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How Do Hashtags Work on LinkedIn?

How Do Hashtags Work on LinkedIn?

Hashtags work a little differently across the main social media platforms.

This is a companion guide to our main post on how hashtags work, with important information specifically on how hashtags work on LinkedIn. As you'll see, there are some important differences between LinkedIn and other social platforms.

You can also find links to guides on how to use hashtags on other platforms below.

How to Use Hashtags on LinkedIn

Hashtags were introduced to LinkedIn relatively late, only arriving in 2018.

You can see suitable hashtags to use as you type them into a post.

Suggested hashtags on LinkedIn

You can also find suitable hashtags to use via LinkedIn’s search facility—type the hash symbol ‘#’ followed by the first few letters of a keyword.

Searching for hashtags on LinkedIn

Similar to Instagram, after clicking on a hashtag, users can then follow that hashtag to see further related content in their feed.

LinkedIn follow hashtag facility

You can also click through on the hashtags you follow, which are shown on the left of your feed on desktop.

LinkedIn click on followed hashtags

Clicking through to a hashtag page on LinkedIn also shows you the popularity of a hashtag in terms of its followers, and the level of exposure you could potentially attract.

View the number of followers for a hashtag on LinkedIn

As you can see, the use of hashtags on LinkedIn can give your posts a lot more reach.

Optimal Number of Hashtags to Use

SproutSocial recommends using between 2 and 3 hashtags on LinkedIn, though it’s unclear what that’s based on.

What do LinkedIn influencers do in practice?

Gary V doesn’t seem to use any, but then he attracts huge reach anyway, so his example is perhaps not too relevant for the rest of us!

Gary V uses no hashtags on LinkedIn

Neil Patel generally uses a few.

Neil Patel uses a few hashtags on LinkedIn

Christine Hueber uses them minimally, but often incorporated into the text she’s sharing.

Christine Hueber uses inline hashtags on LinkedIn

Mark Schaefer approaches it in a similar way to Neil Patel.

Mark Schaefer uses a few hashtags in his posts

So the best approach appears to be to use them minimally (it’s a very different environment and culture to Instagram)—but definitely use them!

Finally…

Remember to consult back with our main post for information on how hashtags work in general:

How Do Hashtags Work?

And then see our separate guides for other social platforms too—as you'll find out, each one has distinct differences that are important to be aware of:

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@bySteveShaw

Steve Shaw is the founder of EverywhereMarketer, and has ran online businesses for over 20 years, serving over 13,000 customers in 137 countries. EverywhereMarketer helps you grow online visibility, attract more customers and grow your business across multiple channels.

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