Everything You Need to Know About LinkedIn Carousel Posts

Have you tried using LinkedIn's document sharing feature to create LinkedIn carousel posts and boost your engagement? If not, you should!

Let me tell you why ... LinkedIn carousel posts are fabulous.

LinkedIn's top influencers are using carousel posts to increase engagement, boost brand awareness and build community.

The best part is you don’t even need to spend any ad dollars on creating carousel posts.

LinkedIn's document sharing feature allows you to create carousel posts organically.

Done right, you’ll get a ton of organic engagement. This blog post will give you some tips for making fantastic LinkedIn carousel posts, and also some easy ways to follow best practices.

What Are LinkedIn Carousel Posts?

LinkedIn carousel posts aren’t to be confused with LinkedIn carousel ads. Instead, carousel posts are documents that are shared on your LinkedIn feed.

LinkedIn introduced the document sharing feature a few years ago so it's not necessarily new, but more and more people have recently been using this type of content to drive engagement.

How LinkedIn Carousel Posts Work Is Simple:

LinkedIn users can easily scroll through your presentations and documents without leaving LinkedIn.

Creating designs and visuals for your next LinkedIn post can turn your static text into engaging content that helps you get in front of more people. (According to the most recent statistics, LinkedIn has 756 million members.) A little time and effort can mean the difference between a static page and growing your business!

Because carousel posts are interactive and hopefully have stand-out graphic designs, they stand out in the newsfeed.

With carousel posts, your content isn’t limited to text. Instead, it encourages your audience to engage with your brand. LinkedIn carousel posts allow you to show off your brand's personality. Remember, sharing your personal brand draws your audience in and helps them to connect with you.

LinkedIn carousels are one of my new favorite promotion tools. They’re eye-catching and easy to use!

And in case you were wondering, the posts are optimized for desktop and mobile.

“Okay, Katie, but how do they work, and how can I post them?”

When you're making an update from your LinkedIn homepage, you should see a third icon available, enabling you to share documents.

1. Start a New Post From Your Newsfeed (You can also find the document sharing button in the "Create a post" screen.)
2. Select The File You'd Like to Share
3. Give Your Content a Descriptive Title
4. Talk About It

Easy, right?

What Sizing Should I Stick To For LinkedIn Carousel Posts?

When you start creating your LinkedIn carousel posts, you need to make sure you follow certain guidelines so your posts don’t look low quality!

• Keep your file size below 100 MB
• You can’t post more than 300 pages (Let’s be real - no one is going to read all that anyway.)
• The file types allowed are: PPT, PPTX, DOC, DOCX & PDF
• *IMPORTANT*! Once the post is uploaded, you can't change or edit it.
• I suggest uploading your content as a PDF for the best quality.

What Formats Work Best For LinkedIn Carousel Posts?

You can think outside the box for LinkedIn carousel posts, but here are some topics that work great:

• Sharing Stats, Numbers & Infographics
• Sharing Business Lessons With a Call to Action (Like to Leave a Comment!)
• Step-By-Step Instructions
• Conference or Event Content
• Promoting Your Own Content (Listicles, Your Blog)
• Photos That Show Faces and Brand Culture
• Downloadable Cheat Sheets or Other Resources

If it applies to you, you can also share documents from your company page.

What Are The Best Practices for LinkedIn Carousel Posts?

1. Start With a Powerful First Slide - Draw in your audience with a quality image or graphic that grabs their attention.
2. No Video or Animation - LinkedIn's document sharing feature doesn't support animations or videos within your slides.
3. Include a Call to Action (CTA) - As on social media platforms, a Like, Comment, or Share can go a long way on LinkedIn. Create content that encourages people to make those actions.
4. Cut The Fluff - No one really reads long slides. This isn’t the place for your long-form content.
5. Keep It Authentic & Personal

Other Best Practices for LinkedIn Carousel Posts

1. Convert files to PDFs whenever possible so they’re good quality
2. PDFs with multiple layers should be merged
3. If your PDF has different size pages, make sure they’re all the same size before you upload
4. Always add a title to your document

How Do I Design LinkedIn Carousel Posts?

Most people use Canva or Photoshop to design carousel posts. If you're on your own and have time, use something like Canva, which is great for basic design needs.

If you work with an agency or have a partner like Next Step Social, I can help you with this!

The Highlights

If you've been wondering how you can increase your engagement on LinkedIn without video, you can share your knowledge via LinkedIn carousel posts. LinkedIn carousel posts can help you create new opportunities for your brand!

Whether you decide to share how-tos, listicles, repurpose blog content, industry event slides or infographics, LinkedIn carousel posts are a super way to engage your LinkedIn audience.

Don’t forget: design, layout, and organization are important!

Want my help with your LinkedIn page? Click here to submit an application and tell me more about yourself.