Hashtags. They are nothing new.
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. They all use hashtags. Instagram post with Hashtags get 12% more engagement and Twitter post with hashtags get retweeted 33% more. In fact, hashtags are the secret weapon of Twitter affiliate marketers looking to get more sales
What about Linkedin hashtags?
They’ve joined the list of big social media networks with hashtag capabilities in 2016.
You know what they say: Better late than never right.
When Linkedin first announced the use of Hashtags, the reaction from the marketing community was…. Underwhelming.
That’s because there were so many unanswered questions about Linkedin hashtags.
Marketers had many questions racing in their mind like:
- Is Linkedin Hashtag a powerful marketing tool like the other social platforms?
- How should brands and individuals use Hashtags on Linkedin?
- How many hashtags should a post have?
- What are the best Hashtags to go for in different industries?
Linkedin doesn’t make it easy to answer this. They don’t officially have a “best practices” guide on Linkedin Hashtags.
So we did what curious Marketing geeks would do, manually research the hashtags on Linkedin to spot any trends.
We’ll share everything we found and answer all your frustrations about the mysterious Linkedin Hashtags.
Related: How to run a Linkedin Ads in 2022 – A Definitive Guide to Advertising on Linkedin
Ready? Scroll on.
Table of Contents
- What is a Hashtag
- How do Linkedin Hashtags work?
- How effective are Linkedin Hashtags?
- How to use Linkedin Hashtags
- Where to find and manage hashtags you follow?
- What are the Top hashtags in Linkedin?
- Top hashtags for 2021
- Top hashtags for 2019
- Top hashtags in the technology industry
- Top hashtags in the Financial industry
- Top hashtags in the Education industry
- Did you notice any similar trends? Now that you’re armed with all this info, What’s the next step?
What is a Hashtag
It is a word or phrase that follows a “#” symbol. There should be no spacing after the # sign. The words/phrases have to be written together.
This pound sign has become one of the most important ways to categorize content on the internet. You’ll see it appear commonly in social media posts.
For marketers, hashtags could carry the message of an entire campaign. It has been proven to help audiences discover brands easily.
The hashtag has been used in many creative ways.
It can be used to group content like #ContentMarketing.
Companies could also use the hashtag as branded terms #nike or #airjordan.
Some use it in between sentences just to sound cool and hyped, for example: “I got my #breakfast this #morning. #Readyfortheday.”
The last example gets really annoying.
How do Linkedin Hashtags work?
On Linkedin, hashtags are mainly used to give content more visibility to audiences interested in the same topic.
When you use hashtags on your content, you give your content a chance to reach audiences outside your network. It lets you reach and connect with more people.
Others who follow the hashtag will be able to view your content.
In a nutshell, the Linkedin hashtag is a great way to increase brand awareness – For free.
You can use Linkedin hashtags to find relevant jobs too!
Give Linkedin hashtag a test. Head to the search bar on your Linkedin profile page and key in a topic with a hashtag in front.
Leave out any punctuations or spacing in your phrase.
If you typed in #marketing, you will get a dropdown of suggested hashtags you might be interested in. These are the most common hashtags that Linkedin members engage in.
It could include sub-topics to your main # topic that you keyed in.
This is important: Instead of selecting the recommendations, i’d suggest keying in the entire # into the search bar and hit “enter”. Here’s an example of the result if I typed in the full phrase #marketingautomation and hit enter.
The very first result lets you follow this hashtag. Following the hashtag will alert you to any trending content with this hashtag.
If you click on this, it will show a stream of content related to marketing automation, or posts that contain #marketingautomation. This is a perfect place to see the latest content in your selected space.
You may toggle between the “Top” or “Recent” posts to segment your content based on engagement or recency.
This is only available on Linkedin desktop as shown in the screenshot below.
5th May 2020 Update: This is also now available on your Linkedin app if you have it updated.
If you scroll beyond the first search result, which is the hashtag itself, you will find various professionals and companies who are related to marketing automation.
The search reveals professionals and companies in the Marketing automation space that you might want to connect with.
For job seekers, this is for you.
Hashtags will also bring up the most relevant jobs available based on your hashtag.
I still recommend using the jobs tab and keying in your hashtag directly for greater accuracy.
If you click on “My Network”, you will see all the recommended people, company and groups that Linkedin feels will be relevant for you.
Keep scrolling till you reach the “Recommended Hashtags for you”. Click on “See All” and Linkedin will pull-up all the top hashtags that your peers follow.
How effective are Linkedin Hashtags?
There isn’t any official research from Linkedin on the effectiveness.
So we had to research it ourselves.
We replicated this experiment from Agorapulse at a larger and longer scale.
We tested the effectiveness of hashtags in both posts from company page and personal profiles. 3 hashtags were used on 50 company page posts and 50 individual Linkedin page posts. These were compared against company page and personal post without hashtags.
These were the results.
Linkedin Posts on personal profiles with 3 Linkedin hashtags outperformed posts with no hashtags by 13%.
All content ran were video-based. Absolute views for posts with 3 hashtags are 63,530 while views for posts without hashtags are 49,224.
Linkedin Company Page Posts with 3 Linkedin hashtags outperformed Company page posts with no hashtags by 10%.
All content ran were video-based. Absolute views for company page posts with 3 hashtags are 126,520 while views for company page posts without hashtags are 105,130.
One of the biggest reasons for this difference is the push notification Linkedin does when your content starts to trend.
When you see this, Linkedin will push notify your audience. The effect snowballs.
What does this mean?
Always create valuable, awesome, and shareable content.
It’s not about the views but the engagements.
Because if you can get the Likes, comments, and shares early, your content will trend and get pushed to the hashtag followers.
Thing is, you need to have that hashtag in your post for any of this of happen.
See how important hashtag can be in your marketing?
The Test/Research Methodology:
- Hashtags on individual profiles: A total of 100 posts were launched over a period of 100 days on an individual profile (3,119 connections). 50 of the post contained 3 Hashtags while the control group of 50 did not have any hashtags.
- Hashtags on company pages: A total of 100 posts were launched over a period of 100 days on a company page (2,540 followers). 50 of the post contained 3 Hashtags while the control group of 50 did not have a single hashtag.
- Possible limitations to this test are the number of connections and the quality of each video across both types of profiles.
That being said, use these results as a directional cue. Hashtags and content quality do play an important role for your reach on Linkedin.
How to use Linkedin Hashtags
Linkedin has the biggest gathering of professionals in the world. That should be your first clue about how Linkedin hashtags should be used.
Most hashtags in other social media go along the lines of #LOL or #FunnyCatVideos – Not Linkedin. Business context matters.
Start using hashtags in your profile summary.
Not many profiles use it yet. When people search for this hashtag, you will be found more easily if you have a hashtag.
Add 3 Hashtags for your status updates or in the comments section
Although you can add as many as you want, resist the urge to do it. It will make your post look spammy. Do not overuse the # words and phrases as a part of your sentence. A couple is fine, but not too many or your sentence will be hard to read.
Instead, use 3 hashtags. One can be brand related while the other 2 are broader related topics.
Hashtags can also be used in the comments section of status updates.
Use the auto-recommendations from Linkedin in Status Update.
Once you key in the first hashtag, a list of other similar popular hashtags will appear.
Alternatively, you may select from the dropdown that appear under the keywords. There are differences in recommendations between the dropdown recommendations and the horizontal list.
Use both to explore what is most relevant for your topic.
Add hashtags into your Linkedin Articles
Do you write Linkedin articles? Hashtags will help your content reach to audiences interested in it.
Without hashtags, it’ll be challenging for anyone outside your network to view your article. The chances of impressions are extremely low to none.
Give your article a fighting chance to reach wide and go viral. After all, a lot of effort went into writing a good article.
Add hashtags within your company description.
Your company will show up in a user’s search result if it contains similar hashtags to the user’s search query.
If you’re a small business owner, this is an amazing opportunity for organic traffic. Use 3 hashtags. 1 of the hashtags should be your company/product brand. This should be something short and memorable like your company slogan.
Where to find and manage hashtags you follow?
