Type @ followed by the person's or company's name while writing a post, comment, article, or group message, then select them from the dropdown. The name must be chosen from the suggestion list, not just typed, or no tag is created.
TL;DR
Tagging notifies the person and can extend reach when they engage, but only if the tag is genuinely relevant. LinkedIn's own help pages do not publish a numeric cap on text-post mentions, but they do state a hard limit of 30 people per photo. Over-tagging is widely reported by LinkedIn marketers to reduce reach, so most experienced creators keep it to one to three relevant people per post.
This walkthrough from LinkedIn marketing educator Brenda Meller covers the mechanics of tagging both people and companies inside a LinkedIn post, including the dropdown-selection step that trips up most first-time taggers.
| Surface | Tagging Supported | Where to Type | Notes | Tag Limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feed Posts | Yes | In the post text body while composing | Most common tagging surface. Tags appear as blue clickable links in the published post. | No published cap; see the mention-limit source card below |
| Comments | Yes | In any comment field below a post | Tagging in comments notifies the person and can draw them into a conversation. Useful for introducing two connections. | No published cap; same etiquette range as posts |
| LinkedIn Articles | Yes | In the article body text during editing | Tags in articles send a notification when the article is published. Good for crediting sources or collaborators. | No published cap in the article body |
| Image Captions | Yes | In the caption/description field when uploading a photo | Different from tagging someone directly on their face in a photo. Caption tags work the same as post body tags. | Same etiquette range as post body |
| Photo Face Tags | Yes | In the photo editor after uploading an image | Tag people directly in a photo. The tag appears immediately and the tagged person can remove it from their own profile view afterward. | 30 people per photo (LinkedIn's stated limit) |
| Group Messages | Yes, group chats only | In a multi-participant conversation thread | LinkedIn's own help documentation covers @ mentions in group chats specifically. The mentioned person must already be part of the chat. | N/A, no numeric cap published |
| 1:1 Direct Messages | Not documented | Not covered in LinkedIn's help pages | LinkedIn's help center documents mentions for posts, comments, articles, photos, and group chats, but not for one-to-one messages. Share a tagged post into a DM instead. | N/A |
Source: LinkedIn Help, Mention people in your posts, Tag people in your photos, and Mention people in messages with multiple participants.
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The steps are the same in principle on desktop and mobile, but the exact tap targets differ enough that it is worth walking through both separately.
Desktop Steps
Mobile App Steps
The same @ pattern works in comments, articles, and group messages on both platforms. The one meaningful difference between desktop and mobile is that the suggestion list on mobile sits directly above the keyboard, which makes it easier to mis-tap a similar name in a long list, so double-check the tapped name before publishing.
Tag When You
Tag people who are genuinely referenced, quoted, or relevant in the post
Tag collaborators when sharing a joint project or co-authored piece
Tag a client when sharing their result, with their permission
Tag an event organizer when sharing your experience from their event
Tag someone whose insight directly prompted the post you are writing
Tag a company when writing about their product, service, or announcement
Do Not Tag When You
Tag five or more people in a single post to artificially boost reach
Tag people who have no connection to the post topic
Tag influencers simply because they have a large audience
Tag the same person repeatedly on unrelated posts
Tag people to notify them rather than to genuinely reference them
Tag colleagues as a substitute for sending them a direct message
30
people can be tagged in a single photo, per image, even across a multi-image post.
View LinkedIn Help: Tag people in your photos0
is the number of official LinkedIn help pages that document mentions inside 1:1 direct messages. Group chats are documented; 1:1 DMs are not.
View LinkedIn Help: Mentions in group messages"LinkedIn members don't need to be your connection in order to mention you or be mentioned by you."
The text-post mention cap is the one number LinkedIn does not publish. Third-party tagging tools report different working ceilings: AuthoredUp cites up to 25 people per text post, while Ordinal's guide cites a technical ceiling of up to 50. Neither number comes from LinkedIn directly, and the gap between them is exactly why this page treats the practical recommendation (one to three relevant tags) as etiquette advice rather than a hard platform rule.
