As
Seen on The
Impact Lawyers magazine
Because I have been using LinkedIn for more
than 17 years, have
over 16,000 connections on LinkedIn, and have been named
a Top Thought Leader on LinkedIn, I wrote this
article as a step-by-step guide on ways to optimize your use of hashtags on
LinkedIn.
Please note: This
article is not intended to be a 100% comprehensive or exhaustive discussion of
all the things that can be done to optimize your use of hashtags on LinkedIn,
but it does contain over seventeen best practices. Learning and mastering
LinkedIn is a time-consuming science and art, and there is always something new
to learn about it.
Hashtags have been available on LinkedIn for only
about two and a half years, and based on what is known about the LinkedIn
algorithm, here are some things to know and consider
when using hashtags on LinkedIn:
- Hashtags
work much differently on LinkedIn than they do on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,
and other social media platforms.
- Hashtags
on LinkedIn work best when 1) included in your unique LinkedIn posts, 2)
sharing posts of others and adding select hashtags in your comment before
posting the share, and 3) you include up to five hashtags in LinkedIn articles
you post.
- Adding
hashtags to the comments of a post on LinkedIn does not boost its visibility or
engagement, but you can add them when you would like to make
or emphasize a point.
- The
biggest mistake most people make (way too often) is adding too many hashtags in
a LinkedIn post.
o
Use up to three concise hashtags in
each post or share, and up to five in each article.
o
Keep hashtags short. If you use
several long hashtags in the same post, users may see them as spam instead of a
legitimate message.
o
Here is an example of a recent
LinkedIn post that only contains hashtags and way too many hashtags to be
optimal:
The
best practice is to include and use only up to three hashtags in your LinkedIn
posts and shares, and up to five in LinkedIn articles.
Why? Adding any more than three to five hashtags in a LinkedIn post is flagged
as spam by the LinkedIn algorithm and will not be distributed. Plus, many users
on LinkedIn find more than three to five hashtags in a post confusing or
annoying.
- Make sure to look at the hashtags LinkedIn recommends
at the bottom of your posts while you are writing and posting them.
LinkedIn’s algorithm automatically
populates suggested hashtags while you are typing, which means that the
suggested hashtags will likely be a good match for your post.
Specific
tips to optimize your use of hashtags on LinkedIn:
1.
Write a relevant, interesting,
compelling, typo-free, and great post (use up to around 700 characters) or an article
(which is not easy and is an art and science on its own). Once that is done,
consider which hashtags to add.
2.
Always keep your ultimate objectives
in mind when selecting hashtags to include in your post. Your goal and
objectives should be to 1) reach your target audience, 2) attract readers,
likes, comments, and engagement, 3) add followers, 4) increase your credibility
by adding interesting, useful, and relevant content, and 5) increase top-of-mind
awareness about you and your company or firm.
3.
Carefully consider which three
hashtags might be best to add to your post. Remember: A good hashtag is
strategic and targeted.
If you want some ideas or are not sure
which hashtags might be best to use, check with your LinkedIn network. How? Click on My Network, on the left
menu, scroll down to # Hashtags, and click on it, and you will see the hashtags
trending in your network. Below are the hashtags trending in my network when I
wrote this article. Since these are trending (i.e., are hot topics), I will
likely use one or more of these hashtags in my LinkedIn post once this article
is published.
A best
practice is to first search for each hashtag you are thinking of using on
LinkedIn.
Run the hashtag through LinkedIn Search to see how many followers it already
has. How? In the LinkedIn search bar (on the upper left), type in a hashtag
symbol (shift-3) then the words, with no spaces. You should see a dropdown
showing what you typed in.
For example,
when writing this article, I typed in “#marketing” then clicked on the first
hashtag listed in the auto-dropdown and saw that the marketing hashtag (#marketing) has 20,366,443
followers. Twenty million is a large number of followers. But not all hashtags
have that many followers.
Generally, you should choose hashtags:
1. --- That have the most
followers on LinkedIn,
2. ---That are unique to the content in your
post, and/or
3. --- That reinforce your brand/event/conference
or message.
