LinkedIn hashtag: how to use it to gain visibility?
World’s leading professional social network , LinkedIn has been able to adapt to the all-digital era by adapting its concept and its functionalities to the progress of its time. Having become essential in the professional world, LinkedIn is THE platform on which to stand out to break into BtoB.
In recent years, social networks have seen happen the hashtags. Playful and very popular, sometimes even becoming symbols all over the world, they have established themselves as a simple and very effective in making your publications stand out and gaining visibility. LinkedIn has also followed suit.
In this article and video, let’s find out everything you need to know to use LinkedIn hashtags properly, in order to consolidate your LinkedIn social selling strategy and position yourself as a expert on LinkedIn !
LinkedIn hashtag: definition and benefits
Before being a LinkedIn hashtag, the hashtag is above all, a simple hashtag! Concretely, the hashtag is a word, or a group of words, preceded by the symbol #. It appears as a link, which will bring together all the content associated with it.
The principle is very simple: by associating a hashtag to your LinkedIn publications, you will make this same publication visible to users who follow or search for the hashtag. In addition, it will allow immediate identification of the subject of the publication. Finally, the hashtag is very effective for following dedicated and specific news, since you only have to search for the hashtag to find the most relevant content. regarding.
VERY IMPORTANT : put your LinkedIn profile in public mode so that your publications associated with LinkedIn hashtags are visible to all!
How to define a LinkedIn hashtag?
Before anything else, it is necessary to know how to choose a hashtag for your marketing strategy. social selling LinkedIn . Let’s see together everything you need to know so that your LinkedIn hashtags are well constructed, relevant, effective, and how to manage them so that you can use them at will!
The structure of the LinkedIn hashtag
The hashtag on LinkedIn or elsewhere obeys precise rules in order to be effective. Regarding its structure, it there are two: the mandatory presence of the # symbol and the use exclusive of letters. Indeed, to be valid, a hashtag must not include punctuation marks such as periods, apostrophes, commas, hyphens, or other signs. Yes, the hashtag has its reasons that grammar ignores! For example, if you want to put the expression “J’adore Proinfluent” in hashtag, you will have to write #JadoreProinfluent. With the hashtag LinkedIn, we simplify as much as possible!
The size of a LinkedIn hashtag
To be effective, a LinkedIn hashtag must be concise. Indeed, it must be clear and readable for all Internet users, this which means you should avoid long hashtag sentences. Imagine: # lemarketingdesoiestlepilierdyourrestrategiemarketingsurLinkedIn. It is illegible, right?
Ideally, a hashtag consists of only one, two or three word (s), depending on the context, to allow Internet users to find it without too much effort. In our example, rather than using the Extending hashtag written above, we will prefer for our post LinkedIn the hashtag #MarketingDeSoi. It is short, readable, and above all precise: we immediately understand what is the subject addressed by the publication.
The content of the hashtag
The essence of the LinkedIn hashtag is of course what he wants to express! Particularly popular on Twitter and Instagram, the hashtag takes various forms, ranging from a simple acronym to ironic and humorous sentence. But when it comes to using the hashtag on LinkedIn, be vigilant about the content of your hashtag.
Indeed, you evolve in a sphere professional when browsing LinkedIn. Through your profile, your your LinkedIn posts and hashtags are all about your branding and your name that are associated with your activity on the platform. So be sure to choose your LinkedIn hashtags so that they show you the right way place with the right people, without ever compromising your strategy and your image.
Concretely, it is a question of avoiding all the terms which can be confusing, or the associations of words which, once stuck together, would either not be readable or completely irrelevant.
If you consult the blog of Proinfluent , you will have noticed that I particularly insist on the notion of content quality. Incorporate this fundamental social selling perspective into your use of the LinkedIn hashtag.
To define your LinkedIn hashtags, all you need to do is to ask yourself these few questions:
- What is the goal of my target of customer base ?
- What is my solution to their problems?
- What is the word or expression that would correspond to these elements?
With these answers, you should be able to design Relevant LinkedIn hashtags which will then make it possible to direct people who follow them directly to you (since you will have associated content with high added value, that goes without saying?).
Tip: the web is your friend! Use it to inspire you in researching your hashtags LinkedIn.
Managing your LinkedIn hashtags
Once you have defined your main hashtags (or created your own), try to remember them and manage them as a pro to be able to bring them out at the appropriate times. After performing your research and a fairly comprehensive list of LinkedIn hashtags that you will increase your visibility and react to the right publications, classify them by theme and integrate them into your publication calendar content for your social selling strategy on LinkedIn.
Always keep in mind that your LinkedIn hashtags must be relevant both in their use, their meaning, their popularity and especially in the public to which they are going to address. Put some place a management tool that suits you: spreadsheet, spreadsheet paper, CRM by adding certain hashtags to your customers, prospects and leads, etc. There are many ways to optimize the management of your hashtags. LinkedIn, it’s up to you to find the one that best suits your situation, and your goals!
