As a marketer you’ve seen by now the power of hashtags, which is a topic that made a lot of fuzz over the years.
Especially relevant for Instagram in the beginning, they started to gain more grounds on LinkedIn as well.
Hashtags on LinkedIn aim for the same purposes as they have in all the other platforms.
And by saying that, the benefits of using LinkedIn hashtags becomes crystal clear in the blink of an eye.
By using LinkedIn hashtags, you can:
- increase your content reach
- expand your brand awareness
- target your business
- and get your content in front of more people.
And what’s more important is that having a strategy for choosing those LinkedIn hashtags may boost your efforts through the moon!
So let’s get started!
LinkedIn hashtags integration into a marketing strategy
1. Add hashtags when you create a post or article
Made popular by social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter or even Facebook, hashtags have become a thing on LinkedIn as well for quite a while now. Which mean you already know the answer to why are hashtags important.
If you haven’t tried them yet, you might wanna start to boost your efforts by integrating some and see how they work for you.
Therefore, you’re probably wondering how to use hashtags on Linkedin so that your text or videos get a larger visibility and become powerful topics of conversation among other peers or even companies, right?
Well, there are two places where LinkedIn allows you to add hashtags:
- the first one is when you write or share a post.
- the second one is when you write an article.
Here you'll find a quick and easy guide on how to use them ⇣
⇢ Add hashtags on your posts
- Click on the "Share an article, photo, video or idea section.
- Add your hashtags using the #simbol like in the picture below.
⇢ Add hashtags when you write an article on Linkedin
- Click "Write an article" from your homepage.
- A new window will appear. While writing the article you can include some relevant hashtags to showcase its primarily topic.
- When you finish writing the article, click "Publish".
Remember! Choose your LinkedIn hashtags wisely because once you’ve clicked the "Publish" button there is no way back.
You won’t be able to edit, remove or even add more of them. Yet, you can make other edits to you article.
2. Use LinkedIn suggested hashtags
Now that we’ve established LinkedIn hashtags are an important factor that must be taken into consideration when you create a post, we’ll just go a bit beyond that and stretch that more than just using a couple of hashtags for the sake of looking good, for actually optimal results, creating a hashtags strategy is the key.
Because the platform’s algorithm tries to deliver qualitative and relevant information to its users, you’ll find a bit of help from that direction as well, through the network’s hashtags suggestions.
When you upload something on the platform (photo or video), you'll see that LinkedIn will suggest some hashtags according to the topic you're sharing.
First go through that list of LinkedIn hashtags and if they look like a good fit, you can try them and adjust your strategy through the results obtained.
Or, of course, there's the option to write your own hashtags, using the # symbol.
3. Follow hashtags to discover more ideas
Now, if you're wondering what hashtags to use for different posts, no worries, because the platform has a way of helping you.
A great thing related to LinkedIn hashtags is that the platform allows you to discover and follow hashtags on the topics you're interested in. And no worries, following hashtags is a super easy thing.
From a marketing perspective, this a breakthrough because the content can break a small bubble and be available to a broader, worldwide audience.
You can actually see which of them are the most popular LinkedIn hashtags, because when clicking on it the number people that follow them is shown.
This is great for your hashtag research, because it gives you a starting point about the topics people are most interested in.
So, it seems that through LinkedIn hashtags you can discover interesting and useful topics that might help you shape your content calendar in the future. Isn't it great?
Now let's take a quick look of how to find hashtags for your brand and also how to follow them:
- In the "Search bar", enter the subject you are interested in - using the # symbol.
Ex: #socialmedia - you will get a list with related hashtags.
- Click the hashtag you'd like to follow.
- Click the ‘Follow’ button at the top of the page.
- You will find a list with all the hashtags you follow on the left sidebar of your page.
- Click on any hashtag, and you will see posts related to that hashtag.
Once you follow the hashtags that are relevant for your niche, you’ll see that your LinkedIn feed will get populated with more useful posts for your business. 🎉
4. Create a branded hashtag
In case you’re asking yourself how can a branded hashtag help your business, we have the answer ready right here: they are a great way of keeping track of your mentions, therefore on the interest people take on your brand.
And who wouldn't want to know that, right?
Also, there's a second awesome reason for using them - it makes people think of your business every time they see that specific hashtag.
An important thing that you should keep in mind is that if you want it to be representative for who you are, as a business, you have to give it a bit of thought and tailor it according to your personality and needs.
If you already have a branded hashtag that you're using on other social networks, it would be a good idea to use it on LinkedIn as well.
TIP! Customize your hashtags. A good reason to do this is that would be easier for you to track shares of your posts.
“Searching for my own hashtags means I can see when people share my posts. Shares aren’t always easy to see, especially on LinkedIn desktop, so this is a good way to track them.” - John Espirian.
If you don't have a branded hashtag, here are some useful tips to consider before creating one:
- Keep them simple - they’ll be easy to remember.
- Be creative and original - don’t copy others’ idea, no matter how perfect it seems for your brand - take time and create something unique.
- Test them first - use your hashtag for a week, or two and see how your followers are reacting. At the end they are the ones who decide if a hashtag is branded or it's just a regular one.
Keep in mind that using hashtags on Linkedin can be an important point for the success of your LinkedIn marketing strategy, having the ability to help you achieve your goals, so do a little research first.
5. Don't use too many hashtags
Thanks to Instagram we've seen why using hashtags is so beneficial for a brand.
Based on the rules of the platform that introduced them, people and brands alike usually wonder how many hashtags on Linked is best to use when creating a post.
Although on LinkedIn there’s no limit on how many hashtags you can use with your posts, adding too many is not a good idea, however.
Best practices recommend using between 3 and 5 hashtags per post, so avoid making it look spammy or shallow.
Also, try to keep it as less promotional as possible. LinkedIn’s algorithms appreciates high-quality content.
Like on Facebook and Instagram, the LinkedIn algorithm prioritizes content from the people you interact with. If you want to see the posts of certain people, make sure you give them likes or at least a comment.
"When you create a post, LinkedIn uses the first 3 hashtags that you use in that post as part of the URL of the post itself" - Dr. Natalia Wiechowski - Personal Brands on LinkedIn
6. Identify your most successful posts
This is a very important touchpoint. Because by knowing what’s working best allows you to tailor the content according to your audience's needs.
And for receiving what they want, they'll have a bigger motif to further engage with your posts, which will slowly translate into boosting your LinkedIn performance and your credibility.
That's why making sure you know what your strengths are knowing how to use them to your advantage is essential.
What you have to remember is that although there may be plenty of lists out there related to best hashtags on LinkedIn, you must always use what is more suited to your identity and messages.
So, now what's left to do is to take a look at your top posts and see what hashtags you included. If a particular hashtag is generally found in those posts, that one may be a keeper.
To save time and energy, you can always use an analytics tool like Socialinsider.
With this, you can better see impressions, reach, post engagement, followers growth, and more. Here's a short video that will walk you through it.
7. A short list of top LinkedIn hashtags
Now that we’ve covered the most important points in discussing LinkedIn hashtags, you can get an idea of why and how to use hashtags on Linkedin.
We’ve also put together a list of top Linkedin hashtags for those times when you need inspiration and those suggested by the platform are not exactly what you need.
- #innovation - 38 M followers
- #management - 36 M followers
- #digitalmarketing - 27 M followers
- #creativity - 25 M followers
- #technology - 26 M followers
- #futurism - 23 M followers
- #entrepreneurship - 22 M followers
- #startups - 21 M followers
- #marketing - 20 M followers
- #socialmedia - 19 M followers
- #socialnetworking - 19 M followers
- #branding - 18 M followers
- #motivation - 15 M followers
- #personaldevelopment - 14 M followers
- #jobinterviews - 14 M followers
- #sustainability - 13 M followers
- #education - 9 M followers
- #productivity - 8 M followers
- #travel - 7 M6 followers
- #sales - 5 M followers
- #fundraising - 5 M followers
- #law - 5 M followers
- #culture - 4 M followers
- #fashion - 4 M followers
- #business - 3 M followers
- #networking - 3 M followers
- #hiring - 2 M followers
- #health - 2 M followers
- #inspiration - 1 M followers
- #success - 6 K followers
Final thought
To sum up our discussion about LinkedIn hashtags, it’s quite clear that if you’ve never considered using them, now it’s time for a change!
Hashtags in LinkedIn are a great way of staying up to date with all the latest in your industry. You can use them to discover new content ideas and topics of interest in your niche.
Here's a quick recap of how you can incorporate hashtags in your LinkedIn marketing strategy:
- Add hashtags when you create a post or article
- Use LinkedIn suggested hashtags
- Follow hashtags on LinkedIn
- Create a branded hashtag
- Don’t use too many hashtags
- Include hashtags in your message
- Identify your most successful posts
Use them wisely if you want to increase your business visibility and to establish reliability among your audience.
And a note to remember: pick only those who suit you the best and don’t be afraid to use suggested hashtags.
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