#BehindTheCurtain 18: How To Use Hashtags on LinkedIn

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:02.640 Hey, this is James, the founder of sweet fish media. If you've 2 00:00:02.640 --> 00:00:04.759 listened to me to be growth for a while, you probably have an idea 3 00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:08.750 of what we're passionate about. Loving people really well, a constant pursuit of 4 00:00:08.869 --> 00:00:13.669 learning and inspiring people to own their careers. With all the craziness happening with 5 00:00:13.750 --> 00:00:17.550 this virus, we are incredibly fortunate to be in the business of podcasting. 6 00:00:18.149 --> 00:00:22.219 So many BB brands are looking for alternatives to their inperson events that are being 7 00:00:22.300 --> 00:00:26.780 canceled, and our business is growing as a result. Please don't miss hear 8 00:00:26.859 --> 00:00:30.379 me on this, because I'm not saying this to Brag. It is heartbreaking 9 00:00:30.579 --> 00:00:34.579 the economic impact this is having on so many businesses. But being in the 10 00:00:34.619 --> 00:00:39.170 business of podcasting, the demand for what we do has increased and because of 11 00:00:39.289 --> 00:00:43.130 that we're looking to hire really talented people to help us serve that demand. 12 00:00:43.570 --> 00:00:46.250 So if you like what we're all about it sweet fish and you're looking for 13 00:00:46.329 --> 00:00:49.530 a great career opportunity, hit us up. There's a link in the show 14 00:00:49.570 --> 00:00:52.520 notes where you can apply today. I'm really looking forward to meeting you. 15 00:00:54.759 --> 00:00:59.240 Welcome back to another behind the curtains episode. My name is James Carberry and 16 00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:02.679 I'm joined, as always, by Logan. Lyles, Logan, how you 17 00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:06.069 doing today, my man, I am doing fantastic and in some ways it 18 00:01:06.150 --> 00:01:08.670 feels like it's been a normal few weeks, since I'm part of a fully 19 00:01:08.709 --> 00:01:12.349 remote team, as most people who are familiar with sweet fish are. We 20 00:01:12.430 --> 00:01:15.950 also homeschool, so I feel like I'm fortunate to be kind of ahead of 21 00:01:15.989 --> 00:01:19.379 the game, but the world is still, you know, going crazy all 22 00:01:19.420 --> 00:01:22.099 around us and, you know, still the family is still a little bit 23 00:01:22.099 --> 00:01:25.739 stir crazy, even though we're used to a little bit more staying close to 24 00:01:25.819 --> 00:01:27.540 home. But, all that being said, excited to chat with you as 25 00:01:27.540 --> 00:01:32.099 always. Man. Yeah, as a as an extrovert, this, all 26 00:01:32.140 --> 00:01:37.370 of this social distancing, is is definitely testing, testing my spirit, but 27 00:01:37.489 --> 00:01:40.569 obviously going to be safe and and I got to get to do what we 28 00:01:40.650 --> 00:01:44.170 need to do to flatten the curve and get through this thing. So, 29 00:01:44.769 --> 00:01:48.959 Logan, today what we're going to be talking about is something you've learned. 30 00:01:49.159 --> 00:01:53.959 Your content's been going nuts on linkedin the last few weeks and one thing that 31 00:01:53.120 --> 00:01:59.200 you've learned whe that you're noticing, is that linkedin seems to be taking hashtags 32 00:01:59.319 --> 00:02:02.989 more seriously, and so I wanted to dive in and get you to elaborate 33 00:02:04.230 --> 00:02:07.389 on some of the things that you're learning, specifically as it relates to using 34 00:02:07.550 --> 00:02:12.789 hashtags in your linkedin content. Yeah, absolutely, and I saw this a 35 00:02:13.150 --> 00:02:15.460 few months back when I was getting more consistent, and then here lately it's 36 00:02:15.460 --> 00:02:19.939 just been very top of mind. You know, there for a while I 37 00:02:19.979 --> 00:02:24.180 kind of hesitated to to post multiple times per week or daily because I was 38 00:02:24.259 --> 00:02:28.900 like, well, does that follow up post take away from the potential