The most common reasons a LinkedIn tag fails: the person's privacy settings block mentions from people outside their network, you typed their name but did not select it from the dropdown (a tag only becomes active once you click the suggestion, not just type the text), the person recently changed their display name, or you are searching a very common name and the right profile is buried in the suggestion list. If nothing appears after typing three or four characters, try adding their employer or job title to narrow the match.
Yes, in most cases. LinkedIn's own help center states that members do not need to be your connection for you to mention them or for them to mention you. Individual users can still restrict who is allowed to mention them in their privacy settings, and LinkedIn notes it may limit mentions of people you are not connected to as a safety measure. If someone has mentions restricted, their name simply will not resolve in the dropdown.
You can edit the text of a published post, but the @ dropdown does not reappear in edit mode, so you cannot add a brand-new tag to an already-published post or comment. If you forgot to tag someone, the practical fix is to mention them in a follow-up comment instead of trying to edit the original tag in.
The most sustainable way to grow LinkedIn reach is consistent, relevant content that earns genuine engagement on its own. Creators who use Lifast to plan and draft posts tend to lean on tags less, because the post itself is doing the work of getting noticed by the right people, not the tag list at the bottom.
LinkedIn has not published the internals of how tagging affects distribution. The pattern below reflects what multiple LinkedIn marketing practitioners and tagging tools consistently report from working with the platform, not a confirmed LinkedIn rule.
| Tagging Pattern | Commonly Reported Effect | Practical Takeaway |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3 genuinely relevant tags | Neutral to positive | Normal or slightly boosted distribution if the tagged person engages |
| 4 to 5 tags, all relevant | Neutral | Still within the range most practitioner guides call safe |
| 6 to 9 tags, mixed relevance | Practitioners report early spam-style suppression | Tagged people are less likely to engage, weakening the reach benefit |
| 10 or more tags on one post | Widely reported as a spam pattern | Multiple guides link this range to reduced distribution and tagged people muting the account |
| Repeated tagging of the same people across posts | Cumulative annoyance, not a single-post penalty | Tagged people are likely to restrict mentions from that account specifically |
Tags and hashtags both appear in LinkedIn posts but work differently, and mixing them up is a common source of wasted effort.
| Dimension | @ Person or Company Tag | # Hashtag |
|---|---|---|
| How to use | Type @ then the person's or page's name | Type # then the topic keyword |
| Who sees it directly | The tagged person or page admins are notified | People following that hashtag see it in a dedicated feed |
| Reach mechanism | Secondary reach through the tagged party's own network, if they engage | Topic-based discovery, independent of any single person |
| Notification sent | Yes, based on the tagged person's settings | No notification to anyone |
| Best use | Credit collaborators, reference sources, announce partnerships | One to three specific, niche hashtags related to the post topic |
| Over-use risk | Reported to suppress reach and irritate tagged people | Reported to have little reach impact either way |
These are the specific situations where a well-placed tag tends to produce genuine relationship value and real reach extension.
Announcing a partnership or collaboration
Tagging the partner company and the individual you worked with on a partnership announcement is one of the highest-value tag situations. Both parties have strong motivation to engage and share, extending reach into their combined networks.
Example phrasing
"Excited to announce our new integration with [Company Tag]. Thanks to [Person Tag] for making this happen over the last 3 months."
Sharing a client result, with permission
Tagging a client when sharing their transformation story gives the post authenticity and often motivates the client to share it with their own network, providing distribution to an entirely new audience.
Example phrasing
"Sharing this with permission from [Client Tag]: 12 months ago they came to us with a 40-day sales cycle. Today it is 11 days."
Crediting a source or insight
If a post was directly inspired by something someone else shared or said, tagging them is both courteous and useful. Most people engage when credited, and the engagement extends reach.
Example phrasing
"[Person Tag] said something in a conversation last week that completely reframed how I think about onboarding. Here it is:"
Event recap posts
Tagging the event organizer and one or two people you met at an event creates a reason for multiple parties to engage, comment, and share, which benefits the post's distribution.
