LinkedIn is the world’s largest business-oriented social network. Making the most of the LinkedIn features is essential, especially for B2B marketers and anyone looking to learn about business, enhance their career or grow their company by finding new employees and customers. Like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, LinkedIn allows you to add hashtags to the platform. It also allows you to follow hashtags that you are interested in. So, let’s understand how to use LinkedIn hashtags to reach a wider audience.
How to use LinkedIn hashtags?
You can add your hashtags by typing the ‘#’ symbol followed by the word or phrase. Here are some of the spaces where you can use hashtags:
- LinkedIn profile’s headline and summary
- Company page on LinkedIn
- Content on your LinkedIn timeline
What is a hashtag?
A hashtag is a combination of letters, numbers, and/or emojis followed by a hash sign (#). Including this type of tag can help people discover content based on topics, news, questions, etc., Often used to categorize content that is searchable for users on the LinkedIn platform.
Hashtags, when used correctly, help you establish credibility and expertise. It also helps to reach the relevant audience and start a meaningful conversation over shared interests. Please note that even though you can use upper case letters in your hashtag, LinkedIn will internally convert them to lower case.
Why use LinkedIn hashtags?
There are mainly two reasons for using LinkedIn hashtags – reach and relevance. If you want people to see your posts on LinkedIn and increase the number of views on it, mastering LinkedIn hashtags is essential.
Reasons to use LinkedIn hashtags are:
Helps the LinkedIn algorithm to show your content to the right audience
When you add a hashtag, the LinkedIn algorithm shows your content to people who it thinks will want to engage with it. People who have already engaged with your content and your followers will see your latest post on their timelines.
Reaches wider audience
Your post will also be shown to people who follow those hashtags that you include. If your post goes well and people engage with it in terms of likes, shares, and comments, it will be shown to more followers of that hashtag and people who follow those people who already engaged with your post.
Shows your content to people not in your network
Adding a hashtag means your post will appear on that hashtag’s page. This is another way to reach the right audience, even if they are not connected with you on LinkedIn. Hashtags are searchable, so if someone searches on LinkedIn for one of the hashtags that your post uses, there’s a chance that they will find it in the search results, creating another opportunity for you to broaden your audience.
Shows content to relevant people
Hashtags are not just a signal for an algorithm but, most importantly, a signal to your audience about what’s important in your content that is relevant to them. Therefore, it is essential to have niche hashtags with fewer followers than having a hashtag with most followers. This way, you will get a higher level of engagement because of the high degree of relevance. Highly relevant niche hashtags have few followers with less frequent posts. This means your post to a niche hashtag has more chances of being at the top of the page for that hashtag.
Join like-minded people
LinkedIn is often considered a community, and hashtags are another way to unite like-minded people. You can use hashtags to connect with people in your industry. For example: – If you are a B2B marketer and want your content to be displayed to your prospective clients, you could use #b2bmarketing or #b2bsales.
How to use the LinkedIn hashtag in your posts?
Step 1 – Login to your LinkedIn account
Step 2 – Click on ‘Start a post’ in the center of the screen
Step 3 – Start with a post and click the ‘Add hashtag’ button or manually type the ‘#’ symbol followed by a word or phrase. You can add hashtags both in your text or at the end of your post
How to add LinkedIn hashtags to your profile?
Step 1 – Login to your LinkedIn account
Step 2 – Scroll down to your dashboard
Step 3 – Select ‘Creator mode’ and switch it ON
Step 4 – Under the ‘topics’ section, write down up to 5 topics that you want to include in your profile
LinkedIn Hashtag best practices
- Add hashtags directly to the main text body by converting the topic to a #hashtag. You can also use the suggested hashtag feature. When you type in the content, LinkedIn is smart enough to pick out topics from your copy and suggest them as hashtags.
- Avoid spacing between words if your hashtag is a multi-word phrase. For example: – #OnlineMarketing
- Add two to three hashtags per update. Otherwise, LinkedIn bots may see your content as spam and reduce your post reach.
- Avoid punctuation. For example: – Instead of ‘’#You’llNeverGetThere”, you should write “YoullNeverGetThere”
- Keep the hashtags short and simple
- When using a branded hashtag, ensure no one else is using it
- Use location-based hashtags, especially when you post about a specific region, country, or place
What hashtags to use on LinkedIn?
You need to work out the hashtags that are relevant to your topic. You need to test and find what works for you.
Here are a few simple steps to find your hashtags:
- Write down all the topics that you want to post about
- Prioritize your top 5 topics from them
- Discover multiple hashtags for each topic
- Search on LinkedIn for its popularity
- Take inspiration from the trending posts in those hashtags
Key Takeaways
- LinkedIn hashtags are the best way to increase your content and profile reach since it makes them visible to your target audience.
- Use business-specific hashtags if your post is related to any business or industry.
- Make sure to use relevant hashtags that relate to your content.
- Use only 2-3 hashtags in a single post. Research hashtags before using them in your post.
