How to Use the Shoutout Block in UniLink (Feature Other Creators on Your Page)
How to Use the Shoutout Block in UniLink (Feature Other Creators on Your Page)
A step-by-step guide to adding the Shoutout block to your UniLink page so you can spotlight collaborators, brand partners, and recommended creators — with profile photos, bios, social links, and a direct visit button for each card.
- The Shoutout block displays creator profile cards on your page — each with a photo, name, bio snippet, social platform icons, and a CTA button — so visitors can discover and follow people you recommend in one tap.
- Always ask permission before featuring someone; a shoutout card links to another person's audience and they deserve to know their profile is being promoted from your page.
- One block supports up to 10 cards and shows them paginated; choose horizontal layout for profiles with longer bios, vertical for photo-forward grids.
- The most common mistake is adding cards with no CTA button — visitors see a profile but have no way to reach the person's page, which defeats the purpose of the block.
Most link-in-bio pages are built entirely around the creator who owns them — their products, their channels, their content. That works until the creator's audience starts asking "who else should I follow?" The Shoutout block answers that question directly on your page. Instead of sending a scatter of DM replies or posting a "follow Friday" thread that disappears into the feed, you build a permanent, styled section of your page where visitors can see exactly who you recommend, read a one-line reason why, and navigate to that person's profile in a single tap. The cards stay current as long as you update them, and every collaborator or partner you feature gets genuine traffic from your audience rather than a mention that expires in 24 hours.
What the Shoutout block does
The Shoutout block renders a set of profile cards on your UniLink page. Each card contains a profile photo, the featured creator's name, their username or handle, a short bio text (one to two lines), a row of social platform icons that link directly to their profiles, and a CTA button — typically labeled "Follow," "Visit," or whatever label you write. Cards can be displayed in a horizontal layout (photo on the left, text to the right) or a vertical layout (photo centered above the text, grid-style). A single Shoutout block supports up to ten cards, and when you add more than a few, the block renders them paginated so your page does not become an endless scroll of profiles.
The block is designed for discovery. The social platform icons on each card give visitors multiple ways to reach the featured creator — if the person is primarily a TikTok creator, the TikTok icon is prominent; if they are across Instagram, YouTube, and a newsletter, all three appear. The CTA button serves as the primary action: one tap opens the featured creator's destination URL — their UniLink page, their website, their channel, wherever you decide to send visitors. This combination of photo, context, and multiple click paths means the Shoutout block converts better than a plain list of names or a plain list of links, because visitors understand who they are clicking through to before they leave your page.
There are things the Shoutout block is not built for. It does not pull profiles automatically from social platforms — you enter each card's details manually, which means you control exactly what information is shown and the block is never at the mercy of an API rate limit or a platform changing its data structure. It also does not notify featured creators automatically; if you add someone's card, they will not receive a message from UniLink telling them they have been featured. That is intentional — the decision about whether to reach out is yours. And the block is not a live directory that syncs with an external database; it is a curated, manually maintained list, which is both its limitation and its strength. The curation is the value.
Before you start
- Get permission from everyone you plan to feature: Before building the block, reach out to each creator you want to include and let them know you are adding them to a shoutout section on your page. Most creators will be glad to be featured — but the ones who have gone through a rebrand, left a platform, or simply prefer not to be listed on someone else's page deserve the chance to decline. A quick DM is enough. This is not a legal requirement; it is a professional courtesy that avoids the awkward situation where a featured creator asks you to remove their card after you have already published.
- Gather the details for each card: For each person you plan to feature, collect a profile photo (the creator's actual profile photo works; crop to square for consistent card sizing), their display name, their handle or username, a one-to-two sentence bio describing what they create or why you recommend them, the URLs to each social platform where they are active, and the destination URL for the CTA button (usually their UniLink page, their main channel, or their website). Having all of this in a document before you open the editor is far faster than hunting for each creator's links mid-setup.
