As an advocate, trainer and coach of LinkedIn, I write a lot of articles and facilitate numerous workshops on how to leverage the power of LinkedIn to get hired by the right company or clients. There are so many fantastic integrated elements to writing a profile that works for you.

This article is all about the space.

There is a blessing and a curse to the character limits to LinkedIn: it allows a cut off for those who have a tendency to ramble on and on and on and on while reducing the stress of those who are not comfortable talking to a great extent about themselves.

Here is a breakdown of the character limits for personal profiles. I am also attaching a list of special characters that you can use in your profile (heading, summary, title etc) that can be copied and pasted directly from this article.

For the visually driven, here is a link to a profile with highlighted blurbs giving each element’s character maximum: LinkedIn Personal Profile Character Limits.

All of the character limits listed are maximum unless indicated otherwise. In LinkedIn, everything counts as a character – spaces, punctuation, returns etc. To easily determine your character count, at the end of this article, I have included instructions for a quick check in Word and two external links.

Header/About You/Headline

First Name: 20 characters, Last Name: 40 characters.
Professional Headline: 120 characters
(Don’t forget picture – your profile is 14 times more likely to be viewed with a professional profile picture)

Contact Information

Phone number: 25 characters (only visible to first degree connections)
Address: 1000 characters (only visible to first degree connections)
IM (Instant message): 25 characters (only visible to first degree connections)
Vanity URL: 29 characters after the http://www.linkedin.com/in/
Website Anchor Text: 30 characters
Website URL: 256 characters

Summary

Summary: 2,000 characters

Experience

Position Title: 100 characters
Position Description: 200 minimum and 2000 maximum characters

Recommendations

Recommendations: 3,000 characters

Interests

Interests: 1,000 characters (only visible to first degree connections)

Skills

Skills: Up to 50 skills using 80 characters per skill

Additional/Contact

Additional Info / Advice for Contacting: 2,000 characters

Status Updates

LinkedIn Status Update: 600 characters – unless you chose to update LinkedIn and your Twitter, Twitter updates are 140 characters.

If you write articles or blogs on LinkedIn using LinkedIn Publisher:

Post Headline: 100 maximum characters (LinkedIn recommends up to 70)
Post Body Text: 40,000 characters

Character Count

In Word: Highlight your text (Control + A); Tools (Alt + T); Word Count
External Links: Letter Count or Character Count

Special Characters

Please use them wisely! Remember, you can copy and paste right from this article.

Stars: ⋆ ✢ ✣ ✤ ✥ ❋ ✦ ✧ ✩ ╰☆╮ ✪ ✫ ✬ ✭ ✮ ✯ ✰ ✡ ★ ✱ ✲ ✳ ✴ ❂ ✵ ✶ ✷ ✸ ✹ ✺ ✻✼ ❄ ❅ ❆ ❇ ❈ ❉ ❊
Hand: ☜ ☞☝ ☚ ☛ ☟ ✍ ✌
Copyrights: ™ ℠ © ® ℗
Yes: ☑ ✓ ✔ √
No: ☐ ☒ ✇ ✖ ✗ ✘ ✕ ☓
Triangles: ▲ ▼ ◄ ► ◀ ◣ ◢ ◥ ▼ ◤ ◥ ▴ ▾ ◂ ▸ △ ▽ ◁ ▷ ⊿ ▻ ◅ ▵ ▹ ◃ ▿
Quotes: ❝ ❞ « » ‟ ‹ › ⟨ ⟩ „ ′ ‵ ‘ ’ ‚ ‛ “ ” ‷ ‴ ‶ ″
Round: ◉ ○ ◌ ◍ ◎ ● ◐ ◑ ◒ ◓ ◔ ◕ ◖ ◗ ❂ ☢ ⊗ ⊙ ◘ ◙ ◍
Boxes: ❏ ❐ ❑ ❒ ▀ ▁ ▂ ▃ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ ▉ ▊ ▋ █ ▌ ▍ ▎ ▏▐ ░ ▒ ▓ ▔ ▕ ■ □ ▢ ▣ ▤ ▥ ▦ ▧ ▨ ▩ ▪ ▫ ▬ ▭ ▮ ▯ ☰ ☲ ☱ ☴ ☵ ☶ ☳ ☷ 
Arrows: ➟ ➡ ➢ ➣ ➤ ➥ ➦ ➧ ➨ ➚ ➘ ➙ ➛ ➜ ➝ ➞ ➸ ♐ ➲ ➳ ➳ ➴ ➵ ➶ ➷ ➸ ➹ ➺ ➻ ➼ ➽ ← ↑ → ↓ ↔ ↕ ↖ ↗ ↘ ↙ ↚ ↛ ↜ ↝ ↞ ↟ ↠ ↡ ↢ ↣ ↤ ↥ ↦ ↧ ↨ ➫ ➬ ➩ ➪ ➭ ➮ ➯ ➱ ↩ ↪ ↫ ↬ ↭ ↮ ↯ ↰ ↱ ↲ ↳ ↴ ↵ ↶ ↷ ↸ ↹ ↺ ↻ ↼ ↽ ↾ ↿ ⇀ ⇁ ⇂ ⇃ ⇄ ⇅ ⇆ ⇇ ⇈ ⇉ ⇊ ⇋ ⇌ ⇍ ⇎ ⇏ ⇐ ⇑ ⇒ ⇓ ⇔ ⇕ ⇖ ⇗ ⇘ ⇙ ⇚ ⇛ ⇜ ⇝ ⇞ ⇟ ⇠ ