Hashtags, LinkedIn, and Connecting
As a resume writer, I use hashtags with each person I work with. I craft resumes and cover letters, and I also work on LinkedIn profiles, including writing posts for clients. I use hashtags in each post I write because I want my clients to get new viewers — viewers who are not already connected to them. These posts can also attract attention from recruiters and create new connections with people who might have information that will help my client or know a company looking for the skills my client has. The way to go forward is to be known, and hashtags are a free way to promote yourself so that the right readers get to know you each time you post.
You can use hashtags to organize and categorize your posts. LinkedIn started using hashtags in 2018. Using hashtags, you can get a thousand viewers, which can lead to connections, comments, and even people sharing your post. People can share the link to your post in their LinkedIn profiles or even on another social media website, like Facebook. One of my posts had 737 views because I used the correct hashtags and the right number of hashtags. Hashtags are a way to organize posts, connections, and readers.
To make a hashtag on a post, below the post, write # and then write one word or a string of combined words. You can also use hashtags in the actual post: “I love my #newjob.” In this sentence, we use the hashtag #newjob in the actual sentence. Both ways work. I have a habit of writing my hashtags at the end of my posts. Here are a few things to remember when writing a hashtag:
1. #LoveYourself works; #Love Yourself does not. The second version creates the hashtag #Love, but Yourself is not used as part of the hashtag.
2. Remember to use uppercase letters at the beginning of each word so it is easier for readers to recognize the hashtag and what it means.
3. Slowing down will help you when writing hashtags. If you write a word incorrectly, like #careeers instead of #career , you will not get any views for careers.
4. Hashtags cannot use punctuation, including commas, exclamation points, and question marks.
LinkedIn’s algorithm is very aware of how many hashtags you are using and if you are clearly just using different hashtags that still very similar. If you use the hashtag #clear and then follow it with #clearly and #clearer, the algorithm will know that you only really need one of these three hashtags and will consider your post spam. According to the articles and videos that I have reviewed, you should choose three hashtags for a post. However, in my experience, three to five will work. This means you must think a bit before choosing your hashtags; you have to say as much as you can with only three to five hashtags. If your post is about new technology, you should have a hashtag for technology, maybe one for creativity, and the last hashtag should be more niche, like #gadgets. You want both popular hashtags and more specific or niche hashtags.
LinkedIn’s algorithm will present your post to a few people to see how much engagement it gets. If your post gets a lot of likes and comments, the algorithm will show your post to more people. This means that you will not get 1,000 views just because of your hashtag, and it also means, fortunately, that your actual writing and your post idea still matter!
This is a bit like how, in the first years of the internet, people could just use search engine optimization (SEO) words with no actual information. Instead, they would just use a word many, many times throughout a page, like “beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful.” Eventually, websites like Google and Yahoo changed SEO so that a page had to use SEO keywords in actual sentences and paragraphs. Websites like Google and Yahoo knew that information should still be the principal reason a page was on the first page of links. Hashtags are the same in that using hashtags does not mean that you can post irrelevant or senseless posts that will not be read.
People follow hashtags so that they can read posts that use the hashtags they are following on their home pages. One of my favorite hashtags to follow is #resumetips. You can also search for a hashtag. If I search for #resumetips, I then click on that hashtag to see posts using this hashtag and how many followers this hashtag has. #Resumetips has 10,899 followers, so some of these people will be shown posts that use this hashtag on their home pages.
Knowing how many followers a hashtag has will help you determine which hashtags to use in your posts. You do not want to use a hashtag that only has nine followers, but you also do not want to only use hashtags that have millions of followers. If you are using a popular hashtag, then you are fighting with plenty of other companies to appear on followers’ home pages. Using a hashtag with millions of followers does not mean that you will get millions of views. More distinct hashtags can get more clicks and views because you are not brawling with as many other companies to determine which posts will appear on home pages.
This also helps you get readers who are already focused on what your post talks about. Though the hashtag #inspiration has 119,244 followers, it isn’t a focused hashtag. Inspiration can mean many things to different people. This means that some — but not all — readers will be interested in your post using the hashtag #inspiration.
Each time you search for a hashtag, LinkedIn will use the consonants and vowels that you write to provide more results. If I search for #desire, it will show me #desire, but it will also show me #desiredresults, #desires, and #desired. I can then click on each hashtag to see how many followers it has. This is a simple way to see which words people are the most interested in and which hashtags might give you more connections, comments, and messages.
Using a location hashtag, like #Europe or #NewYork, is useful sometimes. You might write a post about something that is either more true or only true in one area. For example, if I were talking about desert weather and the lack of humidity in the air, it might be nice to use my home, #LasVegas, to get people in Las Vegas interested in the post.
One other thing might help you when you are thinking about the best hashtags to use in a post. Using the website http://best-hashtags.com/, you can search for a word (or a few words) to see not only the hashtags you searched for but also related hashtags. I just searched for the word “counselor,” and it gave me a list of related hashtags, like “#therapist.” Then, I went back to LinkedIn and checked how many followers these hashtags have. Right now, #counselor only has 426 followers, while #therapist has 15,237 followers. If I were writing a post for a client, I would use #therapist, knowing that this hashtag would get more views, clicks, likes, and comments. This information is for LinkedIn, but it does give us an idea about which hashtags are used in the entire social media world.
Make sure that your personal profile is public so anybody can read your posts. Check this by first going to your profile. Next, at the top right, click on “Edit Public Profile & URL.” There, you can change your profile to public if needed. If your profile isn’t public, then nobody who isn’t already connected to you can view your profile.
For some of you, there might be a few details you were not aware of, or this might change your ideas about hashtags and which hashtags you should use in your posts. For other readers, all of this is completely new. Please copy this link and share it with anybody who might need help with LinkedIn or their resumes. There is so much more information than you might think you would need to write an incredible resume.
You can also watch videos from us, Ideal Resume, at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDW92wiAlm-I1emgSZ1UpYA/featured?view_as=subscriber. A lot of this blog information will be used in future videos.
#Networking #ResumeTips #Resume #JobSearch #Lessons
- Chris Twist
