How to Search Hashtags on LinkedIn

Searching for hashtags on LinkedIn unlocks a stream of real-time conversations, industry trends, and networking opportunities that you would otherwise miss. This guide walks you through exactly how to find, follow, and leverage hashtags to connect with the right people and content on the platform.

Why Bother Searching Hashtags on LinkedIn?

Actively searching for and engaging with hashtags transforms LinkedIn from a simple resume site into a dynamic tool for professional growth and business development. It's one of the most direct ways to tap into the pulse of your industry.

Here's what you can accomplish:

• Engage with Relevant Conversations: Jump into discussions about topics you genuinely care about. Share your perspective, answer questions, and build relationships with peers and potential clients by being present where they are talking.
• Discover Industry Trends: Hashtags often cluster around new ideas, technologies, and events. By following tags like #AIinMarketing or #FutureOfWork, you can see what leading experts are discussing long before it becomes mainstream news.
• Find Potential Leads: People often use hashtags to voice problems or seek recommendations. Searching for #lookingfor combined with your service (e.g., #lookingfor #copywriter) can surface direct opportunities.
• Analyze Competitor Strategies: See which hashtags your competitors are using to promote their content, launch products, or recruit talent. This gives you insight into their marketing priorities and target audience.
• Identify Influential Voices: Every niche has its key players. Hashtag feeds quickly reveal who is consistently creating valuable content and driving engagement, giving you a list of people to follow and learn from.

How to Search for Hashtags on LinkedIn: The Basics

There are two primary ways to find hashtag-driven content on LinkedIn. Both are straightforward, but they serve slightly different purposes depending on whether you're starting from scratch or have stumbled upon a tag you want to learn more about.

Method 1: Using the Main Search Bar

This is the most direct method when you have a specific topic in mind. Think of it as your starting point for any kind of content research.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Navigate to the Search Bar: At the top of your LinkedIn homepage, you'll find the search bar. This is your command center.
2. Type Your Hashtag: Enter the hashtag you want to search for, including the '#' symbol. For example, you might type #projectmanagement. As you type, LinkedIn will suggest existing hashtags and show their follower counts, which is a great indicator of a tag's popularity.
3. Hit Enter or Select the Hashtag: Press the Enter key to see a general search results page or click on the specific hashtag suggestion (e.g., "#projectmanagement Hashtag"). Clicking the suggestion takes you directly to the hashtag feed.
4. Filter Your Results: If you pressed Enter, you'll land on a general results page. To zero in on the content, use the filter buttons at the top: Posts, Companies, People, Events, etc. For finding conversations, the "Posts" filter is your best friend.
5. Sort by "Top" or "Latest": On the "Posts" filter page, you have two sorting options in the top right.
   • Top: This is the default setting. LinkedIn shows you posts with the highest engagement (likes, comments, reposts). It's great for seeing what content resonates most with a broad audience.
   • Latest: This toggle shows you a chronological feed of every public post using that hashtag. This is ideal for getting a real-time view of a conversation or finding the most recent job postings and news.

Using the search bar is perfect for proactive research, like when you want to create a post about a specific topic and need to see what others are saying first.

Method 2: Clicking on a Hashtag in a Post

This method is more about reactive discovery. You're scrolling through your feed, see an interesting hashtag, and want to see more content like it.

1. Find a Post with a Hashtag: As you use LinkedIn, you'll naturally come across content with hashtags at the end of the post or integrated into the text itself.
2. Click the Hashtag: Any blue hashtag text is a clickable link. Clicking on it will instantly take you to that hashtag's dedicated feed, sorted by "Top" posts by default.
3. Explore and Follow: From here, you're in the same environment as if you had searched for it. You can switch the view to "Latest" or, even better, you can hit the "Follow" button at the top of the page. This is where the magic really happens.

