How to Make a Slide Post on LinkedIn

LinkedIn slide posts, often called carousels, are one of the most effective ways to stop the scroll and share in-depth information on the platform. This format transforms a simple PDF into an interactive, swipeable document that keeps your audience engaged and boosts your visibility. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know, from planning your narrative and designing your slides to publishing your post for maximum impact.

Why LinkedIn Slide Posts (Carousels) Totally Work

While a simple text post can be effective, carousels have unique advantages that make them a favorite among top creators and brands. They leverage both visual appeal and human curiosity to capture and hold attention, which is exactly what you need to stand out in a busy professional feed.

They Tell a Story

The slide-by-slide format is perfect for storytelling. You can guide your audience through a process, a case study, or a new idea, building momentum with each swipe. Instead of presenting all the information at once, you deliver it in digestible pieces, making complex topics easier to understand and remember.

They Boost Engagement and Dwell Time

The act of swiping through your slides is a form of active engagement. Every swipe is a micro-commitment from the reader, signaling to the LinkedIn algorithm that your content is valuable. This increases the post's "dwell time" - the amount of time a user spends interacting with your content - which is a major factor in how LinkedIn decides to push it out to a wider audience.

They Are Incredibly Versatile

You can use the carousel format for almost anything. Here are just a few ideas:

• Tutorials and How-Tos: Break down a complex process into simple, visualized steps (e.g., "5 Steps to Set Up Your First Ad Campaign").
• Listicles: Share tips, tools, or trends in a numbered format (e.g., "7 Habits of Highly Effective Leaders").
• Repurposed Content: Turn a popular blog post, podcast episode, or webinar into a summary slide deck.
• Case Studies: Showcase a client success story, detailing the problem, your solution, and the stellar results.
• Behind-the-Scenes: Give your audience a peek into your company culture, a project workflow, or an event.

They Create a Strong Visual Break

In a feed dominated by text, a visually striking carousel immediately catches the eye. It's an opportunity to reinforce your brand identity through consistent colors, fonts, and logos while delivering valuable information in a clean, professional format.

The Building Blocks: How to Plan Your LinkedIn Carousel

Great carousels don't happen by accident, they are the result of thoughtful planning. Before you even open a design tool, you need to have a clear strategy, a compelling narrative, and polished copy.

1. Pick a Powerful Topic

Your carousel needs to solve a specific problem or answer a burning question for your target audience. Your goal isn't just to share information but to provide genuine value. If you're stuck for ideas, consider these sources:

• Common Questions: What questions do your clients, customers, or colleagues ask you all the time? Answering one of those in a carousel is a guaranteed value-add.
• Top-Performing Content: Look at your analytics. What blog posts, videos, or even old status updates have performed well in the past? Repurpose the core idea into a carousel.
• Industry Trends: Share your perspective or simplify a complex new trend happening in your field. Be the go-to source for fresh insights.

2. Create a Strong Narrative Structure

Think of your carousel as a mini-presentation with a beginning, a middle, and an end. A classic structure that works almost every time looks like this:

• Slide 1: The Hook. This is your title slide, and it's the most important. It needs to grab attention instantly. Use a bold statement, ask a provocative question, or present a surprising statistic that makes people want to know more.
• Slides 2-9: The Value. This is the core of your carousel. Break your main topic into bite-sized points, dedicating one key idea to each slide. Focus on clarity and simplicity. This section should teach, inform, or persuade.
• Final Slide: The Call-to-Action (CTA). Don't leave your audience hanging. Tell them what to do next. Do you want them to leave a comment, follow your page, visit your website, or share their own perspective? A strong CTA encourages further engagement and keeps the conversation going.

3. Write and Edit Your Copy

Once you have your narrative structure, write out the text for each slide in a separate document. This allows you to focus solely on the words without being distracted by design elements. Remember, less is more on a slide. Keep sentences short and use plenty of white space. A slide packed with text is intimidating and will cause people to scroll right past it. Edit ruthlessly to ensure every word serves a purpose.

Step-by-Step Guide: Creating Your Slide Deck

With your plan and copy ready, it's time to bring your carousel to life. You don't need to be a professional graphic designer, user-friendly tools have made creating beautiful assets accessible to everyone.

