Hashtags Have Spread Across Most Social Media Since hashtags gained popularity on Twitter and Instagram, you’ve probably noticed that hashtags have slowly spread to other social media platforms. A notable example of these relatively new hashtag sites is LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network. If you’re looking to make the most out of your LinkedIn
Hashtags Have Spread Across Most Social Media
Since hashtags gained popularity on Twitter and Instagram, you’ve probably noticed that hashtags have slowly spread to other social media platforms. A notable example of these relatively new hashtag sites is LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network.
If you’re looking to make the most out of your LinkedIn advertising, you need to start using LinkedIn hashtags.
This article is a guide that contains everything you need to know about how to use LinkedIn hashtags. You will find tips on how to create hashtags and ways that hashtags may positively affect your advertising.
In order to get a better understanding of LinkedIn hashtags, let’s begin with the simpler questions.
WHAT IS A HASHTAG?
A hashtag is a combination of letters, numbers, and emojis that are followed by the hashtag symbol #, (also known as the pound symbol if you’re a fellow ancient like us) symbol. This metadata tag makes it easier for people to discover content that is related to specific topics, news, questions, etc.
In addition to categorizing messages on social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, hashtags are often used to create searchable archives of content (typically based on a specific brand, topic, or news item).
HOW DO LINKEDIN HASHTAGS WORK, AND HOW DO THEY DIFFER FROM TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM?
Hashtags on LinkedIn work similarly to those on other social media platforms, but their purpose must be tweaked for B2B companies. Simply put, a B2B company won’t find much advertising success making posts with hashtags like (#SongsYouHateAndWhy, #AddSteveBuscemiToAnything, #SelfieSunday).
On LinkedIn, the functionality of hashtags is similar to Twitter and Instagram, in that they have an amplifying effect on your reach. Similarly to Instagram, you can also follow hashtags to keep on top of what appears on your feed. To do this, just type the hashtag into the search bar at the top of your timeline and press Follow.
HOW TO ADD HASHTAGS TO LINKEDIN POSTS
What if you could reach a wider audience on LinkedIn than your connections? Great news! Simply upload your caption and include your hashtag within it to add a hashtag to your content.
When you select “Publish”, you’ll see a popup asking you to tell your network what your article is about.
You cannot edit LinkedIn hashtags once your content has been published. So make sure yours are perfect! We hear you asking, “How do you do that?”. Well, that brings us to the next question.
How To Use Hashtags on Your LinkedIn Article
As a function, the feature to add clickable hashtags in the body of articles cannot currently be found in LinkedIn. It can, however, be included in the description box.
How To Use Hashtags on Your LinkedIn Business Page
On your business page on LinkedIn, you can make it affiliated with relevant hashtags. This will put you in the center of conversations happening around the hashtag and you will be able to communicate with interested customers. Here are the steps to add them:
- Navigate to your business page’s homepage.
- Click the “Add” button on the bottom right under “Hashtags.” A separate page will open.
- Click “Add a hashtag” and select up to three LinkedIn hashtags.
BENEFITS OF USING LINKEDIN HASHTAGS
What if you only have around 200 connections on LinkedIn? That’s exactly what LinkedIn hashtags seek to remedy. By including hashtags, you’re projected your content to anyone who follows those hashtags, regardless of whether they’re connected to you or not. Post engagement from second and third-degree connections is crucial to success.
The use of hashtags enables you to reach a wider audience with your content. Your post engagement can easily triple if you use a hashtag with 100,000K followers. However, it’s also a solid strategy to seek out smaller hashtags with less than 10,000k followers and commandeer it. If that hashtag becomes associated with your brand, anyone newcomers to it will see you immediately.
The higher your engagement on LinkedIn, the more credible you will appear and the easier it will be to establish meaningful connections. Be sure to target the top trending LinkedIn hashtags and the most popular LinkedIn hashtags to get the best results.
LinkedIn Hashtags: Mistakes to Avoid
LinkedIn Hashtags: Mistakes to Avoid
- Don’t go overboard – According to LinkedIn’s former senior director of product management, Pete Davies, use no more than three hashtags for each tweet to ensure a crisp message and don’t forget the keywords.
- Hashtags don’t replace copy – It should be mentioned that even good LinkedIn hashtags do not add any context and that they should be used specifically to magnify exposure, while descriptions in each post should still describe what the article or connected content is about.
- Only using popular hashtags – In the case of popular hashtags, your content may get lost. If you go too niche, your audience may not be reached. Finding that perfect middle ground and perhaps dipping into the popular and niche is a good way to effectively spread awareness of your business. The easiest way to find LinkedIn hashtags that are trending in your network is to click the “My Network” icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage and click Hashtags in the left menu bar.
Once you’re well-acquainted with hashtags, you’ll start noticing which ones are the best. You may find that some LinkedIn hashtags are linked to higher engagement rates and should be focused on more in the future.
HOW TO FOLLOW HASHTAGS ON LINKEDIN
Following hashtags can tell you who else is posting, what users are commenting on and what people are saying about what other people are posting. It also gives you more ideas for future posts.
- Click on the search bar, type the hashtag you want to see.
- You will be taken to the hashtag’s feed. There, you can see all content published with this hashtag. Click “Follow” at the top to follow all content.
Now, you will find it listed on the left sidebar under Followed Hashtags while navigating on your computer, or at the bottom of the page while using the LinkedIn app.
The success of your content depends on the effectiveness of your hashtags. With the right hashtags and analytic feedback, you can promote your posts in the right social media channels to your target audience.