Example phrasing
"Just wrapped [Event Tag]. Three things I took away that are changing how I think about B2B go-to-market this year:"
Podcast or content feature
When you are featured on a podcast or in someone else's content, tagging the host is expected etiquette and produces mutual benefit: both audiences are introduced to the other.
Example phrasing
"Had a great conversation with [Host Tag] on [Podcast Tag] this week about why most LinkedIn strategies fail in month two."
Most tagging problems people run into are one of these seven, in roughly this order of frequency.
Typing a name without selecting it from the dropdown. The single most common tagging failure. If the name is not highlighted blue in the composer before you publish, no tag was created and the person received no notification.
Tagging a common name without narrowing the search. Names like "John Smith" return a long suggestion list. Add the person's employer, job title, or a distinctive word from their headline to find the right profile instead of guessing.
Trying to add a tag after the post is already published. The @ dropdown does not work in edit mode. You can fix typos and formatting after publishing, but you cannot create a new active tag that way.
Assuming a DM tag works the way a post tag does. LinkedIn documents mentions for group chats, not one-to-one direct messages. If you need someone to see a tagged post, send them the post link in a DM instead.
Stacking multiple tags at the end of a post with no context. A row of names with no sentence around them reads as an attempt to farm notifications rather than a genuine reference, and tagged people are less likely to engage with it.
Tagging someone before checking their privacy settings allow it. If a person has restricted mentions to their connections, your tag will simply fail to resolve. This is not a bug, it is the setting working as intended.
Re-tagging the same people on every post regardless of relevance. Repeated, low-relevance tags are the fastest way to get muted or have a person restrict mentions from your account specifically.
When a tagged person engages with a post, that engagement gets surfaced to their own network, which is the legitimate reach mechanism behind tagging. A well-placed tag on a post the tagged person finds genuinely relevant produces meaningful secondary distribution. A tag on a post the person finds irrelevant produces nothing, because they simply do not engage with it.
The math of tagging is straightforward: one tag on a post that resonates with the tagged person is worth more than ten tags on a post that feels random to everyone tagged. Relevance determines the value of a tag, not quantity. A founder who tags the CEO of a company they just partnered with on an announcement post is likely to see real secondary reach. A founder who tags ten LinkedIn creators on an unrelated post is more likely to see those tags ignored or removed.
The best-performing tagged posts share a common structure: the post is valuable on its own without the tags, the tags go to specific people who are genuinely relevant, and each tag is worked naturally into the sentence. "Had a great conversation with [tag] this week about enterprise sales cycles" reads naturally. A wall of five names stacked at the end of a post with no context reads as an attempt to force notifications, and both readers and the tagged people tend to notice the difference.
Company page tags work a little differently from personal profile tags. When you tag a company page, the notification goes to that page's admin team rather than a single inbox. Admins can then re-share or engage with the post from the company account, which can put your post in front of the company's entire follower base. For B2B founders and marketers, this makes company tags on partnership announcements, case studies, or event recaps worth using deliberately.
Personal profile tags and company page tags can be combined in the same post. A post about a completed project might tag the client company and the individual contact you worked with directly. Both can engage, which means the post has two separate paths into two separate audiences instead of one.
One practical detail: company tags require searching for the exact company name and selecting the official page from the dropdown, the same way person tags require selecting a suggestion. Typing a name without picking it from the list will not create a functional tag and will not send a notification, so always check that the tagged name renders as a blue hyperlink in the post preview before publishing.
Creators who post consistently on LinkedIn tend to tag sparingly and only when the tagged person is directly referenced in the content. That restraint is not arbitrary; it produces tags that generate genuine replies instead of being scrolled past or quietly removed, and posts that respect people's attention tend to earn more of it over time.
