As a regular contributor to this amazing Flying Solo community it is actually with a degree of sadness that I felt compelled to write this article. It goes without saying that now more than ever, social media and LinkedIn will be a crucial place to network, support and build personal and business brand visibility during the challenging times we face.
Sharing and engaging in valuable and meaningful content is going to be the fuel and support to keep many sustained and encouraged. And the sheer volume of content and engagement on LinkedIn will simply explode as more people have time and indeed purpose to find and seek. And there is already a huge amount of content aligned to the coronavirus crises and related topics to help us get through the shocks and changes.
Using and following strong and aligned Hashtags on LinkedIn will be more important than ever… There has been several new hashtags with big Follower & Post metrics arisen from the crises. And many existing hashtags with alignment to the issues are increased in followers and content.
Why hashtags matter
Hashtags have been really important since 2017 when LinkedIn re-introduced them and they have taken a new life of their own. But they are more critical than ever to ensure distribution and visibility of content. We need all the support we can get right!
Easy to use on both desktop and mobile app and whilst not designed for social movements or the fuzzy and cute, they do work in a similar fashion to Twitter and Instagram. Hashtags assist to find and search for topic and subjects. Members choose to follow what and which is important and meaningful to them and the functionality now is excellent to do so.
And content curators use them on their content to maximise visibility to all levels of 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree (i.e. not just 1st connections). Hashtags have become an important part of LinkedIn marketing and search functionalities. And it certainly will increase traffic to your LinkedIn Profile
General Hashtag Tips
1. Do not hashtag stuff your content the maximum number for best results is less than 4 hashtags per post/article. This applies to all content irrelevant of COVID topics.
Using 10, 20, and 30 (I’ve even seen 60) just makes people look desperate and/or unfocussed on their topic and value. Your personal brand matters so less hashtags is definitely more.
2. For COVID types of posts I recommend using 1 or 2 of the main hashtags (see below chart) and add another 1 or 2 for the more aligned topic and objective and audience of the content.
3. Don’t scatter and use hashtags in the body of posts as it is not user friendly nor appealing to the eye to read. Keep them to the bottom.
4. Check the Followers of a hashtag before you use them in your content. LinkedIn now automatically suggest hashtags that will align to your content, which has is also part AI intuitive and topic related. But always check what has better metrics. Don’t assume a hashtag is a valued one, research.
5. Don’t create your own obscure topic hashtags in the hope of more visibility. It doesn’t work.
6. Personalised hashtag – this is a great way to be able to track and collate your content and to help others find it also. It’s a key value to marketing and branding. So I recommend highly creating a really bespoke one to assist your community has a resource point.
7. Given there is no current function to choose who we want to see more of on LinkedIn, encouraging your network to follow your personalised hashtag is a great work around.
8. Follow the topics that are meaningful to you. There is no limit to how many you follow, but obviously you would want to be laser focussed so you are not overwhelmed. Refer to the official LinkedIn information page on how to use and follow
Top hashtags
Over the last week I have analysed and tracked the main hashtags that are being used around and for COVID19 topics and related issues.
What has been interesting is to see how there is often a large disconnect between the Followers of a hashtag and the number of posts/articles which have used that Hashtag. The number of posts with a hashtag without good Follower numbers will not be effective.
The chart below has been updated as of 2pm Tuesday 24th March. The metrics will change of course but I doubt if the top trends will change at all. Be very mindful of the working from home variances.
I hope you have found this valuable. It will assist your reach and footprint on LinkedIn for both the current crises needs and ongoing. And remember we are all in this together.