Hashtags have become an essential part of social media marketing. They help users find relevant content and participate in larger conversations. For brands, hashtags provide opportunities to reach new audiences, increase engagement, and analyze campaign performance.
On LinkedIn specifically, hashtags help companies position themselves as thought leaders, promote content, and connect with professionals in their industry. With over 810 million members worldwide, LinkedIn is the largest professional social media platform and an important channel for B2B marketing.
To get the most value from LinkedIn hashtags, you need to regularly analyze hashtag performance and optimize your strategy. But how exactly should you monitor and assess hashtag success on LinkedIn? What metrics, tools, and best practices can help improve your branded hashtag initiatives?
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll cover everything you need to analyze hashtag performance on LinkedIn, including:
Key Metrics to Track
– Hashtag Impressions
– Hashtag Clicks
– Hashtag Engagement Rate
– Hashtag Exposure
– Top Content Posts for Each Hashtag
Helpful Tools for Analysis
– LinkedIn Analytics
– Third-Party Social Media Analytics Platforms
– LinkedIn Insights Tag
– Google Analytics
– Social Monitoring Tools
Best Practices for Optimization
– Research Relevant Hashtags
– Use Branded Hashtags Consistently
– Cross-Promote Hashtags
– Monitor Trending Topics
– Add Hashtags to All LinkedIn Content
– Run Regular Analytics Reports
– Adjust Frequently Based on Performance
Let’s explore each of these areas in more detail:
Key Metrics to Track
To understand hashtag performance on LinkedIn, you need to track and analyze several key metrics:
Hashtag Impressions
This shows how many times your target hashtag was seen. Essentially, it measures the potential reach or visibility of your hashtag. If hashtag impressions are low, you’ll want to focus on driving more exposure through social sharing, paid campaigns, influencer posts, etc. High impressions suggest your hashtag is resonating.
Hashtag Clicks
This reveals how often users actively clicked on your hashtag to view related content or add it to their own posts. Hashtag clicks indicate real engagement. Compare clicks to impressions to calculate clickthrough rates. High clickthrough rates mean your hashtag content is relevant and compelling to your audience.
Hashtag Engagement Rate
Engagement rate shows the level of interaction with hashtagged posts, calculated as:
(Likes + Comments + Shares) / Total Impressions
Benchmark against standard LinkedIn engagement rates to identify unusually high or low performing hashtags. This helps determine where to refocus efforts.
Hashtag Exposure
Exposure tracks how many unique accounts added your branded hashtag to their own LinkedIn posts. This shows genuine adoption and scale. Hashtag exposure can increase through influencer marketing campaigns or user-generated content initiatives.
Top Content Posts for Each Hashtag
Analyze which individual posts drive the most impressions and engagement for your top branded hashtags. This reveals what content resonates best with your audience. You can then produce more of that high-value content to boost hashtag performance.
Helpful Tools for Analysis
To track these key hashtag metrics, you’ll need to utilize relevant social media analytics tools. Here are some recommended platforms for monitoring LinkedIn hashtags:
LinkedIn Analytics
LinkedIn’s built-in analytics provide data on impressions, engagement, likes, shares, comments, clicks, follower growth, page views, and top posts. You can filter by hashtag to view performance. LinkedIn analytics offer monitoring capabilities at no added cost. However, data is limited to your company page and hashtag usage.
Third-Party Social Media Analytics Platforms
Robust tools like Sprout Social, Hootsuite, Quintly, Rival IQ, Keyhole, or Talkwalker provide expanded analytics around hashtags. Features may include tracking brand mentions, hashtag performance across both company and personal LinkedIn accounts, competitive benchmarking, campaign management, and more. While extremely powerful, these paid platforms can get pricey.
LinkedIn Insights Tag
For more customized analytics, you can implement LinkedIn’s Insights Tag. This uses site tags to track user engagement on your website from LinkedIn traffic. The tool connects your website data to LinkedIn profile data. This allows you to break down hashtag metrics by job role, company size, industry, location, and other attributes of your LinkedIn audience.
Google Analytics
Most websites already use Google Analytics. But you can specifically set up custom dashboards to track LinkedIn hashtag traffic and on-site engagement through UTM parameters on your URLs. This reveals how visitors from LinkedIn hashtags convert on your website.
Social Monitoring Tools
hashtag performance extends beyond your owned channels. Social listening platforms like Mention, Brand24, or Socialert track hashtag mentions across the broader LinkedIn landscape. You can see who is using your hashtags and the full conversation. Many monitoring tools provide useful data visualizations around activity spikes, sentiment, influencers, share of voice, etc.
Best Practices for Optimization
Armed with hashtag performance insights from LinkedIn Analytics, Google Analytics, and social listening tools, you can optimize your approach for maximum impact. Follow these best practices:
Research Relevant Hashtags
Brainstorm hashtag ideas based on your products, content topics, campaigns, events, and branded terms. Research which hashtags your audience already uses and align with those conversations. Tools like Hashtagify, RiteTag, and Tagboard identify popular hashtags to piggyback on.
Use Branded Hashtags Consistently
Create 1-3 primary branded hashtags tailored to your company and messaging. Make sure they are short, memorable, and recognizable. Use these branded hashtags consistently across all LinkedIn content to boost awareness and drive user adoption.
Cross-Promote Hashtags
Promote your main LinkedIn hashtags on other social channels like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to expand their reach. Cross-linking helps build an audience for your hashtags.
Monitor Trending Topics
Keep an eye on LinkedIn’s trending hashtag feeds and news events related to your industry. Capitalize on trending conversations when appropriate by adding relevant hashtags to your content. This taps into larger LinkedIn audiences already following certain topics.
Add Hashtags to All LinkedIn Content
Incorporate 2-5 branded and relevant hashtags into every piece of content published on LinkedIn, including posts, articles, videos, and ads. Encourage employees to do the same on their personal accounts. More hashtag touchpoints drive visibility.
Run Regular Analytics Reports
Schedule monthly hashtag performance reports to monitor metrics like impressions, engagement rate, clicks, exposure, top posts, etc. Track trends over time and cover all major branded hashtags.
Adjust Frequently Based on Performance
Let data guide your hashtag strategy. Lean into hashtags driving strong KPIs. Limit use of poor performers. Stay on top of rising hashtag opportunities related to your content. Continually optimize hashtags based on analytic insights.
Conclusion
Analyzing hashtag performance is key to running an effective LinkedIn marketing strategy. Make sure to track core metrics like impressions, engagement, clicks, exposure, and top posts for each hashtag initiative. Rely on LinkedIn’s native analytics, social monitoring tools, Google Analytics, and platforms like Sprout Social or Hootsuite for robust data. Use these performance insights to research relevant hashtags, promote branded terms consistently, respond to trends, and drive continuous optimization. With regular hashtag analytics and optimization best practices, you can boost LinkedIn content reach, engagement, and overall brand awareness.
| Hashtag | Impressions | Clicks | Engagement Rate | Exposure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #EmployeeEngagement | 50,000 | 2,500 | 5% | 1,200 |
| #BrandAwareness | 80,000 | 4,000 | 6% | 1,800 |
| #ThoughtLeadership | 100,000 | 3,500 | 4% | 900 |
Example Hashtag Performance Data
This sample data table displays key hashtag metrics for three branded terms. #EmployeeEngagement is a mid-level performer, while #BrandAwareness is showing strong results. #ThoughtLeadership has high impressions but lower engagement and exposure – indicating optimization opportunities.
Analyze hashtag metrics in this visual format regularly, benchmark against past performance, and use trends to guide your LinkedIn strategy. Continued testing and optimization will improve hashtag success over time.