- Decide on your card layout: Horizontal layout works best when each bio has meaningful text — the wider card gives the text room to breathe and the photo anchors the left side cleanly. Vertical layout works best when the photos are the most important element, or when you have five or more cards and want them to read as a grid. Both layouts are available per block; you cannot mix layouts within a single block, but you can use two separate Shoutout blocks if you need both styles on the same page.
- Think about card order: The order of cards communicates priority. Visitors read top to bottom and left to right, so whoever appears first gets the most attention and clicks. Put the most relevant person first — your most recent collaborator, your most well-known recommendation, or the one most likely to convert with your specific audience.
How to add the Shoutout block to your page
- Open your page in the Dashboard: Log in to UniLink, go to My Pages, and click Edit on the page where you want the shoutout section to appear.
- Add a new block: Click + Add Block in the editor. In the block picker, find the Social or Community section and select Shoutout.
- Add your first card: Click Add Card to open the card editor. Upload the profile photo, enter the creator's display name and handle, and write the bio text in the provided field. Keep the bio focused on one idea — what this person creates, or why you specifically recommend them. "Covers sustainable cooking on a $50/week budget" is more useful to your visitor than "Content creator and foodie."
- Add social platform links: In the social links section, click each platform you want to include and paste the full URL to the creator's profile on that platform. Only add platforms where the creator is actually active — a dead link or an unused profile confuses visitors and reflects on you. The icons appear on the card in the order you add them; the platform with the most followers or the most relevant to your audience should come first.
- Set the CTA button: Enter the button label in the label field — "Follow," "Visit," "Check out," or anything that fits your tone — and paste the destination URL. This is the primary action button on the card and the most important click on each profile. Do not leave this empty. A card with no CTA button is a profile visitors can read but cannot act on.
- Choose card layout: Select Horizontal or Vertical from the layout toggle. Horizontal shows photo left, content right; vertical shows photo centered above content. This applies to all cards in the block.
- Add remaining cards: Click Add Card again for each additional creator. You can drag cards to reorder them. The block supports up to ten cards — once you hit ten, the "Add Card" button is disabled until you remove an existing card.
- Save and publish: Click Save, then Publish. Open your live page on a mobile device and tap through a few of the CTA buttons and social icons to confirm the links open the correct destinations. Social platform URLs are easy to mistype and a broken link on a shoutout card is an embarrassing way for a featured creator to discover they have been mentioned on your page.
Key settings explained
| Setting | What it controls | Best practice |
|---|---|---|
| Card layout | Whether cards render horizontally (photo left, content right) or vertically (photo centered above content in a grid) | Use horizontal for five or fewer cards with substantive bios; use vertical for six or more cards or when you want a photo-grid feel with shorter text |
| Profile photo | The image displayed on each card — ideally the creator's actual profile photo | Upload a square-cropped version for clean rendering; avoid landscape or portrait-format images, which get cropped off-center and can cut off the face |
| Display name | The name shown prominently on the card below or beside the photo | Use the creator's preferred display name, not their legal name unless they use it professionally; match what they use on their own social profiles |
| Bio text | One-to-two lines of description shown below the name — visible to visitors before they click through | Write one sentence describing what the creator makes and one sentence on why you specifically recommend them; generic bios ("content creator, entrepreneur, speaker") give visitors no reason to click |
| Social platform links | Icons for each platform (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, etc.) that link to the creator's profiles on those platforms | Only add platforms where the creator actively posts; remove platforms where they have no profile or have not posted in over a year — a dead icon wastes a click and makes the card look outdated |
| CTA button label | The text on the primary action button — "Follow," "Visit," "Check out," or a custom label | Match the verb to what happens when visitors click: "Follow" works if the destination is a social profile; "Visit" works if the destination is a website or UniLink page; avoid "Click here" — it has no directional value |
| CTA button URL | The destination visitors land on when they click the primary button | Link to the creator's most important destination — usually their UniLink page (if they have one) or their main channel; do not link to a specific post that may be deleted |
| Card order | The sequence in which cards appear in the block — draggable in the editor | Place the creator most relevant to your audience first; visitors rarely scroll past the second or third card, so the highest-priority recommendation should never be buried at position six |
| Block title | Optional heading shown above the cards — "People I Recommend," "My Collaborators," etc. | Add a title if the context is not obvious from the page; skip it if the section is clearly a collab or community page where the purpose is self-evident |
| Pagination | How many cards show per page when the block has more than a few entries | The default pagination keeps load time manageable; do not try to show all ten cards without pagination on mobile — the scroll length becomes unmanageable and most visitors will not reach card seven or eight |
How to keep your shoutout section working over time
The Shoutout block is not a set-and-forget feature. The people you feature change — they rebrand, change handles, delete accounts, pivot to new platforms, or simply stop being relevant to your audience's interests. A shoutout section that has not been reviewed in six months is likely showing at least one stale profile: a username that no longer resolves, a social icon linking to a platform the creator left, or a CTA button pointing to a URL that redirects to a "this account has been deactivated" page. These broken experiences reflect on you, not on the featured creator.