reach 39 00:02:28.939 --> 00:02:32.370 of the post yesterday right, especially if it is kind of trending upward and 40 00:02:32.449 --> 00:02:36.889 getting a lot of engagement? What I noticed was I had weeks where I 41 00:02:36.969 --> 00:02:39.210 posted all five days, or four out of the five days of the work 42 00:02:39.289 --> 00:02:44.289 week and I would see, you know, a post from let's say Wednesday 43 00:02:44.289 --> 00:02:46.919 and I posted Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. was kind of climbing and getting 44 00:02:46.919 --> 00:02:50.560 engagement and that sort of stuff, and all of a sudden in my notification 45 00:02:50.759 --> 00:02:55.039 feed I would see your post is trending in Hashtag podcasting or be tob or 46 00:02:55.120 --> 00:02:59.270 Mark Keting, and it would be the post from Monday or Tuesday, and 47 00:02:59.430 --> 00:03:01.629 so that to me showed that, hey, I don't need to worry about 48 00:03:01.629 --> 00:03:06.150 putting out too much linkedin isn't going to kind of penalize me for that. 49 00:03:06.590 --> 00:03:08.949 If I'm being consistent, it's actually going to be noticed more, and I 50 00:03:09.030 --> 00:03:14.620 think the Hashtags we're also helping that. I don't think that's the only reason. 51 00:03:14.659 --> 00:03:16.659 I'm not here to say that, like, Oh, start using hashtags 52 00:03:16.699 --> 00:03:20.419 and your linkedin contents going to blow up. Even if it sucks, right, 53 00:03:20.740 --> 00:03:23.379 it's still got to be good content. But I noticed that in my 54 00:03:23.460 --> 00:03:27.530 notification feed that Hey, a post from a few days ago is now trending 55 00:03:27.849 --> 00:03:30.409 and I would see them hang around for a little bit longer to where he 56 00:03:30.409 --> 00:03:34.889 would start to see that plateau, but I'd still be getting, you know, 57 00:03:35.050 --> 00:03:38.289 likes now reactions, because you've got all the different buttons now for reactions 58 00:03:38.370 --> 00:03:43.680 as well as comments and maybe a reshare. So that was something that kind 59 00:03:43.719 --> 00:03:46.199 of clued me into. Okay, I think linkedin's paying attention here. So 60 00:03:46.360 --> 00:03:52.000 I need to start thinking strategically about when and where and how I use hashtags. 61 00:03:52.039 --> 00:03:55.229 And so within that I found some some other quote unquote best practices. 62 00:03:55.349 --> 00:04:00.229 I think, just based on my experience and what seems to be kind of 63 00:04:00.270 --> 00:04:02.789 the direction linkedin is pointing us in, I love it. So what are 64 00:04:02.870 --> 00:04:10.060 some real tactical things that you would want listeners to know, because you've been 65 00:04:10.099 --> 00:04:13.300 learning a lot about like, well, how how do you know which Hashtag 66 00:04:13.460 --> 00:04:16.180 to use? How many do you use? Dive into some of that a 67 00:04:16.300 --> 00:04:20.699 little bit to give some, I don't know, some tactical insight into how 68 00:04:20.740 --> 00:04:25.449 folks should be leveraging these. Yeah, absolutely, and so one of the 69 00:04:25.529 --> 00:04:29.730 things I noticed. So let's take a real timely example here. Not that 70 00:04:29.970 --> 00:04:35.290 we're suggesting, Hey, every post should be coronavirus related or Hashtag covid nineteen 71 00:04:35.490 --> 00:04:39.399 to try and get it in front of more eyeballs, but that's that's one 72 00:04:39.480 --> 00:04:43.199 that we've seen a lot in our in our feeds lately, and I did 73 00:04:43.319 --> 00:04:46.920 have one where I posted about, hey, everybody's working from home, everybody's 74 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:50.160 trying to strike a balance because of this pandemic that's going on, and so 75 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:55.949 I was just curious because I've seen Hashtag coronavirus, I've seen Hashtag covid nineteen, 76 00:04:56.269 --> 00:05:00.350 I've seen Hashtag covid underscore nineteen or nineteen, and I was like, 77 00:05:00.509 --> 00:05:01.670 well, I don't want to just throw in a bunch