Well, it wasn’t on my bingo card for this week. My house shook. I thought the wind had taken down one of the huge trees in my yard. Nope. It was just a 7-ton meteor passing through with a sonic boom. Bummer I wasn’t looking at the sky to see the fireball. Pieces landed about 30 miles from me.

I’d love it if you could forward this email to a friend who's in business and interested in content to help their marketing. I would appreciate it. And if you’re that friend? Subscribe today.

— Ann Gynn

🟩 ATTRACT → 🟧 convert → ⬜ RETAIN → ⬛ AMPLIFY

Q: Everyone says LinkedIn is great for business. I published my profile, my company page, and like and share some posts. But all I get are random invites from people wanting to sell me something. What am I doing wrong?

A: Solo entrepreneurs and creators can do well on LinkedIn because you are the person and the company.

The LinkedIn algorithm rewards that. Company pages account for only 5% of user feeds, while personal profiles account for 65% of content consumption, as reported by Growleads.

So, how do you maximize your LinkedIn presence with the limited time you have?

Before you devote any time to the platform, make sure it works for your goals. LinkedIn works best for business-to-business activities. Are your target customers there, and would they expect to find you there? 

If yes, read on. If not, skip to the Marketing Minute in this newsletter.

Assuming your audience is on LinkedIn, my best advice comes from the data: Build an amusement park ride. Don’t go for roller coasters (too many ups and downs). Construct carousels.

Carousels are simply PDFs uploaded directly to LinkedIn. They display as swipeable, slide-by-slide posts. 

A Buffer analysis of 45 million LinkedIn posts found carousel posts earn 278% more engagement than video, 303% more than single images, and 596% more than text-only posts. Also known as a native document, carousels averaged a 7% engagement rate in 2025, besting all other formats, according to a Social Insider analysis.

It makes sense. LinkedIn users usually prefer practical takeaways to help them in their professional roles and industries. These document posts work well for reports, frameworks, and templates, and they’re easily downloadable.

While carousels rotate, the real fun comes from the figures on board. They are the substance of the ride. On LinkedIn, thought leadership is what fills the seats.

Lessons from your own experience, unique takes on industry trends, behind-the-scenes breakdowns, etc., generate six times more engagement than job-related content. That’s the solo entrepreneur’s unfair advantage. You can share the real story. Big brands can’t.

In practice, thought leadership looks like this: a carousel breaking down a mistake you made and what it cost you, a framework you developed through trial and error, or a question a client asked you this week that others are probably asking too. You're already sitting on material. Your best newsletter section, a hard lesson from this month, a process you've refined over the years — that's your carousel.

A single carousel is a good start. A consistent rotation of formats — carousels, text posts, short videos, polls — keeps the park running. Accounts that vary their content formats achieve stronger follower growth than those that repeat the same format over and over. Audience fatigue is real, even when the content is good.

Want a step-by-step process to help you create a LinkedIn carousel? Keep scrolling to What I Did With AI This Week.

Got a question you’d like me to answer in a future edition of The Hotline? Call or text Marketing By One Hotline: +1.440.661.3984.

This week: Write down a recent question asked by a customer or prospect. Turn the answer into a LinkedIn carousel. If someone asked you once, others are wondering too.

I asked Claude to help me explain how to create an effective LinkedIn carousel. It delivered a solid start that I tweaked for this final version:

Pick a single actionable insight to address a problem your audience struggles with. Think: “3 Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Opened My Small Business,” not “Tips for Small Business Owners.”

Follow a typical storyline structure using six to 10 slides. Here’s how to break it down:

Build the carousel using your favorite slide-creation tool, such as Canva, Powerpoint, Google Slides, etc. Keep in mind most users visit LinkedIn on mobile devices.

Export the file as a PDF. Keep file size under 100MB (in practice, most carousels are well under 10MB). Open and proof the PDF to ensure everything appears as it should.

On LinkedIn, click "Start a post," then select the document icon to upload your PDF directly. 

The caption is just as important as the carousel itself. Lead with a single punchy sentence above the fold — the text visible before the "see more" cutoff. Use a data point, a contrarian take, or a direct question that creates tension. Then briefly frame what the carousel covers in two to three short lines to earn the swipe. Tease it, don't tell it.

With your caption written and the PDF uploaded, hit “post.” Then, engage. Reply to every comment. Ask a follow-up question. Early replies signal activity that the LinkedIn algorithm prioritizes. But replying to every comment, no matter when it's posted, is always a smart strategy, algorithm or no algorithm.

Have any AI tricks of your own? Hit reply, call, or text the Marketing By One Hotline: +1.440.661.3984.

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Write the first sentence of that email (or call) you’ve been meaning to send to a prospect.

🔗 Insta links: Meta Verified subscribers can now add clickable links to their Instagram captions, according to Matt Navarra. But unless Instagram produces good results for your business, take a pass. You don’t need the added expense.

🧭 Zoom-in grants: Legal Zoom introduced Grant Finder, a new AI tool to help small business owners discover funding opportunities. Grants can be great. Just read the fine print to ensure the application is worth your time.

♻️ Get it back: YouTube shared a new Recover tab. It lets creators appeal for older videos and help restore deleted content. It’s a helpful idea, but don’t forget to always back up your files on an independent hard drive. 

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Got a question you’d like me to answer in The Hotline? Email me or DM me on LinkedIn. Even better: Text or leave a message on the Marketing By One Hotline: +1.440.661.3984.