Gone are the days when a standard resume or a few generic endorsements were enough to land your dream job or attract new business prospects. In today's digital age, having a strong online presence is essential to stand out from the crowd. And the LinkedIn Featured section is one way to make that happen.
Table of Contents
Let’s dive deep into the world of LinkedIn's Featured section and provide you with tips and tricks on how to leverage it to your advantage. We'll guide you through the process of creating a compelling Featured section, highlighting the key elements you should include, and sharing best practices to make your section stand out.
What is the LinkedIn Featured Section?
LinkedIn's Featured section is a powerful tool that enables users to showcase their professional accomplishments in a visually appealing and easily accessible way. This section is strategically located between the About and Activity sections of your profile, making it a prime location for your most noteworthy work samples and media mentions.
In the past, job seekers had to rely on a traditional resume to showcase their skills and experience. However, with the evolution of social media and online platforms like LinkedIn, job seekers now have the opportunity to create a digital presence that allows them to highlight their work in a more dynamic and interactive way.
With LinkedIn's Featured section, users can showcase a variety of content types, including posts, links to external websites, images, or documents. This allows professionals from all industries to display their skills and accomplishments in a way that best reflects their strengths and experiences.
Why Use the LinkedIn Featured Section?
The Featured section on LinkedIn is a game-changer for anyone looking to create a strong personal brand and stand out from the crowd. It is an excellent way to showcase your most impressive work, highlight your achievements, and promote your business offerings.
Whether you're a small business owner, a thought leader, or an employee, the Featured section can help you leave a lasting impression on potential clients, employers, and decision-makers.
It’s not a matter of whether you should use it, but rather, how creatively and effectively you can utilize it to showcase your unique talents, skills, and strengths and grow your network. However, as your network grows, LinkedIn management becomes an essential part of utilizing the platform to its fullest potential.
By strategically connecting with other professionals and engaging with their content, you can expand your reach and build valuable relationships. It's important to be intentional about who you connect with, making sure they align with your professional goals and interests.
One of the best things about the Featured section is that it's customizable. You can choose which posts or projects to highlight, and you can change them whenever you like. This feature allows you to tailor your profile to your specific audience, whether that's potential employers, clients, or colleagues.
Here are some additional benefits to consider:
- Showcasing your expertise: The Featured section provides an opportunity to highlight your best work and showcase your expertise, helping potential clients or employers better understand your capabilities and areas of expertise.
- Differentiating yourself from others: With so many people on LinkedIn, it's important to find ways to stand out. The Featured section is an excellent way to differentiate yourself from others in your industry and make a lasting impression.
- Creating a personal brand: By featuring your work and highlighting your accomplishments, you can create a personal brand on LinkedIn. This can help you establish yourself as a thought leader in your field, and attract new opportunities.
- Promoting your business: For small business owners, the Featured section is a great way to showcase your products or services. That way, you can attract new customers and build your brand.
- Highlighting notable projects: If you're an employee, the Featured section can be used to highlight notable projects you've worked on. This can help you demonstrate your value to your current employer and potentially attract new job opportunities.
How to Use LinkedIn Featured Section For Sales?
If you want to boost your sales and lead generation on LinkedIn, your featured section, which is one of the first things visitors see on your profile, is the perfect place to showcase your business, offers, or skills.
There are four distinct structures you can use to optimize your LinkedIn featured section for sales:
- Three Featured Structure: This structure segments your LinkedIn connections into leads, low-ticket, and high-ticket customers. You can implement it by providing a free resource, a low-ticket product/service, and a high-ticket product/service. This approach gives your audience different ways to interact with your content and pushes them through your sales pipeline.
- Free Resource Lead Generation Structure: This structure focuses on generating leads by providing different types of ebooks or resources for different user personas. Each resource should ask visitors for their email, which you can use for promotion or cold campaigns.
- Single Offer: Displaying just one offer is a clear and direct approach that won't overwhelm potential customers. This structure is effective if you have a single product or service offering, especially for high-value B2B products.
- “Book a Call” Featured Section: This structure is ideal for SaaS businesses that want to present a demo to potential customers who view their profile. By including a “Book a Call” CTA, you can encourage visitors to schedule a meeting with you.
By following these best practices, you can take advantage of the many benefits that come with using LinkedIn Featured Section to showcase your work and promote your personal brand.
- Using links instead of posts, for example, gives you much greater control over how your content appears, allowing you to craft a more polished and professional look for your profile. You can easily edit the title, description, and thumbnail to make sure that your content looks exactly the way you want it to.
- Placing your most important links on the left side is another great way to make sure that your content gets seen by the people who matter most. Web users 80% of their time viewing the left half of the page, so putting your most important links on the left-hand side of your profile ensures that they're more likely to be seen and clicked on.
- Using a title field as a hook is another great way to get people interested in your content. By crafting a compelling and attention-grabbing title, you can create curiosity and encourage people to click on your links to learn more.
- Ensuring proper formatting, such as using short descriptions when necessary, is also important for creating a professional and polished look for your profile. By keeping your descriptions concise and to the point, you can make sure that people are able to quickly and easily understand what you have to offer.
- Finally, staying within the 50-character limit for your title is essential if you want to make sure that your title is displayed in full. Keeping your title short and sweet to ensure that it's not cut off or truncated, making it more likely that people will click on your links and engage with your content.
FAQ
How much content can I include in my LinkedIn Featured section?
There is no limit to the number of work samples you can showcase in your Featured section. You have the flexibility to add and remove content at any time.
Who can see the content in my Featured section?
The visibility of your Featured section is controlled by the settings you've chosen for your profile. For example, if you've restricted post visibility to your connections, only your connections will be able to see the content in your Featured section.
Can people without a LinkedIn account view items in my Featured section?
No, viewers must have a LinkedIn account and be logged in to see content within the Featured section of a profile.
How is content ordered in my Featured section, and can I reorder it?
Newly featured content is displayed first in your Featured section by default. You have the ability to reorder your content to control the display sequence.
If I share content from my feed, will it automatically appear in the Featured section of my profile?
To feature content directly from your feed, click the More icon at the top right of the post and select “Add to Featured.” Currently, there is no automatic way to pin uploaded content to the Featured section.
Wrapping Up
Don't let your LinkedIn profile blend in with the crowd! The Featured section is your chance to shine and show off your skills and accomplishments. With its powerful tools, you can easily promote your personal brand, capture the attention of potential clients, and position yourself as a top influencer in your field.
