A change in how LinkedIn helps users find relevant content leaves an uncertain fate for hashtags at best and reports of hashtag demise at the most dramatic.

Many are asking "Do hashtags work on LinkedIn anymore?"

For nearly 20 years, hashtags have been a powerful tool to categorize content. What started in 2007 on Twitter quickly took off to change the way we communicate, collaborate, and innovate. 

The LinkedIn platform did not get on the hashtag train until 2018. That's when the platform started encouraging users to start adding relevant hashtags. 

That said, how you create a social media marketing strategy for LinkedIn in 2024 is wildly different than it was a few years ago. The game has changed.

In this article, we lay out the dos, don'ts, and best practices.

What are LinkedIn hashtags?

LinkedIn hashtags were designed to help organize and categorize content on the platform. Think of them as LinkedIn’s way of indexing posts so they show up in trending topics and searches.

By using the right hashtags, your content should reach a larger audience beyond your immediate network. Hashtags can help attract business professionals looking for relevant content, engaging conversation, and meaningful connections. 

At least, that was how LinkedIn hashtags have worked in the past.

What's changed with LinkedIn hashtags in 2024?

In August 2024, LinkedIn's engineering blog posted about "semantic capability" in the search bar.

To summarize the motivation for the semantic search adjustment, it turns out that people were using LinkedIn's search bar as they would a search engine or AI platform, using natural language. Instead of searching #promotion, people were more likely to search for "how to ask for a raise."

The traditional LinkedIn hashtags weren't adding to the user experience. In fact, valuable information was being missed. 

The blog states that:

"At times, we were either returning no posts since we did not have any posts that contained all of the keywords in a query, or we were returning posts that contained all of the keywords in the query but did not correctly answer the question due to our lack of conceptual understanding of the query." 

Do hashtags still work on LinkedIn posts?

With LinkedIn realizing the hashtags aren't helping with the search bar experience, many think the organization has started to move away from hashtags. 

Concrete examples include removing hashtags from the Creator Mode profiles and clickable hashtags in articles. Some speculate this means the end of the road for hashtags in LinkedIn posts. 

However, while hashtags on LinkedIn might not be the powerful tools they once were, there is still a clear path toward using LinkedIn hashtags correctly.

Your LinkedIn strategy shouldn't totally exclude hashtags just yet – you can include a hashtag or two, but steer far away from redundancy or too many hashtags. 

After all, if you check out Linkedin's profile you can see them lightly using hashtags in posts.

Why should you use LinkedIn hashtags?

While LinkedIn doesn't offer a firm stance on hashtag usage, it's good practice to use having strong keywords and conversation starters in LinkedIn posts, regardless of whether there's a "#" before the word or not. 

Generally speaking, hashtags can enhance the visibility of your own posts while also offering an easy way to indicate you're speaking about a trend. Just use them sparingly. 

Keep an eye on how your posts containing hashtags perform with LinkedIn analytics – you might notice that they outdo your other content.

Just remember that with the new semantic search, your hashtags won't make or break your engagement potential. The content of the post is responsible for that.

How to use hashtags on LinkedIn

The first step is deciding what type of hashtag strategy you want to pursue. On LinkedIn, hashtags fall into several categories:

  • Branded hashtags: Custom tags tied to a specific brand or campaign (eg #JustDoIt).
  • Niche hashtags: Focused on specific industries or topics (eg #UXDesignTips).
  • Trending hashtags: Popular tags tied to current events or discussions (eg #FutureOfWork).
  • General hashtags: Broad and widely used (eg #Leadership).

Next, let's look at the various places where you can put LinkedIn hashtags. 

Adding hashtags to your LinkedIn company page

Moving forward, you can skip trying to find hashtags or create hashtags to bulk up your professional LinkedIn business page. Hashtags on LinkedIn pages are no longer clickable. 

LinkedIn removed the interactive features of hashtags on profiles, pages, and within LinkedIn articles. Even if you add hashtags, users can't click or tap them to get related information.

Instead of hashtags, LinkedIn wants content to stand out based on relevance and quality. This makes keywords and strong, valuable content more important than ever. 

This shift provides a great chance to get into your LinkedIn profile and remove hashtags while also optimizing for keywords your LinkedIn audience might search for. 

Adding hashtags to your LinkedIn posts

One place hashtags still work is in a LinkedIn post. While previous guidance focused on industry specific hashtags or niche hashtags, now the goal is to avoid too many hashtags. 

In fact, limiting the number to top LinkedIn hashtags relevant to your content makes the most sense. 

That said, it's the quality and engaging nature of your content that will resonate and respond to search inquiries. Your hashtag strategy should shift to more of a discovery tool than a reach role – and you'll want to make sure you're using popular and relevant hashtags to get the most out of them.

Avoid using the same hashtag as a word or version of a word that is already in your post. The search function will see '#innovation' the same way it sees 'innovation.'

Adding hashtags to your LinkedIn comments

Comments are a great way to join relevant conversations, but the hashtag is now optional. Adding your thoughts, input, or expertise increases the value of your LinkedIn presence more than any hashtag will. 

This means creating thoughtful content to leave in comments more than filling a comment section with hashtags related to the topic. 

Don't just type "Congrats!" on a new post from a colleague. Write 15-20 carefully constructed (and keyword-rich) words that give insight into the topic. 

Hashtags on LinkedIn still present opportunities, but not in the way you're used to using them or in how other social media platforms use them. 

They play an important role when it comes to searching and staying in the loop on specific topics. If you type a hashtag into the search box, it’s a quick way to find posts and discussions tied to that hashtag. For example, search #GivingTuesday and LinkedIn will surface highly relevant content that specifically mentions the hashtag. 

Plus, following a hashtag lets you see related content in your feed, helping you stay updated on industry trends or niche topics. While hashtags aren’t front and center anymore, they’re still a handy tool for discovery and staying connected to what matters in your professional world.

How to find new hashtags on LinkedIn

Using LinkedIn search to find relevant hashtags

When you want to add hashtags to your LinkedIn arsenal, use the search tool. Follow hashtags relevant to your industry or interests. 

Following different hashtags, even if they're in the same general area, means you'll get to see the full range of content on offer and lots of different takes – all of which can help you with finding content to engage with, content inspiration, and general industry knowledge. 

Creating content that relates to hashtags lots of people follow will also open the door to new connections and potentially help you gain followers if they see your valuable content with that popular hashtag.

It's good to know how LinkedIn search works when it comes to finding content around a topic. For example, if you're looking for "work life balance" ideas for future content, you can enter "#worklifebalance" or "work life balance." 

The results will be different for each one. The first one gives results from the LinkedIn feed with the specific hashtag, whereas the second one skips the hashtags and just looks for the topics related to the "work life balance" theme. 

While both take you to the same types of search results, they don't produce identical results.

Let's walk through how to find the top hashtags or hashtags related to your industry that stand out. Fair warning: it can be a process of elimination. 

Start by going to a post with related hashtags or searching for hashtags you think are relevant to your industry. From there, click on the new hashtag you want to explore. 

The search results will show a top box displayed with the name of the hashtag, the number of followers, and the option to follow hashtags. 

For example, we search for "#innovate" versus "#innovation" versus "#innovative."

#Innovate: 3,487 followers#Innovation: 38,274,249 followers#Innovative: 10,331 followersThis simple task helps your digital marketing team know which hashtag within a category would work best. Obviously, the #innovation hashtag would be the one to use of the three.

Social listening is more important than ever with the shift away from hashtags and toward quality content and real engagement on LinkedIn. 

LinkedIn’s algorithm now rewards authenticity and substance, so listening to your target audience helps you stay visible while building stronger relationships.

By paying attention to what your audience is talking about across social media — trending topics, industry advances, or shared challenges — you can craft and schedule posts and comments that genuinely connect. 

Tips for optimizing your hashtags on LinkedIn

Since LinkedIn appears to be moving away from prioritizing hashtags, it's important to remember that these tips don't apply to all social platforms. 

Even with semantic search capabilities, hashtags can still play a role in marketing strategy.

Keep hashtags short and simple and use sparingly

Use hashtags that are powerful and highly followed in your posts or comments. Remember, you can skip using them in your LinkedIn profile.

Find your list of relevant hashtags with a high number of followers. The right LinkedIn hashtags should be simple, short, and strong.

It's worth thinking about using hashtags to fulfil user intent in a search. For example, #hiring and #jobs have subtly different connotations.

Experiment with different hashtags

With the "less is more" mentality, you can try mixing up which particular hashtag you want to use in a post and see how the overall engagement rate performs. However, LinkedIn has been transparent in that good quality content means more to ranking than any hashtag strategy. 

Only use relevant hashtags

Don't try to ride a trend on popular hashtags if the topic of your post isn't relevant to the topic. For example, if you're advertising writing services, don't use hashtags about the #SuperBowl, even if it's highly followed and trending.

LinkedIn's ad policy actually prohibits "unrelated hashtags." Doing so could lead to your ad being rejected. 

In addition, the ad policy doesn't allow repetitive words or phrases. That goes for hashtags that might be redundant to your ad copy. 

LinkedIn's top 30 hashtags for 2024

When you use hashtags, it helps to know the most popular ones. Here are some standouts from 2024 with over a million followers each. 

  1. #innovation (38,269,814 followers)
  2. #management (35,448,745 followers)
  3. #digitalmarketing (26,990,004 followers)
  4. #technology (26,061,100 followers)
  5. #creativity (24,824,357 followers)
  6. #futurism (23,125,262 followers)
  7. #startups (20,928,590 followers)
  8. #marketing (20,101,412 followers)
  9. #socialmedia (19,412,513 followers)
  10. #socialnetworking (18,747,637 followers)
  11. #motivation (15,554,916 followers)
  12. #personaldevelopment (14,461,565 followers)
  13. #jobinterviews  (14,106,066 followers)
  14. #sustainability (13,121,554 followers)
  15. #personalbranding (10,307,646 followers)
  16. #education (9,505,563 followers)
  17. #productivity (8,326,941 followers)
  18. #travel (6,889,047 followers)
  19. #sales (5,806,239 followers)
  20. #socialentrepreneurship (5,721,785 followers)
  21. #fundraising (5,660,774 followers)
  22. #law (5,414,312 followers)
  23. #strategy (5,016,495 followers)
  24. #culture (4,665,216 followers)
  25. #fashion (4,144,427 followers)
  26. #business (3,670,617 followers)
  27. #networking (3,548,198 followers)
  28. #hiring (3,309,054 followers)
  29. #health (2,244,862 followers)
  30. #inspiration (1,149,537 followers)

The top LinkedIn hashtags will change often, but this group gives an easy playlist for content brainstorming sessions. 

Boost your LinkedIn hashtag strategy with Brandwatch

With Brandwatch, you can use various services to help you strategize and deliver on content strategies while keeping up with trends and using hashtags effectively.

LinkedIn capabilities are built into Brandwatch's suite in a number of ways, helping you understand how your brand is being mentioned by professionals on the platform, build ad campaigns, and draft, schedule, and publish content.

We of course encourage you to follow us on LinkedIn!

FAQs

How many hashtags should I use on LinkedIn?

Until the LinkedIn algorithm shift, three to five hashtags were recommended per post. The new thinking is to use hashtags sparingly, sticking to one or two at most. 

Also, if you have words you'd traditionally use as hashtags — maybe they've performed well for you in the past — use those as keywords in the text of your post. You don't have to throw out your list of hashtags because of this adjustment. Simply realign your goals to keep buzzwords within your brand's posts. 

Do hashtags work on LinkedIn profiles and company pages?

Not anymore. Part of the LinkedIn transition to semantic search means hashtags no longer serve the strong purpose they once did. Even if you type a hashtag into your profile or page, the # won't be interactive now. 

Are there any rules for using hashtags on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn has rules for ads and recommendations or organic content. 

The wrong hashtags on LinkedIn can be seen as off-topic at best or clickbait at worst.

Advertising posts might be rejected if you add hashtags that are off-topic. Another deal breaker is using the same word multiple times.

How can hashtags help in networking on LinkedIn?

The days of hashtags having superpowers are over, but the value still lies in the network you can find when creating content around popular hashtags that are followed a lot within your niche.