What Is LinkedIn's Featured Section?
The featured section of LinkedIn is part of your personal profile and not part of a LinkedIn community or company website. It lets you highlight posts selected and add links to external websites, images, or documents.
This section is located between the section About and Action, to the top of your profile. If you do not see this section, it is probably because you are not yet able to access it. LinkedIn rolls it out to all participants, slowly.
If you are wondering how to use the Featured feature, certain circumstances are obviously important like a job hunt. Showcasing the right material will distinguish you from other candidates and leave a clear impression in the minds of a decision maker.
But don't forget we're all in the business of creating a personal brand. Your profile's Featured segment will help you express your personal brand to anyone — prospective clients and clients, reference sources, and others. Small business owners may use this room to display their best deals on their profile. Think leaders should post posts or videos of their own. Employees are encouraged to highlight projects of interest.
The answer is not so much if you should use this new feature, but rather how you’ll use it. When you have a free tool at your disposal that allows you to feature your skills more prominently, it makes sense to spend a few minutes to focus on your LinkedIn profile and use it to your best advantage.
To add a featured piece of content to your profile, scroll to the Featured section and click the Add Featured link. When you click on this icon, you’ll see a drop-down menu with the options to select posts, article, links, and media. The following sections discuss each of these options in detail.
1. Feature a LinkedIn post that you have created or listed
You can flag a recently posted LinkedIn update to your timeline as a featured post, if you select the Posts option from the drop-down menu shown above. LinkedIn will provide you with your most recent articles to choose from. Scroll through this list to find a post that you want to appear on. Before making a list, you can see the social proof at each article.
Click on the star icon in the bottom-left corner of the post preview to set it as a featured post if you consider a post which has a good number of likes and comments.
Click on the blue Done button in the lower-right corner of the box after you have made your pick. In your Featured section you can now see the most recently selected article, along with preview information for that article. Viewers can view the full post by clicking on the preview.
Note that if you haven't posted to your LinkedIn profile, you'll need to publish a post on your timeline first so that the Featured tool can bring the post into this new section of your profile.
I like to highlight LinkedIn articles in my Featured section because I can get out of the material twice the life. Firstly, the post is published on my blog, enabling my personal network to see it. Then, by setting it as a featured piece of content, I can get even more life off the message. Many of the posts that I put up as featured posts continued to receive attention weeks later, simply because people view them from my profile.
2. Highlight an article that you posted on LinkedIn
You can select from the library of articles you have previously published on LinkedIn if you want the option to include an article on your profile. As with a post, you must have already published an article on LinkedIn before you can use this method.
Click the plus button in the Highlighted section of your profile to add an post, and click the plus button next to Articles from the drop-down menu.
You will then see a list of recent posts that you have written on LinkedIn. Before selecting it, you can show the social proof and general output of each post.
Scroll through your recent articles before you find one that you're proud to include and want to. To make your pick, click on the Star icon in the lower-left preview corner.
Click the Blue Finished button in the lower-right corner of the pop-up window to set the item as a featured piece of content when you're finished.
3. Feature a Connection to a Resource Off the Platform
You will be connecting to a third-party web page when you add a link to your Featured site. This can be useful to highlight different products or services, portfolio pages, other sites doing spotlights on your company, and more. You can also include a link to a video which, if you have a YouTube channel you want to include, can be a great option. With what types of pages you want to use here you can really get creative.
Click on the plus icon in your Featured section to add a link, and then click the plus icon in the drop-down menu to the right of Links.
Copy and paste your URL into the box under the pop-up window. Then press the Add Blue button at the right bottom to step forward.
Now check out the content previewed that LinkedIn pulled in. Be sure that every image shows up on the original URL as a featured image, so that it is properly pulled into LinkedIn. If the title and definition you preview doesn't suit what you want to express, you can rewrite them if appropriate.
Click on the blue Save button in the bottom right to add the link to your profile when you're pleased with the preview of your page.
4. Upload and Highlight Noticeable Documents
If you want unique images, PDFs or other documents to feature, you can do so using the fourth option: Media. This is a perfect way to highlight a presentation or graphical feature you have worked hard on. And while not as visual, you can also feature longer written articles, which could be suitable to highlight your copywriting skills or even a thesis.
Click the Plus button next to Media in the drop-down menu to add documents to your Featured section. LinkedIn will automatically open a window when you do so to allow you to scan your computer for the correct file you want to add.
LinkedIn will generate a thumbnail preview of your media element once you pick it. Scroll down the window to check the fields Title and Description. The title and summary can be changed if appropriate. LinkedIn does not pull in a summary for most media files so you'll need to write something for the Featured Preview. Note, this is another part of your profile where you can strategically use keywords which can make your profile appear in more search results.
When you're done with your document's title, summary and media sample, press the Save Blue button to link it to your featured content items.
Customize the structure of the service you have
You may want to make some changes after you've added a few things to your featured content. You may remember that you want to delete those objects, or maybe you want to rearrange the order. LinkedIn lets you do the two.
To later change your content, simply click on the pencil icon at the top right of the Featured section.
A box that lists all of the stuff you have featured will pop up.
To delete an item from this list, simply swipe over and select the Delete From Featured button at the bottom left of the item preview.
To rearrange the content featured, consider the icon of four stacked lines located at the top right of the preview of each object. Selecting this icon will shift the cursor to the "move" device, and you can drag things around to rearrange them. The things at the top of the list are first seen from left to right.
To save your changes press the Blue Finish button.
Conclusion
LinkedIn's latest Featured segment is a small feature but it can make a big difference. It helps you to optimize the content you've already shared on LinkedIn, as well as notable external links and projects to add. Don't skip this feature to get the attention it deserves from your work and to give more life to content that has already performed well in the past.
What are your thoughts? Did you add any content or links to your LinkedIn profile Featured section? Why do you make the most of this tool? Tell your ideas in the comments below.