With good structure, adequate meaning and good downstream management, a LinkedIn hashtag will be an ally of size in your interactions on the LinkedIn platform.
LinkedIn hashtag: how to be more visible on LinkedIn?
The main purpose of the LinkedIn hashtag is to enlarge your perimeter of visibility. Being visible to all members of the network having searched for the hashtag on LinkedIn, the publications associated with hashtags see their reach increased. To be able to take full advantage of this visibility boost, it is necessary to respect a few conditions and be inspired by the following tips.
Qualitative content + a LinkedIn hashtag
As mentioned earlier, content is king almighty of your presence on LinkedIn. Without a certain quality, your content will sooner or later discredit you or even disappear totally for lack of commitment. Never forget to put yourself in the shoes of your audience: do you prefer relevant and interesting information? or content that has already been viewed hundreds of times and that does not teach you nothing ? LinkedIn hashtags and content posting are intimately linked, since the first has no value without the second! You will have nice to put all the most popular hashtags of the moment on your publication, if the content of that same publication is not worth to be traveled, you rush straight into the wall.
To learn more: there are specific tools dedicated to hashtags. To gauge the popularity of a hashtag, go to this site . If you are in doubt about the meaning of a hashtag, it’s this way !
Too many LinkedIn hashtags… Kill the LinkedIn hashtag!
Incorporating hashtags into your LinkedIn strategy is a great idea, but be careful not to overdo it! Hashtags should be used sparingly, to gain accuracy. If on your Instagram posts you can align many hashtags for your hobbies and other leisure activities, don’t forget that the LinkedIn hashtag must serve your professional interests! In principle, you can use three, four and up to five LinkedIn hashtags maximum to have the best possible visibility … Without overwhelming your audience with too many hashtags that would take over your post itself. In addition, the LinkedIn algorithm reduces the reach of your posts from 3 hashtags … Read the guide to the LinkedIn algorithm !
The idea is to always be relevant in the use of your LinkedIn hashtags. For example, as part of my business, I sometimes post with hashtags. If I publish content that deals with social selling on LinkedIn, I will associate it with the hashtags #SocialSelling #BtoB #LinkedIn #Proinfluent and possibly #marketing (or synonyms). No more. We find the common thread of my post, and by simply reading the hashtags, we can easily guess the theme of my post.
Be specific in defining your hashtags to be able to correctly target your audience. As always, prefer the quality over quantity: you will have visibility, and visibility of quality!
Tip: do not confuse the visibility for your audience and visibility in general. Indeed, you will be maybe tempted to associate some popular hashtags with your posts, in order to have more views on your posts. But if #GameOfThrones associated with your accounting article (for example) will bring you views, you won’t generate no commitment and, the best of the worst, lose credibility! Always remember to reach your target customers, the people who have need your products and / or services. You will then have commitment and interaction on your posts, but above all you will not lose in credibility!
Start the conversation with the hashtag LinkedIn
Someone who is not in your network reacted to one of your posts associated with a LinkedIn hashtag? It is either you have people in common in your network or she has you found through the same hashtag. Action reaction ! Contact this person or reply to him by comment. You know you got a point in common: the hashtag you used on LinkedIn. Bounce on it and start a conversation.
By doing so, you expand your network LinkedIn in the “right” way, that is to say by already having a contact, however small, with the person you want to add.
LinkedIn hashtag: use the LinkedIn platform!
LinkedIn understands that hashtags are in in tune with the times, and has therefore set up a tool directly on its platform to help you manage hashtags. In this way, you can access the hottest hashtags according to your LinkedIn profile settings, and follow them to be always aware of the news they include. This tool is also a good way to find inspiration to create your own hashtags or define which ones will be most appropriate for your posts.
To access this “search engine” specially designed for LinkedIn hashtags, go to the page home page, head to the left, and click on the hashtags LinkedIn that you already follow:
If you are not following any yet, or would like to follow more, just click on “Discover more” and access a special interface where you will discover LinkedIn hashtags popular according to the information entered on your profile:
Using this search mode, you can interact on the publications directly affected by the hashtag LinkedIn on which you wish to react. By interacting with these very targeted, thanks to LinkedIn hashtags, you will become visible to a whole community attached around the hashtag in question.
LinkedIn hashtags are very useful for gaining visibility with a specific audience. Adapt them, insert them and use them to federate and interact with your target customers. Your name, your brand image and your expertise will be associated with various themes in which you excel, and you will be able to develop a great visibility with the people who matter to your business. Associated with a perfect LinkedIn profile , LinkedIn hashtags will be an additional force in your strategy.
Hastag LinkedIn: to conclude
- LinkedIn hashtags are powerful and modern targeting tools, which are fully in line with the social selling LinkedIn .
- Don’t just write LinkedIn hashtags, but follow them and engage with the posts they aggregate. You might find new contacts!
- Always think about the relevance of your hashtags.
- Let’s move on to practical work: to follow my publications, subscribe to the Hashtag #Proinfluent 😉