Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Flipboard 3 DID YOU KNOW: 65% OF B2B COMPANIES HAVE ACQUIRED A CUSTOMER THROUGH LINKEDIN? As you know, I have always been a huge fan, and advocate of LinkedIn but they have always had one downfall. The likes of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest have extensive hashtag search functionality which is where LinkedIn has fallen short… until now. LINKEDIN AND HASHTAGS With 1 in every three professional on the planet using LinkedIn and social media being a huge part of how small businesses connect with their target audience, it was no secret that LinkedIn’s users were getting frustrated with the lack of hashtag search functionality. Just two weeks ago a member of my private Facebook Group who had previously taken part in my 6 week social media bootcamp had asked whether it’s worth using hashtags on LinkedIn and my answer at the time was no. After LinkedIn’s latest blog, titled “Tap Into Professional Knowledge with Content Search at LinkedIn” my answer has now changed. LinkedIn had the following to say about LinkedIn and Hashtags; “Hashtags included in your posts (or others) are now tappable and lead to search results so that you can discover other posts with the same hashtag. Simply add a hashtag to your post and it will be automatically available publicly, or if you want it to be only visible to your connections you can easily change your sharing settings (more on privacy below). As you would expect, you can also search for a hashtag to see all public posts tagged with it.” This is a great step forward for LinkedIn as hashtags have become a huge part of every small businesses social media strategy. This new hashtag functionality is only available on the Mobile App but LinkedIn have said they will be launching their new functionality to all members, on all platforms. The LinkedIn and hashtags update is not the only news coming from LinkedIn over the last week. NEW SEARCH FUNCTIONALITY We have all found a piece of content we have wanted to share whilst inside a social network and all of a sudden it disappears into the “social media noise”. LinkedIn have now made it easier for you to find a piece of content through keyword search under the posts tab. If you want to keep up-to-date with a specific topic inside of LinkedIn use their new content search functionality. This will give you access to the latest conversations, ideas, and overall content surrounding a specific topic. What are your thoughts about LinkedIn introducing hashtags to the B2B social network? Twitter Tweet Facebook Share Email This article was written for Business 2 Community by Warren Knight.Learn how to publish your content on B2C Author: Warren Knight Follow @warrenknight Professional Speaker, Top 100 Global Influencer, Digital Transformation (DX) Strategist, award-winning technology entrepreneur, blogger and author of Think #Digital First with over 10 years experience online. Warren’s vision is to help 100,000 global businesses successfully sell more products and services through the strategic use of digital marketing by 2020. To… View full profile ›More by this author:How-To Attract Online Visitors and Generate New LeadsHow To Build a Business Website in 2019Digital Sales Strategy in a Customer Centric World