Are LinkedIn Hashtags Worth It?

Are you wondering what LinkedIn Hashtags are all about? Have you seen your network add them to their LinkedIn updates, but have no idea why and for what purpose?

Hashtags originated from Twitter and have slowly increased in popularity across basically all social media platforms. In essence it’s adding a topic to your post so that other people can view other updates with that particular hashtag in a segmented news feed. We’ll show you in detail later in the post, but it’s easy to do, whenever you put up a new update just add a # in front of a word and like magic you have a hashtag on your post.

So what is the purpose? Well, let’s say you see someone put up a hashtag about Richard Branson they might do a hashtag of #RichardBranson.

If you click on that hashtag then you can see other people’s posts about Richard. It’s great if you want to contribute your opinion about a popular topic and for your post to be seen in a news feed around a topic that people are interested in.

But now that they are creeping into LinkedIn, the question remains is it worth using them on this platform? Are they just for more consumer based Social Media networks like your Twitters and Instagrams?

Well, in this post we’ll cover 3 major benefits of using hashtags to start to get some extra traction from your LinkedIn marketing efforts. This will convince you that yes they are definitely worth using and there are known ways you can start leveraging them to increase your followers, generate new leads and build your influence.

1. Increase Your Followers

The first major benefit for using LinkedIn hashtags is to increase your followers. How does this work?

Well, if you hashtag popular topics in your niche, then your posts are going to appear in popular news feeds that other LinkedIn users are going to search. For example in our niche LinkedIn is obviously a key searched term, so we could add #LinkedIn to a post so that our status update appears in a hashtag newsfeed. Here’s an example of putting a relevant hashtag into a post:

Once we have done that post, it will appear in the search results of people looking for LinkedIn in the posts section. You can find this search section of LinkedIn by clicking the hashtag in the post or by following this link and searching for the hashtag. Once you search it will look something like the screenshot below:

If you’re posting great content about LinkedIn and other users see that, guess what? They are going to follow you!

This means you generate more targeted followers who are enjoying and sharing your content in your network. Pretty good hey?

2. Generate More Leads

There’s a huge opportunity to generate leads by leveraging LinkedIn hashtags, this is on two fronts. Firstly, as you build your followers and continue to be active on the platform those followers will at some stage reach out for your help if you are building a following of people in your target demographic. As long as you’re consistent with your content, use the right hashtags and the content you share is really valuable – you will generate leads.

However, if you’re smart about the use of hashtags for outreach there are some even more beneficial ways to leverage them for lead generation. This is through engaging with others who are posting using particular hashtags. You can use the search function again as shown here:

Search for particular hashtags that your target market would be using and begin to engage with their posts. Add massive value and share your expertise on their posts.

How is this going to generate leads? Well, if someone in your target market puts up a post around a challenge they are having which you are knowledgeable in and you add massive value in their post… Chances are they are going to reach out to you for more help.

Now this is time consuming, so you need to batch your time. If you’re going to implement this strategy best block out 30 minutes a day to do it. If done well this can be a really effective strategy in order to get you in front of high qualified leads who will be warm towards you and your services.

Whatever you do don’t pitch within your posts on other people’s content, just add as much value as possible and help them solve their challenges. Or just simply start a dialogue with the prospect with the view to take the conversation offline.

3. Build Your Influence

As you begin to interact, build your following and share your expertise through hashtags the net effect is that you are going to build your influence in your industry. Doing this takes time, consistency and adding massive value through your posts.

It’s not something that happens overnight and a lot of people give up far too soon because they post a few times and don’t see instantaneous results. Look at people like Gary Vaynerchuk who is a huge social media influencer, but 11 years ago he was doing YouTube videos for his company Wine Library to an extremely small audience.

We all start with zero followers, remember that. But he was consistent, added a lot of value and was patient. If you want to be influential you have to adopt the same mindset.

Hashtags can be a great way to get your exposure fast to an audience of people who are interested in a certain topic. But you’re not going to get thousands of followers overnight – you need to be consistent. If you do it well and be patient the results will start to come your way.

This article has given several compelling reasons why hashtags are a good idea, however they are just one weapon for your LinkedIn content marketing arsenal. Sure they will get you extra exposure and yes you can be strategic with them and interact with people in your target demographic.