of those because I 78 00:05:01.709 --> 00:05:06.459 don't I don't like to see posts that are just hashtag stuffed either. So 79 00:05:06.620 --> 00:05:11.540 what I did was just simply in the search bar on the APP on Linkedin, 80 00:05:11.740 --> 00:05:15.819 just like I would search James Carberry or I would search bombmb to find 81 00:05:15.860 --> 00:05:19.180 a company page, you can search Hashtag. So just type in Hashtag and 82 00:05:19.339 --> 00:05:25.529 then marketing or podcasting or covid nineteen, right. And so, for example, 83 00:05:26.050 --> 00:05:30.410 coronavirus and Covid nineteen have like a hundred and ten thousand followers, because 84 00:05:30.410 --> 00:05:33.290 when you type that in, it will give you suggestions on the hashtags, 85 00:05:33.329 --> 00:05:36.720 kind of like Google autosuggest, and then you can touch that and it will 86 00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:41.120 show you post, but at the very top of your phone screen it will 87 00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:45.839 show you how many followers. So, by comparison, covid underscore nineteen has, 88 00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:48.199 you know, only a few hundred followers. So that's an example there. 89 00:05:48.360 --> 00:05:51.910 Again, not saying tag every post coronavirus, but you could use that 90 00:05:53.069 --> 00:05:59.069 with podcasts or podcast or podcasting right and figure out what it has the most 91 00:05:59.110 --> 00:06:01.709 traction. And that way I can either work that in naturally into the post 92 00:06:01.990 --> 00:06:05.379 or that can be one of my first hashtags that I use at the bottom 93 00:06:05.420 --> 00:06:10.899 of the content, because Linkedin is noticing that it is to pulling those and 94 00:06:11.180 --> 00:06:15.180 and putting them to trending status and putting in that in front of more eyeballs. 95 00:06:15.500 --> 00:06:17.300 And then the other thing that the will dive into a little bit more 96 00:06:17.420 --> 00:06:23.610 here is it's actually influencing the url of your linkedin post. If you're like 97 00:06:23.810 --> 00:06:27.850 me and you're part of engagement groups to boost your organic reach on Linkedin, 98 00:06:28.370 --> 00:06:30.930 you you're used to copying the linked to your post and seeing that be just 99 00:06:31.129 --> 00:06:36.439 a ton of numbers. That's changed to where there's actually words in the latter 100 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:41.720 part of that URL and I've noticed that they are correlated to the hashtags that 101 00:06:41.759 --> 00:06:45.439 are in your post. I love it awesome. I've been blown away, 102 00:06:45.639 --> 00:06:48.629 Logan, at your the engagement that you've been getting the last few weeks on 103 00:06:48.750 --> 00:06:53.990 Linkedin, obviously being, you know, finger on the pulse of what's happening 104 00:06:54.069 --> 00:06:58.149 there, what's working and what's not, and so I appreciate you jumping on 105 00:06:58.269 --> 00:07:01.860 here and sharing this, this little nugget about Hashtags, because I have for 106 00:07:01.980 --> 00:07:04.899 longest time I just kind of discounted them. I wasn't really you know, 107 00:07:04.980 --> 00:07:09.300 I was like yeah, whatever. I think I've had one or two that 108 00:07:09.420 --> 00:07:13.259 have showed up and trending, but it's clear that Linkedin is starting to take 109 00:07:13.339 --> 00:07:16.490 these things more seriously. So so I think it's definitely wise for folks listening 110 00:07:16.490 --> 00:07:23.490 to this to at least start start putting some intentional thought into using two or 111 00:07:23.529 --> 00:07:27.810 three hashtags on their posts and thinking strategically about what those Hashtag should be. 112 00:07:28.329 --> 00:07:30.959 Yeah, absolutely, Man. And the other thing I'll add, just going 113 00:07:30.040 --> 00:07:33.959 back to that URL thing, what I've noticed is in the URL to your 114 00:07:34.040 --> 00:07:38.879 post, just to get really tactable here, usually there will be, like 115 00:07:39.040 --> 00:07:43.199 your first one, two or three hashtags will show up in in that URL 116 00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:46.990 and so and in the order that they show up in your post. So 117 00:07:46.509 --> 00:07:50.389 often times, you know, for for us, it might be podcasting and 118 00:07:50.509 --> 00:07:55.230 then be tob and then marketing, and I put them in that order for 119 00:07:55.509 --> 00:08:00.139 very specific reason, because I found that when we share content on podcasting, 120 00:08:00.540 --> 00:08:03.379 you know, people look to us as as folks that are very experienced in 121 00:08:03.420 --> 00:08:07.379 the space, and so even though marketing and B tob are just as applicable 122 00:08:07.459 --> 00:08:11.300 for us, I want podcasting to be that first one. So one do 123 00:08:11.459 --> 00:08:16.649 your searches to figure out what hashtags that are applicable for your post have the 124 00:08:16.730 --> 00:08:20.129 most followers and then lead with those and know that you could put five, 125 00:08:20.329 --> 00:08:22.930 six, seven, eight. I tend not to do like the ten, 126 00:08:24.050 --> 00:08:26.560 twelve hashtags just because I don't don't necessarily like the look of it. But 127 00:08:26.680 --> 00:08:31.360 if you do five or six, make sure that your number one, two 128 00:08:31.480 --> 00:08:35.000 and three, and especially that number one, is the one that's most applicable, 129 00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:39.559 because that the first ones are going to typically have the most impact. 130 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:41.309 And so you can obviously do that one of two ways. Right. You 131 00:08:41.429 --> 00:08:45.590 can just work it into the content, because if I say hey, we 132 00:08:45.669 --> 00:08:48.950 launch a lot of PODCASTS and we're getting this question, I could just work 133 00:08:48.990 --> 00:08:52.269 that Hashtag into the sentence or I can have them down at the bottom of 134 00:08:52.309 --> 00:08:54.190 the post. So, whichever way you go about it, make sure that 135 00:08:54.710 --> 00:09:00.100 the one that is in sequential order in your post makes most sense, it 136 00:09:00.419 --> 00:09:03.659 has the most search and is most relevant to your post. So if you 137 00:09:03.740 --> 00:09:05.659 do those things, I think you're going to see a good bit of lift 138 00:09:05.899 --> 00:09:11.009 to your post from what you're seeing now. I love it awesome. Well, 139 00:09:11.169 --> 00:09:15.690 if you're not already connected with Logan or myself on Linkedin, please head 140 00:09:15.730 --> 00:09:20.289 over to Linkedin and do that. Logan lyles James Carberry. We would love 141 00:09:20.450 --> 00:09:24.169 to connect with you there. Thank you so much for listening. We hope 142 00:09:24.210 --> 00:09:28.200 you and your family are staying safe, that you're that you're staying at home 143 00:09:28.440 --> 00:09:33.399 and getting getting all your your groceries and and everything delivered, so that you 144 00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:37.440 can stay out of the crazysiness that is going around right now and keep your 145 00:09:37.480 --> 00:09:41.350 family and your community safe. So we love you all a ton and thank 146 00:09:41.350 --> 00:09:46.990 you so much for listening. I hate it when podcasts incessantly ask their listeners 147 00:09:48.070 --> 00:09:50.750 for reviews, but I get why they do it, because reviews are enormously 148 00:09:50.789 --> 00:09:54.220 helpful when you're trying to grow a podcast audience. So here's what we decided 149 00:09:54.259 --> 00:09:56.980 to do. If you leave a review for me to be growth and apple 150 00:09:58.059 --> 00:10:03.019 podcasts and email me a screenshot of the review to James at Sweet Fish Mediacom, 151 00:10:03.340 --> 00:10:05.659 I'll send you a signed copy of my new book, content based networking, 152 00:10:05.940 --> 00:10:09.970 how to instantly connect with anyone you want to know. We get a 153 00:10:09.049 --> 00:10:11.490 review, you get a free book. We both win.