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LinkedIn first started using hashtags back in 2013, before deactivating them years later to then start using them again in 2016 – so no wonder users are confused if hashtags should be used or not.
A recent poll by Social Media Today showed that 85% of the 3000 plus people that took part are using hashtags in their posts on LinkedIn. This seems like a good number of users that are already engaged in using hashtags but the real question is – what’s the point of using hashtags and does it make a difference?
Hashtags can be a great way to help group content and help your audience discover topics and interests most relevant to them. Company pages can also attach themselves to certain tags via LinkedIn’s ‘Community Hashtags’ feature, which then enables you to post as your brand in related discussions.
LinkedIn recommends
LinkedIn themselves recommends these key practices when using hashtags:
- Make sure you use them in the right way – always use the # sign before your keyword without a space after. Don’t include any spaces, punctuation, special symbols or emojis as that will break up any keyword used.
- Don’t use more than three hashtags per post.
- Mix it up, using both wider and niche hashtags.
- Check your hashtags before using them to make sure that the majority of posts that are using the same hashtag are relevant.
The question still stands – do hashtags actually make a difference?
There is still no clear answer to this as it also depends on what your main objective is. By using LinkedIn hashtags, you increase visibility and the more people see your content, the more can interact with it. So, if your main goal is reaching more people then, yes, they can be a great way to boost your reach helping you to get discovered by other users, including those not connected to you. Ask yourself – do you follow hashtags on LinkedIn, do you find content that way?
But as with everything, our advice is you can’t just rely on hashtags – the important thing is that content needs to be relevant and interesting to your audience. If it is, it’s far more likely the content will be shared and engaged with meaning more people will see it – hashtags or not.
