How to Highlight a Post on Facebook

Want to make a single Facebook post stand out from everything else on your timeline? While the old highlight feature is gone, you can still grab your audience's attention by pinning, boosting, or creating top-tier organic content. This guide will walk you through all the current methods for making important content the star of your Facebook Page and Group.

What Ever Happened to the "Highlight" Button?

If you've been managing a Facebook Page for a while, you might remember an option to "highlight" a post, which would make it expand to span the full two-column width of your timeline. It was a simple, effective visual trick to draw the eye. However, Facebook is an ever-changing platform, and with one of its many timeline redesigns years ago, this specific feature was removed.

Many users still search for it, expecting to find the button where it used to be. The good news is that while that exact tool is retired, its spiritual successors are even more powerful and strategic. Instead of just making a post wider, today’s tools can "stick" your most important content to the very top of your feed, guaranteeing it's the first thing visitors see. Let's look at the modern way to highlight your content.

Pinning a Post: Your New Highlighting Tool

The single most effective way to "highlight" a post on your Facebook Page today is to pin it. Pinning a post anchors it to the top of your Page's feed. Anyone who visits your Page - whether for the first time or the hundredth - will see that post before anything else in your timeline, regardless of when it was originally published. It's your digital billboard, front and center.

Think of it as the prime real estate on your brand's digital storefront. This is where you put the message you want every single visitor to see. While other posts will flow down the feed in reverse chronological order, your pinned post remains locked in place until you decide to unpin it or replace it with another one.

When Should You Pin a Post?

Pinning is a strategic move, not something you should do for every post. Save it for content that serves a specific, important goal:

• Major Announcements: Are you launching a new product, opening a new location, or rebranding? A pinned post ensures no one misses the big news.
• Hot Promotions or Sales: If you're running a limited-time offer, pinning the details keeps it top-of-mind for anyone visiting your Page.
• Upcoming Events: Promote a webinar, a live sale, or an in-person event by pinning the registration link and essential details.
• An Introduction or Welcome Video: A short video telling visitors who you are, what you do, and why they should follow you is the perfect introductory handshake for new viewers.
• Evergreen Content: Pin a link to your most valuable blog post, a helpful tutorial, or a lead magnet (like a free ebook) to consistently generate traffic and leads.
• A Call for User-Generated Content (UGC): Running a contest or asking followers to share photos with your product? Pin the instructions and an example.
• Your Best Testimonial: A glowing video review or a formatted quote from a happy customer can build instant trust with potential new customers.

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Pin a Post on Your Facebook Page

Pinning a post is incredibly simple and takes less than 30 seconds. Here’s how you do it:

1. Navigate to the Facebook Page you manage.
2. Scroll down your timeline to find the published post you want to highlight.
3. Click the three dots (...) in the top-right corner of the post itself.
4. From the dropdown menu that appears, select "Pin to top of page."
5. The page will refresh, and your chosen post will now appear at the very top of your timeline with a small thumbtack icon and the label "Pinned post." That’s it! The post will stay there until you unpin it using the same three-dot menu.

Best Practices for Pinned Posts

To get the most out of your pinned content, keep these tips in mind:

• Use Eye-Catching Visuals: Your pinned post is a first impression. A grainy photo or a bland graphic won't cut it. Use a high-quality, vibrant image, a compelling video, or an engaging GIF that makes people stop scrolling. Short-form video, in particular, is extremely effective in this spot.
• Write a Killer Opening Line: The first sentence of your caption is what people see first. Make it count. Ask a question, state a bold fact, or get straight to the benefit to hook your reader immediately.
• Include a Clear Call-to-Action (CTA): Don’t just show people interesting content - tell them what to do next. "Shop the sale here," "Register for the webinar," "Download our free guide," or "Share your story in the comments" guide your audience and drive results.
• Keep It Fresh: A pinned post promoting a Black Friday sale in February looks unprofessional and alerts visitors that you aren't actively managing your Page. Review your pinned post weekly or bi-weekly. Is it still the most important message for your audience? If not, change it!

Highlighting Content in Facebook Groups

Facebook Groups offer even more robust highlighting options than Pages, designed to help admins manage community communication and surface important information. If you run a group, you have a couple of fantastic tools at your disposal.

Mark as an Announcement

The most powerful feature in a group is "Mark as an announcement." When you make a post an announcement, it gets pinned to a special "Announcements" tab at the top of the group feed. Even better, you have the option to pin it directly to the top of the main feed for a set period, and it often sends a notification to all group members, ensuring maximum visibility.

