Featured Section Playbook
Why it matters
- 80% of users leave Featured empty — filling it well is a free edge
- Featured content drives 30% longer viewing time on your profile
- It's the only section where YOU choose what's shown first — use it
Quality over quantity
3 strong items > 10 weak ones. Rotate quarterly.
Content types allowed
- Posts (your own, especially top performers)
- Articles (LinkedIn native or external)
- External links (blog posts, newsletter issues, landing pages)
- PDFs (one-pagers, case studies, checklists)
- Presentations (decks you've given)
- Videos (demos, talks, explainers)
Custom thumbnails
- Dimensions: 1200 x 627 px
- Use benefit-driven titles, not generic descriptions
- ❌ "My blog post about sales" → ✅ "How we cut CAC 62% in 90 days"
- ❌ "Case study PDF" → ✅ "B2B SaaS pipeline teardown (live client data)"
- High-contrast background, bold sans-serif text, minimal decoration
Goal-matched content
If your goal is clients
- Lead magnet — free guide, template, or tool that solves one acute problem your ICP has
- Case study with results — named client + specific metric + before/after
- Calendar booking link — direct path to a call (Calendly, Cal.com, Savvycal)
Example:
- Featured 1: "The 7-question audit I run before taking a client" (PDF)
- Featured 2: "How we took [Client X] from $40K MRR to $120K in 6 months" (case study)
- Featured 3: "Book a free pipeline teardown" (calendar link)
If your goal is job seeking
- Portfolio / personal site — your best work samples
- Top-performing LinkedIn post — demonstrates voice + engagement
- Signature project — a GitHub repo, design case study, or published research
Example:
- Featured 1: "15 projects I shipped this year" (personal site)
- Featured 2: "Why I rebuilt our data pipeline from scratch" (top post)
- Featured 3: "Open-source agent framework" (GitHub)
If your goal is authority
- Best content piece — the post or essay you're most proud of
- Media / podcast feature — external validation
- Newsletter signup — gets the visitor off LinkedIn and into your owned channel
Example:
- Featured 1: "Why SaaS pricing is broken — my 3,000-word teardown" (article)
- Featured 2: "I was on The Operator Podcast — full episode here" (external)
- Featured 3: "The Weekly Teardown — join 12K+ subscribers" (newsletter)
Rotation schedule
- Quarterly audit: replace any item older than 12 weeks OR that got less engagement than its successor
- After a viral post: pin the viral post within 48 hours while the momentum is live
- Before a launch: rotate Featured to showcase the thing you're launching (lead magnet, waitlist, beta)
Anti-patterns
- Featuring your current company's corporate blog post (better to feature your own content about it)
- Generic "About our services" PDF (nobody downloads)
- A 2019 webinar recording (feels dated)
- Random "selected writing" — be deliberate, not kitchen-sink
- Leaving default Featured content from a connection's post