag = FactoryGirl.create(:tag, name: "cee")
         lootag = FactoryGirl.create(:tag, name: "loo")