Here are some best practices for each of these
three types of hashtags.
Alternate
your use of hashtags for each post or article and over time. But you may
want to include your branded hashtag in each of your LinkedIn posts, shares,
and articles.
It is not always a good idea to use hashtags
that have the most followers on LinkedIn because your
content might get lost among the many other posts.
According to Hootsuite, branded hashtags have high potential. If you create a hashtag worth following,
chances are the LinkedIn algorithm will surface posts that use it to the
hashtag’s followers. Examples from major companies include Lyft’s #LifeAtLyft,
Nike’s #SwooshLife, or Adobe’s #AdobeLife. Here is an example of a branded
hashtag in the legal industry.
John
Croft, President of Elevate – one of the first and most well-regarded
law companies - uses (and encourages others to use) the hashtag #lawcompany in his LinkedIn posts.
Why? Because “law company” is key to Elevate’s brand, and
Elevate is at the forefront of companies providing a new type of legal
services to law firms and legal departments.
By
using the hashtag #lawcompany, John and Elevate communicate their
brand and fuel this relatively new trending topic. Yet, if you type
“#lawcompany” into the LinkedIn search bar, LinkedIn does not provide drop-down
options; probably because the hashtag #lawcompany is relatively new
and has not yet amassed many followers. However, it’s clear
to see all the other posts that have used the #lawcompany
hashtag. #Lawcompany is unique, and by using it, John and his
company are reinforcing their position as market leaders.
Consider business- or practice-related
hashtags. For
example, I work in the legal industry with and for law firms and law
departments. So, each year, we look up the number of followers of hashtags
related to law and legal services. Here is the post I did about it. Almost every industry, topic,
issue, and subject has a niche community online, and there are often existing
and specific hashtags to consider using (or you can create a new one).
Consider location-specific
hashtags. For
example, if you work or practice in a certain city, state, province, county or
country, consider using the name of that location as a hashtag, such as
#NovaScotia, #Leeds, #NYC, #Boston, #ClarkCounty, #Ireland, etc.
Consider using hashtags of trending issues or
topics. But use them only if these hashtags have an
authentic relationship to the content in your post or article. Adding your
voice to a hashtag that is already popular can help attain your goals and
objectives. For example, some recent trending hashtags on LinkedIn (and on most
other social media platforms too) are #blacklivesmatter and #COVID19.
Create and use a unique hashtag for
events, conferences, and awards. This is probably the most effective single
use of the hashtag. For example, the event hashtag #ABATECHSHOW is popular in the legal industry, and
other groups also create and use unique hashtags for their events, such as
#CLOC2020, #IntappConnect 20, and #CLIO2020. Creating your own unique hashtag
for your event and conferences and using these hashtags can piggyback your
content with a popular conference hashtag and are great ways to move your
content toward parties known to be interested and increase your
followers/connections on LinkedIn.
As mentioned at the beginning of this
article, the use of LinkedIn AND optimizing your use of hashtags on LinkedIn
are each arts and sciences on their own. They both take considerable time and
commitment to master but can never truly be mastered because there is always
something changing or new.
Remember that choosing the right
hashtags for your LinkedIn posts and articles will change on a post-to-post,
share-to-share, and article-to-article basis. A best practice is to try various
hashtag combinations and options, test, then track and measure the results to
decide which hashtags work best to attain your goals and objectives on
LinkedIn.
The best practice is to do some research,
make strategic choices, and create a plan and deploy it. Every year, for
branding and optimal SEO purposes, many companies/firms make and distribute a
list of optimal hashtags to encourage all employees to use and follow
consistent hashtags as they desire.
*If you are not sure what hashtags are and the
benefits they can provide, or are not sure how to optimize the content you post
on LinkedIn, you may want to study these and other many other resources
available online.
If you would like
assistance to optimize your use of LinkedIn, please
contact me, Julie
Savarino, the author of this article:
Email
- Julie@BusDevInc.com,
Connect
with/message me
on LinkedIn,
Phone
+1 (734) 276-1900
