Now that sharing free updates on LinkedIn has become pretty well pointless, it’s time to up the ante on the other social networks by embracing hashtags.

Amp Up Your Social Recruiting with Hashtags

Hashtags are your way to search across popular social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+ and more, to find content and others people with similar interests. This gives you the opportunity to amplify your reach and start conversations with new candidates.

Unlike LinkedIn, which doesn’t use hashtags, removed Signal (the old way to search for updates), and introduced the new format which intentionally reduces organic post visibility, other social sites see the value of having happy engaged members and easily searchable content.

It’s time to embrace the hashtag.

Simply put, adding # in front of a word makes the word a clickable link and people use hashtags to search, so they’re definitely worth using.

You probably know they work on Twitter. But if you are posting publicly on your personal profile or on your page on Facebook, they’ll also work. They’re essential on Instagram – as you’ll see from the infographic below – and Google+ (yes, yes, I know it is being renamed and split in 2 but its not going anywhere).

Which hashtags do I use?

The easiest way to find out which hashtags to use is to search for some that would, at a guess, make sense. Like this search for #engineeringjobs.

Then try Hashtagify to discover related hashtags, these can then be used in subsequent tweets and posts. (Remembering to break up your feed with lots of non-job post content!)

Instagram makes it super easy by suggesting other hashtags for you under their search button. Tap the magnifying glass, start typing a term, and the hashtag option will appear.

How many hashtags do I use?

You’ll see in the Infographic below, it varies per site.

As a rule of thumb, no more than 2 per tweet on Twitter, and as many as you like on Instagram.

My suggestion for Instagram, is to post your update using a few – that relate to the photograph and your target audience, and then add a separate comment with the rest. This post from Hubspot explains common errors brands make on Instagram and how to fix them.

How else can I use hashtags?

You could create a board on Tagboard. It’s the social hub for hashtags and a great way to keep track of what’s going on. It also tracks the sentiment of a particular hashtag and creates easy content for sharing.

And if you’re looking for an easy way to create content for your blog, try Storify. You can create timelines of popular tweets and posts that can be shared socially or embedded on your blog.

You can browse for others creations or create your own for free. They’re great for events!

For the ultimate guide to hashtags, check out Quick Sprout’s infographic: