How to Add Highlights on LinkedIn

Your LinkedIn profile is more than a digital resume, it's your professional storefront. Adding highlights is one of the best ways to grab a visitor’s attention and showcase your biggest accomplishments directly. This guide will walk you through exactly how LinkedIn Highlights work and, more importantly, how you can take control of your profile’s narrative with the powerful Featured section.

What Are LinkedIn Highlights (And How Do They Differ from the Featured Section)?

This is where most people get tripped up, so let’s clarify it right away. On LinkedIn, there are two distinct ways to showcase your accomplishments, and they serve different purposes:

• The "Highlights" Feature: This is an automated feature managed by LinkedIn. You don't manually add these. Instead, LinkedIn’s algorithm identifies key milestones from your profile - like a new job, a work anniversary, or a promotion - and prompts you to create a celebratory post about it. Think of it as LinkedIn giving you a little nudge to share your recent successes with your network.
• The "Featured" Section: This is a manually curated section right below your "About" summary. This is your personal gallery, your portfolio, your highlight reel. You have 100% control over what goes here, whether it’s your best-performing post, a link to your company’s website, a project case study, or a media mention.

When people search for "how to add highlights on LinkedIn," they are usually looking for the control and customization offered by the Featured section. Both are valuable, but knowing the difference is the first step. The Highlights feature helps you celebrate moments as they happen, while the Featured section provides a permanent showcase of your absolute best work.

Why Both Highlights and Featured Content Matter for Your Personal Brand

Leveraging both of these features is a smart move for building your professional presence. They work together to paint a complete picture of your career journey and expertise.

Benefits of Automated Highlights:

• It keeps you top of mind. When you share an automated highlight (like a work anniversary), it appears in your network's feed, reminding them of your expertise and professional journey. Consistency builds authority.
• It signals career momentum. A feed with regular updates about promotions, new roles, and milestones demonstrates growth and forward movement, which is attractive to recruiters, clients, and collaborators.
• It creates an easy engagement opportunity. These posts are celebration-focused, making it simple for your network to congratulate you, which boosts your visibility on the platform thanks to the algorithm.

This is LinkedIn's way of encouraging you to share the good news, even when you're too humble or busy to broadcast it yourself. It automates celebration.

Benefits of the Manual Featured Section:

• You control the narrative. You get to decide exactly what a visitor sees first. It's your chance to direct their attention to what matters most - your portfolio, your groundbreaking article, or a powerful client testimonial.
• It provides social proof. You can feature a post with hundreds of likes and thoughtful comments, instantly showing visitors that your content resonates with others.
• It functions as a portfolio. For creatives, consultants, and freelancers, the Featured section acts as an instant portfolio, allowing you to showcase case studies, designs, and project outcomes without requiring someone to leave your LinkedIn profile.
• It can generate leads. You can link directly to a consultation booking page, a newsletter sign-up, or a product page, turning your profile into a tool for business development.

Now, let's get into the practical steps for using both.

How to Manage LinkedIn’s Automated Highlights

Since this feature is prompted by LinkedIn's algorithm, you can't just go in and "add" a highlight whenever you want. Instead, your job is to give LinkedIn the right information so it can create these opportunities for you.

Step 1: Keep Your "Experience" and "Education" Sections Updated

LinkedIn's algorithm is smart, but it can only work with the data you provide. The most common triggers for Highlight suggestions are changes to your profile. Make it a habit to update your profile immediately when you:

• Start a new job.
• Receive a promotion (and a new title).
• Reach a work anniversary date.
• Complete a degree or a significant certification program.

Updating these sections is the action that tells LinkedIn, "Hey, something important just happened in my career."

Step 2: Watch for the Prompt from LinkedIn

After you update your profile, LinkedIn will often send you a notification asking if you’d like to share the news. This notification might appear directly on your screen after you save a change, in your "Notifications" tab, or even as an email. It will typically say something like, "Notify your network about your new role?" or "Celebrate your work anniversary with a post?"

Just say yes! This is your cue.

Step 3: Customize and Publish Your Highlight Post

When you agree to the prompt, LinkedIn will generate a standard post, but do not post the generic text. This is your chance to add your own voice and context. A little customization goes a long way.

Instead of just letting it say, "I'm happy to announce I'm starting a new position as Marketing Manager at XYZ Corp," add some personality and gratitude:

"So excited to share that I'm stepping into a new role as Marketing Manager at XYZ Corp! I'm incredibly grateful to my previous team at ABC Inc. for three amazing years of growth and collaboration. A huge thank you to [Name of Recruiter/Manager] for making this a seamless process. Ready to dive in and help the XYZ team [mention a specific goal or mission]. Let's connect!"

