GLOSSARY · LINKEDIN MECHANICS
Featured section
The Featured section is an area near the top of a LinkedIn profile where a member can pin selected items for visitors to see first: their own posts, LinkedIn articles and newsletters, external links with a preview image, and uploaded media such as PDFs, images or slides. It sits above the Activity section and below the About section in the standard layout. Because most profile visitors scroll only briefly, the Featured section is the member's best opportunity to put proof of work, an offer or a path to contact in front of a stranger without relying on the feed.
How it works in practice
Think of the Featured section as the shop window of the profile. The headline says what you do, the About section says why it matters, and Featured shows the evidence and gives the visitor somewhere to go. Items appear as cards with a thumbnail and a title, so what you choose and how it looks both matter. Three or four items are usually enough; more than that and the cards scroll off screen and dilute each other. A sensible set for someone building a personal brand: one post that captures their main position, one piece of proof such as a case study or a talk, and one link that leads to a next step, whether a newsletter sign-up, a lead magnet or a booking page.
The links are editable, so you can set the title and description rather than accepting whatever the page provides, and you can upload a custom image. Review the section quarterly. A Featured card pointing at a 2023 webinar or a post with an outdated job title quietly signals neglect. Measure it indirectly: if you add a link to a lead magnet in Featured and tag it with a UTM parameter, you can see how many profile visitors followed it. For most people that number is small but highly qualified, since everyone who clicks it has already read the profile.
Example
A consultant's Featured section has three cards: a post explaining her pricing philosophy, a PDF of a client teardown she was allowed to share, and a link titled "Book a 20-minute scoping call" with a UTM tag so she can count clicks.
Common mistake
Pinning the five most recent posts. Featured is for the items that best represent you and lead somewhere, not a second Activity feed; recent posts already show up below it.