A simple filter before tagging anyone: would you tag this person in a text message about the same topic? If yes, the tag is probably appropriate. If the honest answer is "not really, but I want them to see this," it is worth reconsidering. Tags that feel intrusive to the recipient can quietly damage the relationship even if the post itself performs fine.
The most durable use of LinkedIn tags is relational, not promotional. Tagging a collaborator on a shared success, a mentor on a lesson-learned post, or a client on a result post with their permission gives the tagged person a genuine reason to engage. Those small, honest interactions compound into visibility over months in a way that a single mass-tagged post never does.
Understanding tagging from the recipient's side explains why over-tagging backfires. LinkedIn's help documentation confirms that a tagged person is notified in-app and by email if they have email alerts on, and that they can remove a tag of themselves from a post at any time, control the visibility of mentions in their settings, or restrict who is allowed to mention them at all.
That means every unnecessary tag is a small withdrawal from a relationship, not a neutral action. A person who gets tagged in five unrelated posts a month by the same account is far more likely to restrict mentions from that account, or from everyone, than a person who gets tagged once when it genuinely mattered. The etiquette advice throughout this page follows directly from that mechanic.
The golden rule of LinkedIn tagging: only tag someone if you would be comfortable calling them to say you mentioned them publicly. If the answer is yes, the tag is appropriate. If it feels like a stretch, skip it. Your reputation is worth more than one post's incremental reach.
Everything you need to know about tagging people and companies on LinkedIn.
Type the @ symbol while writing a post, comment, article, or group message, then immediately type the person's name. A dropdown suggestion list will appear. Select the correct person from the dropdown to create an active tag. Their name will appear as a blue hyperlink in the published content. If you type the name without selecting it from the dropdown, no tag is created and the person receives no notification.
If the dropdown does not appear, try these fixes: type at least three to four characters of their exact name as it appears on LinkedIn, check that they have not restricted mentions to connections only, verify you have a stable connection since tag suggestions require a live lookup, or add their employer or job title to narrow a common-name search. If you are tagging a company page, search for the exact official page name and select it from the list.
LinkedIn's own help center does not publish an official numeric limit for text-post mentions. Third-party guides report differing technical caps, for example AuthoredUp cites up to 25 people in a text post, while Ordinal cites up to 50, and neither figure is confirmed by LinkedIn directly. What is officially documented is the photo tagging limit: LinkedIn states you can tag up to 30 people per photo. Regardless of the technical ceiling, most experienced LinkedIn creators recommend staying to three to five genuinely relevant tags per post for etiquette and readability, not because of a confirmed algorithm rule.
By default, yes. Anyone on LinkedIn can tag you in a post, comment, or group message, and you will receive a notification based on your settings. You can control this in Settings and Privacy under Visibility, where you can restrict mentions to first-degree connections only or manage notification preferences. You can remove a tag of yourself from a post at any time, though you cannot prevent someone from attempting to tag you in the first place unless you restrict mentions.
Tagging can help reach when the tagged person engages with the post, because that engagement is then shown to their own network. The benefit depends entirely on whether the tagged person finds the post relevant enough to engage with. Multiple LinkedIn marketing guides report that posts with a large number of tags see reduced distribution, on the theory that LinkedIn treats mass-tagging as a spam signal similar to engagement-bait phrasing. LinkedIn has not published the exact mechanics of this, so treat it as a well-corroborated practitioner pattern rather than a confirmed rule, and default to a small number of genuinely relevant tags.
Yes. After uploading a photo in a post, you can tag people directly in the image using LinkedIn's photo tagging tool, up to 30 people per photo according to LinkedIn's own help documentation. Click the person's position in the photo editor, then search for their name and select it. The tag appears immediately, the tagged person is notified, and they can remove the tag from their own profile view at any time. Photo tagging is separate from @ tagging in the post text body.
LinkedIn's help documentation covers @ mentions in group chats with multiple participants, where you can mention anyone who is already part of that conversation. It does not document an equivalent feature for one-to-one direct messages. If you want someone to see a tagged post while messaging them privately, the practical workaround is to share the link to the tagged post inside the DM.