A practical maintenance schedule for a Shoutout block is a quarterly review: open the editor, click through each CTA button and each social icon, confirm every link resolves correctly, and update any bios or platform links that have changed since you last looked. For creators you collaborate with regularly, you likely already know when they rebrand or change their primary platform. For creators you feature because they were relevant at a specific moment — a guest on your podcast, a one-off collaboration — set a calendar reminder to check their links every three months, or simply remove the card if the collaboration is no longer current.
Adding and removing cards also gives you a reason to re-promote the section. When you add a new creator to your Shoutout block, tell your audience — post about it on Instagram stories, mention it in a newsletter, or tag the featured creator so they share it with their own audience. Every card addition is a small piece of content. Creators who get traffic from your shoutout often reciprocate by featuring you, mentioning you in their content, or simply acknowledging it to their followers. The relationship value of a well-maintained shoutout section accumulates over time in ways that a one-time social post does not.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Profile photo showing as a blank square or broken image | Image file was not uploaded correctly, or the URL used for the photo has expired | Re-open the card editor and re-upload the photo from your device; avoid linking to external image URLs (Instagram CDN links, for example) — they expire and will break the card silently after a few hours |
| CTA button not appearing on the published page | Button URL field was left empty when the card was saved | Edit the card, enter a valid URL in the CTA button URL field, and save; a button with no URL does not render on the live page |
| Social icon links to the wrong profile | URL was pasted incorrectly — wrong username, wrong platform URL format, or a mobile app URL that does not work in a browser | Edit the card and re-paste the link from the creator's actual profile page in a desktop browser; confirm the URL starts with the correct domain (instagram.com, tiktok.com, etc.) and not a mobile deep-link scheme |
| Cards appearing in the wrong order on the live page | Card order was dragged in the editor but the save was not completed before navigating away | Reopen the editor, drag cards into the correct order again, then explicitly click Save before closing or publishing |
| Block showing more than ten cards | Not possible — the block has a hard limit of ten cards | If you need more than ten shoutouts, add a second Shoutout block directly below the first; both blocks can coexist on the same page and will each support up to ten cards |
| Photos appearing cropped in an unexpected way | Uploaded image is not square, so the renderer is cropping to fit the card's aspect ratio | Crop the photo to a square (1:1 ratio) before uploading; center the creator's face in the crop to ensure the focal point is retained in every layout mode |
| Card layout not matching what was selected in the editor | Old cached version of the page loading in the browser | Hard-refresh the page (Ctrl+Shift+R on desktop, or open in a private/incognito tab) to bypass the browser cache; the layout change was saved correctly but the browser is serving the previous version |
Best fit for
- Creators who collaborate regularly and want a permanent "people I work with" section that updates over time without requiring a new social post each time
- Brand ambassador networks where a creator features a curated set of sponsored or affiliated creators in one organized section, with direct links to each person's channel
- Community organizers building a creator directory — a page that acts as a "who's who" in a niche, with shoutout cards functioning as individual directory entries
- Collaborative projects where multiple creators contribute to a single campaign or content series and the page owner wants to give all contributors a visible, clickable credit
- "Follow Friday" or recommendation content made permanent — instead of a weekly social post that disappears, a curated Shoutout block that your audience can reference at any time
Not the right tool if
- You want to feature a single collaborator — a standard Link block with the collaborator's name and URL accomplishes the same thing with a tenth of the setup time
- You need the list to update automatically from a social platform's following list or an external database — the Shoutout block is manually curated; it does not sync with any platform's API
- The people you want to feature are not comfortable with their profile photo and bio appearing on your page — the block cannot hide individual details per card; if someone has specific concerns about how they are presented, a plain text link is a simpler accommodation
- You are featuring more than twenty or thirty creators regularly — at that scale, a dedicated community or directory page with a different architecture is a better fit than stacking multiple Shoutout blocks
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to ask permission before adding someone to the Shoutout block?
