Much like Instagram and Twitter (and – to a lesser degree – Facebook) LinkedIn allows you to use and follow hashtags. However, because LinkedIn isn’t a content creator heavy platform, I’m often asked if it’s worth using hashtags or not.
If you’d like a super quick answer, check out my Social in 60 Seconds below where I give you my take on whether or not you should be using hashtags in your LinkedIn posts.
What do hashtags do on LinkedIn?
Hashtags on LinkedIn are used to group posts to help people discover interesting and relevant content and topics. Think of them as a way to make your posts easier to search for by putting them in one or more categories.
How hashtags on LinkedIn compare to other social networks
LinkedIn was a little late to the hashtag party, only making them available to its users in 2018. As such, they are no where near as ubiquitous as they are on Instagram and Twitter. Because of this, hashtags on LinkedIn are a lot less ‘noisy’. Whereas a broad hashtag like #MentalHealth on Instagram has been used a whopping 20 million times at the time of writing, on LinkedIn that number is around 1.4 million. (#Therapy has 7.5m posts on Insta and only 110,000 on LinkedIn.)
This means that users wanting to use hashtags on LinkedIn don’t have to tie themselves in knots looking for less busy hashtags, such as as #MentalHealthIsImportant – they can use #MentalHealth instead and still stand a good chance of their content being noticed.
LinkedIn shares similarities with Twitter and Facebook when it comes to the optimum number of hashtags to use per post. On Instagram I recommend using the full 30 hashtags for each post, but on LinkedIn 3 is definitely the magic number. It’s important to note here that using MORE hashtags on LinkedIn could damage your post’s reach and engagement, and you have to put them in the body of your post (not the comments) for them to work for you.
The benefits of using hashtags on LinkedIn
There are a few obvious benefits to using hashtags on LinkedIn:
Hashtags are great for establishing a brand
You can encourage your connections to follow your branded hashtag(s). For example, I regularly use #KoalaVA, #SocialMediaMadeSimple or #Socialin60Seconds in my posts so that people can follow them and see my content more regularly.
This is a really good way to reinforce your brand when you’re using a personal profile on LinkedIn, too. By adding #KoalaVA to each of my posts, I’m reminding the people who see my content of my business name.
Hashtags can increase your discoverability and reach
By using broad (relevant) hashtags, such as #MentalHealth, #Therapy, #SocialMediaManager and the like, you are making your content more discoverable.
Not only can users search for specific hashtags – providing you with the opportunity to show up in search results – but they can follow them too. This means that if I follow #mentalhealth I could see your content even if I don’t follow you!
You have a chance to trend
Only by using hashtags on your posts do you stand a chance of trending on LinkedIn. As I discussed in a previous blog article, trending on LinkedIn is a good thing because it helps to make you more visible to connections, non-connections and even company pages… and you have to be in it to win it!
In Summary
Hopefully this article has gone a little way to explaining why you absolutely should be using hashtags on LinkedIn. Not only can they help to make your content more visible to your existing connections, but they can help to make you more discoverable and visible to your non-followers too.
The do’s and don’ts of using hashtags on LinkedIn
Do
- Use 3 hashtags in each post
- Place them at the bottom of your post
- Use a branded hashtag if appropriate
- Use broad and relevant hashtags
Don’t
- Use more (or less) than 3 hashtags per post
- Put your hashtags in the comments
- Put hashtags throughout your post – keep them out of the way at the bottom
How do you find using hashtags on LinkedIn?
And if you found this article useful please don’t forget to share it and I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments ?
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