- Click on “My Network”
- Click on “Hashtags” under “Manage My network” on the left rail options
- Click on “Following”
These 3 steps will pull up a view of all the hashtags you follow. You may delete them or add more.
Consider adding some of your competitors’ hashtag to track. Always a smart move to get some competitive intelligence.
What are the Top hashtags in Linkedin?
2020 to 2021 was an unfortunate year.
As you can imagine, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a huge change in the most popular hashtags today. It’s not representative of the “usual” hashtag behaviors on Linkedin.
We’ll breakdown the Hashtag data based on the following:
- Top hashtags for 2021
- Top hashtags for 2020
- Top hashtags by industry 2020/2021
This will give a better representation of how hashtags evolve based on current trends, and how you should use it.
You’ll get a glimpse of the ‘usual’ top hashtags outside a global pandemic. All data points were a combination of reports from Linkedin reps and manual searching.
Yes, the manual searching took me almost 2 weeks to compile this.
So I hope you find something actionable/valuable here. Please share this if you found it useful.
Each ranking list starts with the most used hashtag in that category.
Top hashtags for 2021
- #covid19
- #coronavirus
- #marketing
- #leadership
- #realestate
- #business
- #hiring
- #jobs
- #digitalmarketing
- #kudos
- #innovation
- #cybersecurity
- #recruitment
- #technology
- #design
- #ai
- #healthcare
- #corona
- #construction
- #health
- #realtor
- #staysafe
- #covid
- #socialmedia
- #education
- #workfromhome
- #hr
- #mentalhealth
- #stayhome
- #success
- #recruiting
- #homeoffice
- #india
- #branding
- #coaching
- #sustainability
- #homesforsale
- #architecture
- #dubai
- #jobsearch
- #iwd2020
- #travel
- #sales
- #wellness
- #job
- #interiordesign
- #motivation
- #training
- #recrutement
- #uae
- #careers
- #art
- #finance
- #realestateagent
- #cloud
- #property
- #engineering
- #management
- #security
- #confinement
- #insurance
- #investing
- #fashion
- #news
- #graphicdesign
- #logistics
- #blockchain
- #fitness
- #marketingdigital
- #smallbusiness
- #entrepreneur
- #lockdown
- #aviation
- #energy
- #webinar
- #love
- #internationalwomensday
- #hospitality
- #eachforequal
- #earthday
- #startup
- #retail
- #fintech
- #music
- #forsale
- #photography
- #tecnologia
- #automotive
Top hashtags for 2019
- #business
- #marketing
- #realestate
- #leadership
- #kudos
- #technology
- #innovation
- #ai
- #hiring
- #design
- #jobs
- #digitalmarketing
- #cybersecurity
- #recruitment
- #sales
- #healthcare
- #education
- #socialmedia
- #construction
- #india
- #blockchain
- #realtor
- #recruiting
- #health
- #success
- #dubai
- #training
- #job
- #branding
- #hr
- #homesforsale
- #empleo
- #coaching
- #cloud
- #finance
- #travel
- #uae
- #art
- #news
- #networking
- #mani
- #inspiration
- #motivation
- #trabajo
- #digitaltransformation
- #architecture
- #insurance
- #london
- #fashion
- #fintech
- #security
- #retail
- #recrutement
- #entrepreneur
- #wellness
- #sustainability
- #fitness
- #reconhecimento
- #management
- #mentalhealth
- #property
- #careers
- #startup
- #digital
- #vacature
- #interiordesign
- #iot
- #music
- #bitcoin
- #crypto
- #engineering
- #startups
- #energy
- #cryptocurrency
- #love
- #jobsearch
- #bravos
- #entrepreneurship
- #seo
- #automotive
- #data
- #canada
- #logistics
- #china
- #photography
- #graphicdesign
- #forsale
- #investment
- #marketingdigital
- #manufacturing
Top hashtags in the technology industry
- #marketing
- #business
- #covid19
- #digitalmarketing
