LinkedIn Introduces ‘Carousels’ To Help Creators Share Visual Content
In a recent announcement, LinkedIn introduced Carousels, a new content format that allows creators to share swipeable photos and videos. Users can swipe through the content at their own pace and have the ability to watch Carousels within their feed or tap to view fullscreen on mobile.
With Carousels, creators can combine text, video, and images to share content in a more visual way. Many creators take to the platform for storytelling, education, and sharing their perspectives on industry news. In doing so, they show that it’s a valuable format for creators to share the type of content they were already sharing, but natively. Previously, to share content in a carousel, creators would do a workaround by uploading multiple PDFs.
Carousels is currently in beta testing with thousands of creators that are part of its LinkedIn For Creators program.
Based on the resources and support LinkedIn is dedicating to Carousels, including a best practices guide, Canva templates, and a private community for feedback, Carousels looks to be more than just a new content format. It will help unlock new ways for creators to share content with the LinkedIn community.
In a way, Carousels feels like LinkedIn’s iteration of a Stories meets short-form video feature. More specifically, it is very similar to Pinterest’s Idea Pins, which were built for creators to share educational, instructional, and how-to content by combining text, photos, videos, and more. But, the biggest difference is that content is swipeable horizontally instead of vertically.
The timing launch of Carousels is notable. It comes just a short time after LinkedIn announced its second U.S. Creator Accelerator Program. This round focuses on Technology & Innovation, which are verticals primed for carousel content. Not to mention, LinkedIn is reporting record levels of engagement, with LinkedIn sessions growing 22% this past fiscal quarter.