UniLink does not require it technically — you can add any publicly available profile photo and information to a card. But professionally, asking first is the right move. You are using another person's likeness and directing your audience to their profile; they should have the opportunity to approve or decline. Most creators will say yes and may even reciprocate with a shoutout on their own page. The ones who say no are giving you information you would rather have before you publish than after.
Can I charge creators to be featured in my Shoutout block?
UniLink does not have a built-in paid placement feature for Shoutout cards, so if you are running a paid sponsorship arrangement, you would handle that payment outside of UniLink — through an invoice, a PayPal request, or whatever you use for sponsorship deals. The Shoutout block itself just shows the card; the commercial relationship behind it is between you and the featured creator. If you do take payment for featured slots, make sure your audience knows (disclosure requirements vary by country but are generally required whenever there is a material connection between the feature and compensation).
How do I remove a creator from the Shoutout block?
Open the block editor in your Dashboard, find the card you want to remove, and click the delete or remove icon on that card. Save the block and publish. The card disappears from the live page immediately after publishing. If a creator asks to be removed, do this as soon as reasonably possible — there is no valid reason to delay someone's removal when they have specifically requested it.
Can I use the Shoutout block to feature brands rather than individual creators?
Yes. The card structure — photo, name, bio, links, CTA button — works for brand logos and company profiles just as well as for individual creators. Upload the brand's logo as the profile photo, use the brand name as the display name, write a one-line description of what the brand offers or why you recommend them, and link the CTA button to their website or product page. Creators who have formal brand partnerships often use a Shoutout block as a "brands I work with" section — a more contextual alternative to a plain list of logo links.
Does the Shoutout block track how many people click through each card?
Click activity on individual Shoutout cards is recorded in your UniLink analytics. You can see total clicks per card in the block's analytics view in the Dashboard, which tells you which featured creators are generating the most interest from your audience. Use this data to refine your curation: move high-click creators to the top of the card order, and consider replacing cards that get consistently few clicks with creators whose content is more aligned with what your audience actually wants to discover.
- Always ask permission before featuring someone — it is a professional courtesy that protects the relationship and avoids the awkward conversation when a creator discovers their card after the fact.
- Fill in the CTA button URL for every card; a Shoutout card with no button gives visitors context about who the creator is but no way to reach them, which defeats the point of the block entirely.
- Write bio text that is specific and useful — one concrete detail about what the creator makes and one reason why your audience specifically should care — not a generic list of labels like "content creator" or "entrepreneur."
- Review the block quarterly: click through every CTA button and social icon to confirm links resolve correctly, and remove or update cards for creators who have changed handles, left platforms, or are no longer relevant to your audience.
- Use click analytics per card to inform card order — the creators generating the most audience interest should be first, not buried at card position six behind people your audience is less interested in following.
Ready to give credit where it's due? Create your free UniLink page and add the Shoutout block to build a permanent, styled section that features the creators, collaborators, and partners your audience should know about.
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