40 Comments
User's avatar
Dan Kershaw's avatar

You are hero for our charity making this! Looking forward to alot of impact carousels showcasing community impact. More feedback to come as I see it, but happy to buy some extra seats for other staff (how could I buy a few site licenses for my org?)

Karen Spinner's avatar

I'm so excited to hear that! 🎉 ❤️ I'm still figuring out how pricing and payments will work, but, yes, I'll follow up as soon as I've set up rates for teams!

Rainbow Roxy's avatar

Wow, the MVP strategy is genius. Its so smart to launch lean and get real feedback, that's where the truly unexpected stuff pops up.

Karen Spinner's avatar

Thank you! 🙏 Yes, without feedback, I might have taken the tool in a different and less useful direction! 🤔

Cristina's avatar

Karen, I also absolutely hate making carousels with Canva. If you still need beta testers, I'd love to try and give you my feedback. Thank you!

Karen Spinner's avatar

Awesome! Yes, I'll DM you the info. 🙏

John Brewton's avatar

Shipping early and letting users show you the gaps beats polishing in isolation every time.

Karen Spinner's avatar

💯 It definitely saves time!

Paul the Human's avatar

Loved getting into this - thank you for being so generous. You read a lot about publications, businesses, products etc. wanting to solve 'real problems' but it's less often you see that in practice. I think your CarouselBot does exactly that. You've taken a genuine frustration that many people have and you've nailed the solution.

Karen Spinner's avatar

You’re very welcome! 🤗🙏 And you’re absolutely right, the original inspiration for the tool was my total annoyance with cut-and-pasting text into Canva 😂

Marcela Distefano's avatar

It was my pleasure to test the bot Karen! And it’s an awsome tool. And now with images, OMG. Thanks to you for letting me test it

Karen Spinner's avatar

You’re very welcome! 🙏🤗

Raghav Mehra's avatar

Such a seamless experience using it. I didn't realise there was a feebdback button as well but will check it out now. Thank you for creating this and sharing your building experience! 🙌

Karen Spinner's avatar

Thank you so much for testing the tool! 🙏 Next time, I will let folks know that the feedback button exists. 😂

Chris Tottman's avatar

Karen - can my team join the beta? 🤞

Karen Spinner's avatar

Absolutely! Will DM the access code. 🙏🤗

Gail Brown's avatar

Hi Karen - I just tried to DM you - but not sure it worked??

Please can you confirm you already have a message from me and maybe then send me a DM??

Showing you - if you didn’t get my earlier message - that I’m a bit of a novice -and while I know how to design instructional interventions - I might need a sequence of learning for MYSELF - to get me “up to speed” in using your CarouselBot??

Many thanks, in advance, Best always, Gail 👍😊

PS Love that you have done knowledge of cognitive load! 👍👍

Karen Spinner's avatar

Hi Gail,

I just sent you a DM with the URL plus access code. You may have to go into the access tab and accept my request.

I’ve included some help videos with CarouselBot, which you can access from the Learn more nav item. Given your expertise, I’d love to hear what you think!

Will also follow up via email.

Thank you so much!

Filip Sardi 🌊's avatar

I have a detailed repurposing strategy and creating carousels (both IG and LI) is something I'd always delay.

Couldn't believe it took 5 minutes from pasting url to final outcome, even in beta.

It was a joy to see Karen deploying all these new features lightning fast.

Karen Spinner's avatar

Thank you so much! ❤️🙏 Will let you know when the next set of features goes live!

Gail Brown's avatar

Hey Karen - I’ve just found your post (from Sam who recommended it) and would love to use it - to design something for schools???

I’m in Australia 🇦🇺 & am an instructional designer & educational researcher - Sam has just messaged me back and I would love to be part of your group trialing your work???

And I openly admit I am an AI Novice - I just want to support students & their teachers to engage with AI in an informed way - up acknowledge AI sources - and to critically evaluate AI Results themselves!

My direct email is gailbrown@deseignedlearning.com.au

Would love to connect and see how this might work?

Many thanks & Best always Gail 👍😊

Karen Spinner's avatar

Hi Gail, I just sent you a Substack DM with the access code! You just enter your email address and then input the code to start using the tool.

My goal is to make it really intuitive to use, so I’d love to hear about any friction you encounter as you make your first carousel. 🙏🤗

p.s., Also sent the info via email, just in case 😁

Karo (Product with Attitude)'s avatar

Karen, following this journey is one of my favorite things on Substack at the moment. Love what you do!

Karen Spinner's avatar

Thank you so much! 🙏🤗

Dr Sam Illingworth's avatar

Karen, this has been such a brilliant product to be involved with and I am now using it for a lot of my LinkedIn posts. I definitely did not realise there was a feedback button (sorry!) and 💯 think you should launch on Valentine's Day! 🎠 ❤️

Karen Spinner's avatar

Thank you so much! 🤗 Hoping to add a few new features between now and then! 🌟

Amy Cowen's avatar

The walkthrough is great. This looks like a really cool tool.

Karen Spinner's avatar

Thank you! 🤗

JHong's avatar

It was so fun to test. And also interesting to see how the posts perform, carousels are great for driving impressions. And this was way better than my Canva attempt eons ago (I can't even check back for its performance, I think it was so ugly I deleted it).

I have my grievances with LinkedIn driving click-thru to Substack, but no one can fix that!

Karen Spinner's avatar

I’m also curious to see how they do! Agree it would be nice if LinkedIn didn’t fight click-throughs so much. I’m going to be posting a few of my own carousels once I get the chart module up and running!

And also THANK YOU!

JHong's avatar

Mon Plaisir! I’m happy to post things on LinkedIn while it’s in test mode. I’m not as precious with how things look on LinkedIn as I am on Substack. Posts there don’t look like they’re part of a larger overall aesthetic arc. And since I’ve been so intermittent with promoting Substack posts there, any post is better than my current “no post” accidental strategy haha.

Next time I’ll schedule the posts at an optimal time, to get a better read on performance for us. But thus far they’ve already outperformed some old non-carousel posts.

Karen Spinner's avatar

That's good to know! I'm trying to rope a couple of LinkedIn consultants into testing. Apparently, "saves" are also an important metric now. 🤔

Denise Wakeman's avatar

Thank you for the detailed update, Karen! I appreciate all the details you're adding to CB. It's helpful for me to read through the feedback you received from others, as your fixes indicate features I hadn't thought about. You rock!

Karen Spinner's avatar

Thank YOU! I appreciate all the time and care you put into testing the tool...the roadmap has really become a team effort!