Are you looking for ways to better leverage the power of LinkedIn?

Have you noticed the new Hashtag LinkedIn feature?

LinkedIn is the top social media platform for business professionals. This widely used platform can be leveraged to grow your network, develop your personal brand and drive leads and sales. That's why marketers everywhere are so excited that LinkedIn has finally allowed its users to reap the benefits of #hashtags.

In the past, hashtags were widely used only on sites like Instagram and Twitter. They are a way to filter and tag specific topics. Hashtags are an essential part of your social media marketing strategy because they help increase the chances of your post being found online.  Hashtags are also a way for you to connect with people who share your same interests. Using hashtags improves Linkedin’s SEO as well as your search results on Google.

Here are ways on how you can maximize LinkedIn hashtags:

Place Hashtags On Your LinkedIn Summary

LinkedIn is all about widening your network, growing leads and staying on top of what’s happening in your industry.  Adding hashtags to your professional summary helps promote your personal brand. Since hashtags filter specific topics, they bring attention to your profile so that you can make more connections. But don’t go throwing a “#” onto any word. The best practice is to use relevant hashtags that relate to your personal brand. You should add hashtags to words that are relevant to your expertise, service, product or anything else that you would like to advocate for.

Hashtags On Your Company Profile

Like your professional summary, you need hashtags on your company profile. This will allow you to highlight your company’s specialties and offers. Using hashtags effectively can help grow your business and audience. Choose relevant hashtags to create a distinct association with your company. This will help your potential audience and increase your company’s followers. It’s good to research relevant hashtags, it’s best to develop a hashtag strategy that allows you to connect with your target audience. Try using tools like Hashtagify.me to find and analyze popular hashtags that you can use.  

Using Hashtags for updates

Adding hashtags to your post updates allows your status’ to be discovered organically. Your hashtags should be relevant to the topic that you are posting about. LinkedIn recommends hashtags, but you also have to be careful about what your chosen hashtags mean. You should take note not to overdo it with the hashtags. Even just using one can increases audience engagement,  but using too many hashtags can decrease interactions. This can also come across too salesey and pushy.

Place Hashtags In your LinkedIn Article

If you want to both reach a wider audience and for your content to get seen more often, you should place hashtags in your articles and updates. Hashtags can help build your influence and thought leadership on LinkedIn. This will help you deliver updates on topics related to a specific audience outside of your network. Because hashtags act as keywords for your articles, this helps people find the information they want. You can either place hashtags within the body or at the end of your article.  

Go and Dive into the hashtags

Using Hashtags effectively can enhance any social media marketing campaign. They can expand your reach not only among your connections but with other people who are interested in the topic or product you are sharing but have never heard of you. Try exploring other hashtags either related to your company or to your personal brand. This can help you engage with different communities and start a dialogue with your audience, which helps with your social media post engagement and online networking.

To get the best out of hashtags, you have to check their progress. Are people engaging with you online? Leveraging the power of hashtags can help establish your personal brand on LinkedIn. Hashtags can also allow you to be part of a bigger conversation and grow your network on LinkedIn.