Adding a personal touch, tagging relevant people or companies, and including a few strategic hashtags will dramatically increase the reach and impact of your highlight.

Your True Power: A Step-by-Step Guide to the "Featured" Section

This is where you build your professional showcase. The Featured section is the prime digital real estate on your LinkedIn profile. Here's exactly how to use it.

Finding and Enabling the Featured Section

If you don’t have a Featured section on your profile yet, it's easy to add.

1. Go to your LinkedIn profile page.
2. Click the Add profile section button located below your name and headline.
3. In the dropdown menu, select Recommended.
4. Click Add featured.

Once you’ve done this, the Featured section will appear on your profile, ready to be populated with your best stuff.

How to Add Content to Your Featured Section

Once the section is visible, you'll see a plus sign (+). Clicking it gives you a few options for content you can add:

1. Feature Your Best Posts

Have a post that sparked a ton of conversation or perfectly captures your perspective? Feature it! When you click the (+) icon and select Posts, LinkedIn will show you a list of your recent activity. Simply select the post you want to feature, click the "Feature" button at the bottom, and it will be added to your profile.

2. Feature Your LinkedIn Articles

If you've published articles on LinkedIn Pulse, this is the perfect place to make them visible. Longer-form content establishes you as a true authority in your niche. Choose the Articles option to see a list of everything you’ve published and select the one you’re most proud of.

3. Feature External Links

This option turns your profile into a gateway to your broader online presence. You can link to anything:

• Your personal portfolio website.
• A recent blog post you wrote on your company's site.
• A press mention or media feature.
• The registration page for a webinar you're hosting.
• A podcast episode where you were a guest.

Just paste the URL, and LinkedIn will create a preview card with an image, title, and description. You can edit this text to make it more compelling.

4. Feature Media (Documents, Photos, Presentations)

This allows you to upload files directly. It's incredibly powerful for providing tangible proof of your skills. Consider uploading:

• A PDF of a case study.
• Your professional resume or CV.
• Presentation slides you delivered at a conference.
• High-quality images of a project or product designs.
• A polished sales one-pager.

Managing and Reordering Your Featured Content

You’re not stuck with the order in which you add things. Simply click the pencil icon in the top-right corner of the Featured section. A new window will appear showing all your featured items. You can use the three-line icon (☰) to drag and drop your items into the exact order you want. Put your most important piece of content first. You can also edit or delete featured items from this same menu.

Strategic Ideas: What Should You Feature on Your Profile?

The "what" is just as important as the "how." The content you feature should align with your professional goals. Don’t treat it like a random collection, think of it as a curated exhibit tailored to your ideal audience.

For Job Seekers:

• A killer case study: Don't just list a skill. Upload a PDF that shows how you used that skill to achieve a specific outcome (e.g., "How I Increased Web Traffic by 50% Through a Content Strategy Overhaul").
• Your portfolio link: Make it effortless for recruiters to see your work. Put your website link right at the front.
• Your best "I'm a great team player" post: Feature a post where you publicly praised your team for a win or shared insights from a successful collaboration.

For Freelancers &, Consultants:

• Client testimonials: Screenshot a glowing review (with permission!) and share it as a post, then feature it. Social proof is priceless.
• A link to book a call: Use a link to your Calendly or booking page with a clear call-to-action like, "Ready to grow your brand? Book a free 15-minute discovery call."
• A lead magnet: Feature a link to download a free guide, checklist, or ebook. It shows your expertise and helps build your email list.

For Founders &, Business Leaders:

• A company announcement: Feature the post about your latest product launch, funding round, or major partnership.
• A thought leadership article: Put your most insightful article front and center to establish your authority and vision.
• A link to your "About Us" or "Careers" page: Direct profile visitors to deepen their connection with your brand or see available opportunities.

Always remember to swap out content regularly. As you create new, better content or achieve bigger wins, ensure your featured section reflects that.

Final Thoughts

In short, mastering highlights on LinkedIn involves a two-part approach. First, you need to keep your profile updated to trigger LinkedIn's automated celebratory Highlights. Second, and more importantly, you must take full control of your narrative by strategically curating your "Featured" section to act as a dynamic, professional portfolio that aligns with your goals.

Once you’ve got your profile looking sharp, the next step is sharing great content consistently. We built Postbase because we knew the chaos of creating and scheduling content across multiple platforms was a huge bottleneck for people. Seeing your entire content strategy on one visual calendar, scheduling posts reliably across all your accounts, and engaging with your audience from a single inbox makes it much easier to create the kind of valuable, standout posts you’ll be proud to feature on your LinkedIn profile.