The best #hashtags for your content?

You have created your Post or Article and you're now wondering what would be the best hashtags to use. So let's take a look at what they are, why we should use them and how do we use them? 

So, what is a hashtag?

Hashtags are used across most of the social media platforms in order to categorize content, enabling the users on each platform to search and find the content they're interested in and enabling individuals or companies to reach larger audiences of people who may be interested in what they have to say. Providing both the content providers and the content consumers with a better user experience.

Why we should use them?

LinkedIn was late to the game with hashtags, only introducing them in 2018. A reason for this may be that of the nearly 700million LinkedIn accounts, only around 2% of users are actively creating content on the platform; so there's significantly less content in comparison to other social media platforms, even though it may not seem like it.

LinkedIn suggests using hashtags to:

1. Reach people who value your insights
2. Establish your credibility and expertise
3. Start meaningful conversations over shared interests

If you are going to the trouble of creating content then these seem like 3 great reasons to use them.

How do we use them?

If you are just starting to use hashtags in your content then a good place to start is by following relevant hashtags appropriate for your industry and interests so that posts containing the hashtags you've chosen to follow will then appear in your home feed.

This helps you to identify content regarding specific topics, trends so that you can join the conversation with your own contribution. You can find the hashtags you have saved on the left sidebar of your homepage.

The idea is that you want to understand where and how the audience you wish to reach is consuming their information, so that your content has the greatest opportunity for attracting attention and more importantly, readership.

Let's start with some best practices:

1. Use LinkedIn's search capability to identify hashtags frequency and Followers. For example: #digitalmarketing (27.5M), #marketing (20.3M), #socialmedia (19.8M) or #socialnetworking (19M).
2. Use between 3 to 5 hashtags and place them at the end of your content.  As you choose which to use, remember they will also be searchable by Google.
3. Utilize a mix of 2 or 3 big and broad hashtags with a well-established following i.e #marketing and then use 1 or 2 "niche" hashtags, perhaps your #companyname or specialty #contentdevelopment. Feel free to capitalize the first letter of each word inside your hashtag so that your audience clearly understands its meaning; for example instead of #contentdevelopment use #ContentDevelopment, since it looks better, or at least I think so!

Finally, if you want, you can embed hashtags within your Profiles or Company Pages; however, they will not be searchable and will not be highlighted with the blue clickable link as they would when they are placed inside of Posts or Articles and their only purpose would be to work as every other keyword.

For more about what LinkedIn has to say about the use of hashtags, download LinkedIn's Hashtag Best Practices Guide

Wishing you every success!!

#ContentStrategy #LinkedInMarketing #ContentCreation #Marketing

Graham is a pioneer in the blending of Personal Branding, LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Content Marketing, and Lead Generation Campaigns as a managed service; empowering business owners and sales teams to have more meaningful conversations with potential clients and key influencers.

Learn how to demonstrate your thought leadership and generate more business opportunities by scheduling your consultation here.