A guide to what to share in the "Featured" section of your LinkedIn profile.

The team at LinkedIn is always creating new ways to share content with the people looking at our profiles and the Featured section is one of my favorite additions in recent years. What was once called "Add Media" is now a Featured area with lots of options and opportunities for you to enrich people's experience with your profile.

First things first, if you don't see a Featured section on your profile head to the "Add profile section" button that appears below your name and headline statement.

You have the option to add Posts, Articles, Links and Media in your Featured Items.

Before you add anything think on this question: For the person you MOST want to look at your profile what would be a meaningful NEXT STEP for them when looking at your profile?

It might be:

• Information about you,
• your company,
• your expertise,
• your most helpful status update from LinkedIn,
• an article you wrote on LinkedIn,
• building credibility for you personally with an article you've been quoted in,
• a media piece you were featured in,
• a video of yours on YouTube,
• a place to subscribe for updates from you via email,
• a freebie from your company like an ebook,
• a link to register for an upcoming virtual event,
• or the latest research your organization was sourced in.

As you're picking content prioritize in this way:

1. Recency - you do not want really dated content here unless it's REALLY impressive like being in Oprah Magazine or being on a tv show as an expert.
2. Featuring you or your area of expertise - even if you are not credited in the content we're not thinking about YOU for this section as we are thinking about the person looking at your LinkedIn profile. What can you share in this section that would help that person?
3. Content that will enrich their experience with your profile VISUALLY. This is key, in order for an image to be populated in the Featured section there needs to be either a designated "Featured Image" on the webpage or on the post. You want a picture in this section - if it doesn't have a picture pulling in with the Link then it's not a good choice to feature.

In my Featured section I share:

• My podcast (Real Women in Business with Cass McCrory) as that's where I most frequently want to direct people to learn more about me and the work I'm doing in the world - the most recent episode #101 I'm sharing my Un-Planner approach to planning.
• The 3 actions to take today after you've updated your LinkedIn profile because that's a piece of content I reference regularly as I'm leading large LinkedIn training sessions with executives on establishing their personal brand on LinkedIn.
• Finally, I share a post from Ina Patel Lawrence on the importance of speaking someone's name and share a LinkedIn Tip to record the pronunciation of your name. Each of these are great "next steps" for anyone looking at my profile and MOST specifically for the person I WANT to look at my profile (like you!).

Was this helpful? I would so appreciate you clicking the Like button and if you think it would help someone else in your network click the share button. When you share content that other people find useful and actionable (my big goal) then they credit YOU with making the introduction and their opinion of you is elevated!