Tagging people and companies in your LinkedIn posts lets you credit industry experts and colleagues, promote (or shame) organizations, and build your posts’ engagement. Tagged individuals and company representatives get notified by LinkedIn so they can like, respond, comment, and share your posts, which helps you reach a wider audience.
To tag, type @ immediately followed by the person or company’s name. Select the correct profile or company page from the dropdown menu that appears.
Make the most of tagging using these best practices:
- Limit your tags to five people per post to avoid being flagged as spam by the LinkedIn algorithm. Note: You can only tag your connections unless non-connections have commented in the same thread or they allow tagging by non-connections in their settings.
- Enlist “ringers” to comment. Credit authors and industry experts when sharing their content. Tag team members when discussing relevant news, as well as speakers and participants when promoting events.
- Embed tagged names naturally in your content rather than as a block at the end.
- Hide tagged people’s last names by tapping backspace once after selecting their profile. The tag remains active, but only their first name will show.
- If the person has a common name, type @ followed by their name and their company like this: John Doe [Company Name] to find them faster.
- Don’t tag celebrities or others who likely won’t engage with your posts.
Give tagging a twirl. The extra engagement you foster will help your posts reach interested parties on LinkedIn.
Kathy Bernard (kathy@wiseru.com), CEO of WiserU.com, is a St. Louis-based LinkedIn consultant/trainer who equips businesses to maximize LinkedIn for sales, marketing, or fundraising.