Document and Carousel Posts on LinkedIn
LinkedIn offers two types of interactive content for marketers, document posts and carousel posts. While carousel posts are still in the process of being rolled out to all users, document posts have gained popularity due to their ability to drive organic engagement.
Document and carousel posts
Carousel posts on LinkedIn are interactive content that features multiple slides. They go beyond simple photo displays and incorporate text, photos, images, infographics, and screenshots. Users can scroll on desktop or swipe on mobile to look at the content. LinkedIn introduced carousel posts in 2022, but it still hasn’t been made widely available to everyone on the platform. LinkedIn document posts, on the other hand, are often referred to as carousels, as they share similar characteristics. Document posts can have 300 different slides and can be downloaded by users as PDF files for offline reading. The key differences between carousels and document posts are that carousels support multimedia content, including video content, and they autoplay, leading the users between slides automatically.
Importance of document posts
When executed effectively, LinkedIn document posts can generate substantial organic engagement. This, in turn, can increase reach, foster meaningful conversations within the LinkedIn community, as well as expand the opportunity for the company to be discovered beyond the existing audience. If other types of LinkedIn posts, such as native content templates, text posts, and link shares, aren’t driving the desired engagement, it’s worth considering document posts to enhance the content strategy on personal profiles or business pages.
Creating document carousel-style content for LinkedIn
To design and publish a LinkedIn document, companies first need to start by designing a slide deck. This is done with third-party tools, and LinkedIn supports various file types, such as PDF, DOC, and PPT. This allows companies to use tools like PowerPoint or Google Docs. Canva is a popular design app that offers premade templates ideal for LinkedIn documents. It also allows companies to create a template for consistency across multiple documents. While LinkedIn doesn’t elaborate on the aspect ratios for its document content, portrait, and square formats are commonly used. These formats optimize space on the LinkedIn news feed for both desktop and mobile users. After designing the slide deck, it’s time to design a carousel post. That’s done in the post composer available on all devices, and choosing Document as the format of the post. The company then should upload its document, provide a title, and add a caption to the carousel and engage the audience. Having a caption is crucial in capturing the audience’s attention and encouraging them to look through the carousel. The last step is to schedule or publish the post. Once the post is drafted, companies can choose to schedule it to be published at a later time or publish it immediately. Scheduling can be done by selecting the clock icon and choosing the time for the post to go live. Additionally, it’s worth noting that carousel posts can also be published in LinkedIn groups, providing an opportunity to engage with specific communities.