Following Hashtags: A Simple Trick for a Smarter Feed

Casually searching for hashtags is useful, but following them is a game-changer. When you follow a hashtag, you're telling LinkedIn's algorithm, "I'm interested in this topic." As a result, related content will start appearing directly in your main home feed without you having to search for it again.

This turns your feed from a passive stream of updates from your direct connections into a curated source of industry knowledge.

How to See and Manage Your Followed Hashtags

Once you've started following a few tags, how do you keep track of them? On the desktop version of LinkedIn, look at the left-hand navigation panel on your home page. Under your profile snippet, you'll see sections for "Groups," "Events," and "Followed Hashtags." Clicking here gives you a shortcut back to all your favorite topics.

This small habit of following relevant tags compounds over time, making LinkedIn a much more valuable and less noisy place to spend your time.

Advanced Strategies for Hashtag Research

Once you've mastered the basics, you can use hashtags for more focused research. These techniques help you move from being a content consumer to a strategic observer.

1. Combine Hashtags with Keywords and Boolean Search

LinkedIn's search bar is more powerful than it looks. You can use standard keywords and Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to refine your search immensely.

• Keyword + Hashtag: Say you're a freelance writer looking for new clients. Instead of just searching #hiring, try searching for "looking for a writer" #hiring. The quotation marks search for that exact phrase.
• Boolean AND: To find content that mentions two distinct topics, use AND. For example: #contentstrategy AND #b2bmarketing will only show posts that include both hashtags.
• Boolean OR: Use OR to broaden your search for related topics. For example: #ai OR #machinelearning shows posts that contain either hashtag.
• Boolean NOT: Use NOT to exclude terms from your search. If you're looking for a senior role, you might search: #productmanager NOT #internship. This filters out irrelevant posts.

2. Analyze Hashtag Feeds, Don’t Just Read Them

When you land on a hashtag feed, look beyond the content itself. Ask these questions to extract more value:

• Who is posting? Are the top posts coming from large corporate accounts, industry influencers, or regular practitioners? This tells you who "owns" the conversation.
• What formats are performing best? Is it long-form text posts, polls, short videos, or infographics? This is direct feedback on what kind of content works for that specific topic.
• What questions are people asking? Read the comments. People often share their biggest struggles and pain points in the replies. This is a goldmine for content ideas or even product feature ideas.

3. Look for Niche and Community Hashtags

While massive hashtags like #marketing (60M+ followers) are good to know, the conversations are often too broad and noisy. The real value is in more specific tags.

Think in terms of layers:

• Broad Industry Tag: #leadership
• Specific Niche Tag: #servantleadership
• Community Tag: #womeninleadership

Smaller, more specific hashtags often have a more tight-knit and engaged community, making it easier for you to join conversations and get noticed.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Searching for hashtags is simple, but a few common missteps can send you down the wrong path.

• Relying only on 'Top' Posts: The "Top" filter is great for seeing popular content but can hide the day-to-day chatter. Always toggle over to "Latest" to get a true, unfiltered look at what's being discussed right now.
• Ignoring Follower Counts: A hashtag with 500 followers is very different from one with 5 million. When deciding which hashtags to use for your own content, having a mix of both massive and niche tags gives you the best chance of visibility.
• Setting It and Forgetting It: The value of following hashtags is checking in on them regularly. New trends emerge, and conversations shift. Make a habit of reviewing your favorited hashtag feeds at least a few times a week.

Final Thoughts

Becoming proficient at searching and following LinkedIn hashtags is about more than just finding posts, it's an active strategy for market research, lead generation, and professional networking. By moving beyond passive scrolling and proactively engaging with the right conversations, you can position yourself as an informed and connected voice in your industry.

After doing all this research to find the best conversations, the next step is planning and scheduling your own content to join in. To help with that, we built Postbase with a visual calendar that lets you see your entire content strategy at a glance. It saves hours of work by letting you plan, schedule, and analyze your posts across LinkedIn and all your other platforms from one clean dashboard, so you can spend more time engaging and less time juggling tabs.