This is perfect for group rules, welcome messages, important updates, weekly discussion threads, or event promotions. To do this, find the post, click the three-dot menu, and select "Mark as announcement." You can have multiple announcements, which members can browse through separately.

Pin a Post to the Featured Section

Slightly different from announcements, the "Featured" section (formerly called "Units" or "Guides") allows admins to curate a library of the group's most important and evergreen content. You can organize these posts into themes or guides, making it a perfect spot for onboarding materials, foundational tutorials, or a "best of" collection of your group's content.

Pinning a post to the Featured section turns your group from a simple chronological feed into a structured knowledge base, a tremendous value-add for members.

Putting Money Behind Your Best Content: Boosting and Ads

If pinning a post is like putting a sign in your storefront window, then boosting a post is like taking out a billboard on the busiest highway in town. It is the most direct and powerful way to highlight a post, extending its reach far beyond your existing followers to a new, targeted audience.

What is a Boosted Post?

Boosting is Facebook's simplest form of advertising. You take an existing post that has already been published on your Page and pay to have Facebook show it to more people. You get to define who sees it by selecting demographics like age, location, and interests. A well-performing organic post is often the best candidate for a boost, as the existing engagement signals to the algorithm that the content is already resonating with people.

When to Boost a Post

Boosting isn't for every post, but it's a game-changer for content tied to specific business goals:

• High-Performing Organic Content: Did a post get way more likes and comments than usual? That's your audience telling you "we love this!" Boost it to show that proven winner to thousands more people like them.
• Lead Generation: A post linking to a valuable free resource, a webinar sign-up, or a contact form is a perfect candidate to boost to an audience that might be interested in your services.
• Sales and E-commerce: Driving traffic to a product page or promoting a limited-time offer is one of the most common and effective uses for an ad boost.

A Quick Guide to Boosting a Post

Facebook makes boosting incredibly straightforward:

1. Find the post on your Page and click the blue "Boost Post" button.
2. Choose a goal for your campaign (e.g., Get more website visitors, Get more messages, or Get more engagement).
3. Define your audience. You can have Facebook automatically target people similar to your current followers or you can build a custom audience based on detailed interests, behaviors, and demographics.
4. Set your total budget and the duration you want the ad to run.
5. Add your payment method and click "Boost Post Now."

Your post will go through a brief review process and then start appearing in the feeds of your target audience.

Making Your Posts Pop Without Pinning or Paying

Beyond pinning and boosting, you can make any post feel like a "highlight" by simply creating content that naturally captures attention. These organic strategies work for any post, any time.

Master Your Visuals

We are visual creatures. A standard, boring stock photo won't stand a chance in a busy feed. To create scroll-stopping visual content:

• Prioritize short-form video. Facebook Reels get preferential treatment in the algorithm and are far more engaging than static images.
• Bold brand colors. Develop a consistent color palette that makes your content instantly recognizable.
• Use high-quality imagery. Your photos and graphics should be crisp, clear, and professional. Avoid blurry or pixelated visuals at all costs.
• Show faces. Content featuring people, especially their faces, tends to perform better and build more human connection.

Craft Compelling Captions

Your visuals may stop the scroll, but your words create the connection. Great caption writing is a skill that directly translates to better engagement.

• Open with a hook. Start with a captivating question, a surprising statistic, a relatable story, or a bold statement. Earn the right to their attention in the first line.
• Keep it readable. Break up large blocks of text. Use short paragraphs, bullet points, and emojis to guide the reader’s eye and make the information easy to digest.
• Spark a conversation. Instead of just broadcasting information, invite interaction. Ask your audience to share their opinion, offer advice, or tag a friend. Then, make sure you reply to their comments!

Final Thoughts

The classic "Highlight" feature may be a thing of the past, but the goal of making vital content stand out is more important than ever. By mastering pinning on Pages, using announcements in Groups, strategically boosting your best posts, and improving your organic content, you have a full toolkit to guide your audience’s attention exactly where you want it.

Managing a calendar of top-tier organic video, promotional content, and rotating pinned posts can feel like a lot to juggle. At Postbase, we built our platform specifically to bring clarity to this process. Our visual calendar lets you pre-plan all your content - from daily posts to your all-important "highlighted" pieces - across all your platforms. It's about simplifying your workflow so you can stay consistent and focus your energy on creating content that performs.