Choosing Your Design Tool

You have several excellent options, and the best one depends on your comfort level:

• Canva: The undisputed champion for most social media creators. It's incredibly user-friendly, has thousands of templates, and offers a robust free version. Most people should start here.
• Google Slides or PowerPoint: If you're already comfortable with presentation software, these are perfectly capable. They offer a bit more control over formatting and are also free (with a Google account) or already available on your computer.
• Figma: For the more design-savvy marketers, Figma offers unparalleled flexibility and precision. It has a steeper learning curve but gives you complete creative control.

Getting the Dimensions Right

The visual real estate your post takes up is important. You have two primary choices for carousel dimensions:

• Square (1080x1080 pixels): The classic, reliable choice. It's a 1:1 aspect ratio that works well on both desktop and mobile.
• Vertical (1080x1350 pixels): Quickly becoming the preferred format, the 4:5 aspect ratio takes up more vertical space on a mobile screen, making your post more prominent and harder to scroll past.

If you're unsure, start with the vertical 1080x1350 px size to maximize your presence on mobile devices, where most LinkedIn users browse.

Designing Your Slides: Core Principles

The goal is clarity, not complexity. Follow these design principles to create a professional and effective carousel:

• Stay on Brand: Use your brand's color palette, fonts, and logo. Place your logo or website URL subtly in the footer or corner of each slide to build brand recognition.
• Prioritize Readability: This is a must. Use a large, clean font. Ensure there's high contrast between your text color and the background (e.g., dark text on a light background).
• Use Visuals Strategically: Incorporate simple icons, charts, or images to break up text and illustrate your points. But don't clutter the slides. A single, powerful icon is often more effective than a busy photo.
• Guide the Reader's Eye: Add visual cues to encourage swiping. An arrow pointing to the right or a small progress bar in the footer (e.g., "Slide 3 of 10") sets expectations and motivates users to finish the series.

Exporting Your File Correctly

This is the final, pivotal step in the design process. No matter which tool you used - Canva, Google Slides, Figma, or PowerPoint - you must export your entire multi-page design as a single PDF file. This is the format LinkedIn uses to create swipeable document posts. On most platforms, you'll find this option under 'File > Download > PDF Standard'.

How to Post Your Carousel on LinkedIn

You've done the hard work of planning and designing, posting it correctly is the easy part. Just follow these simple steps on the LinkedIn platform.

Step 1: Start a New Post

From your LinkedIn feed, click the "Start a post" box at the top of the page.

Step 2: Add Your Document

In the pop-up window, look at the icons at the bottom. Instead of clicking the photo or video icon, find and click the document icon (it looks like a page with a folded corner). This is the key to creating a carousel and a step people often miss.

Step 3: Upload the PDF

A window will open allowing you to choose a file from your computer. Select the PDF you just saved. LinkedIn will process the file and generate a preview of your swipeable slide deck.

Step 4: Create a Title for Your Document

LinkedIn will prompt you to add a title for your document. This is separate from your post's caption and appears at the top of the document viewer. Make this title clear and descriptive, ideally matching the title from your first slide for consistency.

Step 5: Write a Strong Post Caption

Your carousel might be the main event, but the post copy that accompanies it is just as important.

• Craft a Killer First Line: The first one or two lines are visible before the "...see more" link. This text, along with your first slide, determines whether someone stops scrolling or keeps going. Start with a hook that creates curiosity.
• Add Context: Briefly summarize what readers will gain from your carousel. Let them know why they should invest their time in swiping through it.
• Include Relevant Hashtags: Use 3-5 strategic hashtags. Include a mix of broad industry tags (e.g., #Marketing), niche specialization tags (e.g., #ContentStrategy), and a unique brand tag (#YourBrandName).

Step 6: Click 'Post' and Engage

Your work isn't done after you hit "Post." The first hour after publishing is when the algorithm is paying the most attention. Stick around to respond to comments and answer questions. Meaningful conversations tell LinkedIn that your post is a valuable contribution, encouraging the platform to show it to more people.

Final Thoughts

Making LinkedIn carousels is a straightforward process once you have a framework. By blending a solid narrative, clean design, and a clear call-to-action, you can consistently produce content that draws people in, delivers real value, and builds your authority in your field.

Managing a content calendar with different formats like these can feel overwhelming, especially when trying to stay consistent. We actually created Postbase because we knew firsthand how clunky older scheduling tools felt. Seeing everything you have planned - from your detailed LinkedIn carousels to short-form videos for other platforms - in one simple, visual calendar gives us a better strategic overview. It saves a ton of time and helps us reinvest that mental energy into what actually matters: creating better content.