It is so important to check the number of followers that a hashtag has before you use it.

Just changing a letter can make a huge difference in the number of followers it has. Don’t always rely on the hashtag suggestions that LinkedIn provides – those are based on your content and LinkedIn’s AI tools – you need to double check each of them first using the main search bar – there is no quick easy automated tool for this – YOU are the best resource.

Also remember that too many followers is not great because your content will get lost and too few followers is not great because no one will see your content.

You should use no more than 5 hashtags or LinkedIn will think your content is spam.

I wanted to show how just a few letters or characters can make a big difference when it comes to using hashtags on LinkedIn showing an example in the diversity area:

#diversity – 177,938 followers

#diversityandinclusion – 59,938 followers

#diversityinclusion7,006 followers

#diversityequityinclusion6,241 followers

#diversityequityandinclusion266 followers

#diversityinlaw124 followers

#diversityrecruiting87 followers

If you find yourself writing about the same topics, you should make a list of the top hashtags in that area so that you can just copy and paste them. Note that the number of followers changes every day, but a hashtag will rarely lose followers and rather gain them.

I can’t stress enough the importance of researching the various permutations of hashtags before you use post them. You will see a huge difference in the discoverability of your content if you take the time to do this!