How to make a LinkedIn slideshow easy

Happy Halloween week, everybody!

I’m once again starving myself to squeeze into my Spider-Man costume so I can terrorize downtown Madison, WI like so:

If arrested, please expect next week’s Cool Story to be delayed.

What are you dressing up as? Tag me on LinkedIn.

This week, we’re heading back into the spooky territory of amateur graphic design.

I’m going to show you how I create slideshows on LinkedIn.

Just like last week, I’ll show you how to get started in just a few minutes and share some important branding steps to take.

For my new subscribers:

I’m Dusten, and I co-run a brand and content strategy agency called Zenpost.

This is Cool Story, where I summon my decade+ of content expertise to teach you how to write like LinkedIn’s top voices.

Each week, I tear down a post from one of LinkedIn’s most powerful personal brands, show you how it’s done, and give you a content template you can stick in your swipe file.

Let’s get to it!

This week’s post

Let’s face it.

People love clicking through slideshows.

You know it, I know it, and most importantly, LinkedIn knows it.

Creators swear by the power of slideshows (or “carousels”) to create engagement.

Even from my own content strategy, I can tell you that well-crafted content of this kind frequently outperforms anything else I do, sometimes to the tune of 10x.

You can also use slideshows for any part of the funnel.

I do TOFU slideshows to curate great LinkedIn posts:

Also, MOFU slideshows to teach my audience something new:

Slideshows are the most versatile kind of content you can create.

Sometimes I’ll turn a blog post into a slideshow if it’s on a good topic and I want to give it more reach.

Sometimes I adapt an issue of Cool Story into a quick slideshow to get more subscribers.

You can even turn a case study into a slideshow or group a bunch of testimonials together to show social proof and directly promote your services.

The possibilities are truly endless.

So you’re sold, yeah? Great! Let’s learn how to make them on the fly.

Here’s how to make a slideshow EASY:

If you haven’t read last week’s post on using Canva to create an infographic, please make sure you read that first (we’re going to be using a lot of the same tricks):

Like last time, we’re going to start by going to Canva.com and stealing adapting a template from their library.

Remember that all you really need to brand one of these templates for yourself is your brand colors, your font, and maybe a few images of yourself.

There are a lot of fancy templates in there, but again, I’m going to advocate grabbing something really simple so you can easily adapt it to your existing aesthetic.

This is super important: Most people are going to click through the template based on the strength of the topic, and more importantly, the cover page.

But there’s no need to dump a bunch of time into creating something really elaborate.

I’m going to use this one, and I’ll explain why as we go:

First up is the cover page.

This is the most important part of the slideshow. Everything you put here should be designed to get the click-throughs.

Some people will go ALL OUT on their cover page to try and grab eyeballs. But I don’t think you need to do much.

You might not even need to use any imagery. I think a big, bold hook in colorful letters is enough to stop the scroll.

But you can certainly use the BG Remover step from last week to stick an image of yourself on the cover for EXTRA BRANDING POINTS:

Whatever you do, DON’T use cheesy stock photography.

If you’re going to use an image, use something of yours. I don’t know if imagery helps the cover, but I do know that stock suxxxxxx.

Anyway, from here, it’s a simple matter of changing fonts and colors.

I swapped out the existing graphics for an arrow drawn with the Draw tool, but remember that you can select your own graphic elements by searching in the Elements tool.

I’d normally spend a little more time tweaking here, but this is good enough for example purposes, so let’s move on.

Most slideshows have a “listicle” element to them. Even if you don’t have a step 1, 2, 3 type concept, you can still leave the numbers on the slides to give the reader a sense of progression and continuity.

Again, we make some very minor edits here, and we end up with this:

One quick tip — you see the @zenpost copy at the bottom there? Put whatever you want there, but make sure you put SOMETHING there.

I’ve seen people put their Twitter handle, website, LinkedIn, even CTAs to like, share, bookmark, and follow.

Whatever you want! But, don’t go overboard.

You can also save your engagement bait for the end (I’ll show you how I do it).

Note the subtle change from the last slide to reflect this:

Now, the slideshow I picked comes with alternating-colored slides.

Lean into that!

You can select and copy/paste your elements (like my hand-drawn arrow) from the previous slide to the next.

It’ll even place it perfectly for you, so you don’t have to re-make and place your elements from scratch.

Once you have a good number of these, you’re almost done.

But don’t close up shop just yet! This last step is REALLY important.

If the most important part of a slideshow is the cover page, then the second-most important part is how you close it out.

Since someone flipped through your entire slideshow, the last couple of slides are where you are welcome to HAMMER them with CTAs and self-promotion.

Here’s how I like to do it:

On LinkedIn, comments are king. That’s why, for my first self-promotional slide, I like to make an explicit ask for comments, including a few prompts and a literal arrow to direct them to the comments section.

The “hit that like button” and “bookmark for later” are good second-tier CTAs, but you could also ask for follows, shares, DMs, Dogecoin, whatever you want!

If the slideshow has anything to do with Cool Story, I insert this slide next.

You’ll notice I stripped out all the URLs and other self-promo items. That’s because at this stage, I just want them to focus on Cool Story and what they get out of it if they subscribe.

For imagery, just my logo and a BG-removed selfie to remind them who I am at the end.

Lastly:

Another minimally-designed, nakedly self-promotional slide. This time boosting my services.

If you got this far, liked the content, left a comment, subscribed to Cool Story, maybe you’d be interested in my services as well, right?

Clear value prop lifted straight from my website, a few emojis, and a simple CTA to take the next step.

This might feel a bit too promotional for some, but remember — you ALWAYS want to make a connection between your content and what you can do for your clients.

If you’re creating content that speaks to their problems, and they interact with it, there’s no shame in telling them you have the solution.

Tucking it in at the very end as an “oh by the way” is totally fair and not spammy at all.

A few more tips:

Try to keep your copy in the slides to a minimum.

Each slide title should act as a mini-hook to summarize the key takeaway of the slide, and then a few sentences to break it down.

If you have extra time, use Hemingway to get all your copy under a 3rd grade reading level.

I don’t have a strong opinion on the length of a slideshow.

I’ve seen really useful 100+ page slideshows, and I’ve seen 100+ page slideshows that could have been an email, if you catch my drift.

The LinkedIn roundup ones I do can get up to 20 pages.

Just pick whatever length best suits what you’re talking about, but I would say aim for a minimum of 5 pages total, or 8-12 if you can justify it.

That about does it! If you used this tutorial to make your own slideshow, tag me on LinkedIn for a free like/share.

Reply directly and let me know if there are any other content challenges you want me to tackle in the coming weeks.

Cool Story is FREE, but I do have a BIG ask…

Can you think of ONE person in your network who would like Cool Story? Please forward it to them.

TWO more QUICK things:

• Let’s make sure we’re connected on LinkedIn, where I share content creation tips every day. Hit the bell to never miss a post.

• If you’re a founder, fractional, or consultant and you’re interested in using your personal brand to get more leads, Zenpost can help. When you’re ready, let’s find a time to chat.

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