- #coronavirus
- #technology
- #seo
- #jobs
- #blockchain
- #ecommerce
- #innovation
- #job
- #ai
- #startups
- #hiring
- #logodesign
- #socialmedia
- #startup
- #marketingdigital
- #bitcoin
- #news
- #crypto
- #motivation
- #logo
- #rrss
- #communitymanager
- #digital
- #design
- #sales
- #entrepreneurship
- #cryptocurrency
- #leadership
- #lean
- #usnews
- #entrepreneur
- #excellence
- #innovacion
- #social
- #jobsinusa
- #jobsusa
- #tech
- #internet
- #dailynews
- #management
- #cybersecurity
- #ceo
- #solutions
- #branding
- #graphicdesign
- #healthcare
- #onlinemarketing
- #india
- #b2b
- #companylogo
- #developers
- #waste
- #geology
- #geologypage
- #valueadd
- #workfromhome
- #logodesigner
- #kaizen
- #success
- #iso
- #remotework
- #corona
- #website
- #softwaredevelopment
- #sponsored
- #bitsmart
- #fintech
- #sale
- #artificialintelligence
- #deal
- #jobsearch
Top hashtags in the Financial industry
- #finance
- #business
- #fintech
- #covid19
- #coronavirus
- #retirement
- #investing
- #realestate
- #financialplanning
- #mortgage
- #blockchain
- #money
- #trading
- #stocks
- #kudos
- #stockmarket
- #forex
- #investment
- #financialliteracymonth
- #mondaymotivation
- #economy
- #innovation
- #financialservices
- #investments
- #bitcoin
- #banking
- #crypto
- #free
- #payments
- #dubai
- #jobs
- #markets
- #biztipthursday
- #cryptocurrency
- #uae
- #investors
- #nifty
- #spendlifeliving
- #goals
- #mortgagebroker
- #asksahondow
- #ai
- #news
- #technology
- #china
- #morganstanleyminute
- #brexit
- #ameripriseresearch
- #toronto
- #womenshistorymonth
- #motivationmonday
- #iwd2020
- #powerbi
- #summer
- #lifeinsurance
- #tax
- #leadership
- #wealthmanagement
- #loans
- #canada
- #remote
- #lovetakesaction
- #corona
- #credit
- #earthday
- #cto
- #financialwellness
- #workfromhome
- #marketing
- #india
- #usa
- #stock
- #remotework
- #openbanking
- #freebies
- #singapore
- #fed
- #veterans
- #eachforequal
- #charity
- #finances
- #tech
- #hongkong
- #trade
- #mlkday
- #lifeinsuranceawarenessmonth
- #goodatlife
- #startup
Top hashtags in the Education industry
- #education
- #leadership
- #covid19
- #highereducation
- #coronavirus
- #kudos
- #business
- #innovation
- #research
- #highered
- #marketing
- #university
- #technology
- #formation
- #india
- #students
- #universities
- #ai
- #success
- #sustainability
- #safetyfirst
- #management
- #entrepreneurship
- #corona
- #design
- #covid
- #mentalhealth
- #communication
- #art
- #stage
- #inspiration
- #careers
- #for
- #mba
- #china
- #training
- #motivation
- #jobs
- #health
- #iwd2020
- #networking
- #inova
- #blockchain
- #job
- #learning
- #recrutement
- #cybersecurity
- #digitalmarketing
- #chile
- #empregos
- #confinement
- #healthcare
- #artificialintelligence
- #fintech
- #datascience
- #uae
- #machinelearning
- #data
- #coaching
- #digitalurbanism
- #digital
- #studyabroad
- #dubai
Did you notice any similar trends? Now that you’re armed with all this info, What’s the next step?
- Start applying them in your day-to-day Linkedin usage.
- Use the hashtag recommendations to support your main hashtag.
- Think of 1 branded Hashtag that you will keep reusing across all your post. This could be your company name but I’m sure you can get creative here.
- Don’t leave any spacing in your hashtags. Use 3 hashtags in every post.
I’ll be honest, the hashtag lists took a lot of time to build. Which is why the research was only done on 3 industries.
You can use Linkedin hashtags to find relevant jobs too!
Also, if there are other industries hashtag you’re interested in, comment below as well.
