September 7, 2018
Social media is the place for meaningful conversations. Hashtags are a way for people to find and join particular conversations.
Twitter was pretty centralised around hashtagging for conversational purposes. Facebook and Instagram jumped on the bandwagon too. LinkedIn introduced hashtags to the platform a hot minute after the rest of them, but, after two years of testing it on and off, the platform has really made it work this year.
LinkedIn clearly felt passionate about hashtags, because, a few months back, they released a test that actually forced people to have at least one hashtag in their organic posts. Compulsory hashtagging is no more, but LinkedIn does still recommend a few when you write a post.
Another handy addition is that while you’re typing a hashtag, autofill suggestions appear that align with keywords that other people are using too.
But let’s not go adding all sorts of hashtags willy nilly. Here are our pointers!
Hashtags on LinkedIn are about quality, not quantity.
Don’t go adding a # to the beginning of every word. From a vanity point-of-view, it looks spammy and it’s not going to attract anyone if you see 20 hashtags plonked on the end of a post. Especially if you want your message to come across as concise, targeted, clear, valuable and professional, and all of that good stuff.
Keep them relevant to your conversation.
LinkedIn is THE social media platform for people to talk business, careers, employment opportunities and recruiting. By hashtagging any of those things, you’re joining enormous conversations that are overloaded with posts and ramblings from every industry. Those really broad keywords are just not worth hashtagging. Following, searching or hashtagging, words or collections of words like #digitalmarketingjobs or #socialmediamarketing or #influencermarketing is really going to increase your chances of joining the right, relevant conversation.
Be business and goal-orientated
Brands and organisations sometimes use LinkedIn for different goals than they might use other social media platforms, and we all know that LinkedIn is business-orientated and so these sorts of hashtags do well. (Conversations about who’s left #LoveIsland just don’t happen on LinkedIn!) Could be your #FinTech offering, your contribution to the #HealthcareIndustry or showing your culture with an #OfficeDog or #ChristmasParty or #AgencyLife. Use event hashtags too. Perhaps you want to join the chatter about Facebook’s #F8 Conference or let other attendees know about an event at which your business is exhibiting.
So, there you have it! As an agency who conduct a lot of social media marketing activities on LinkedIn, we know what works both paid and organically. Give us a shout to talk more about it.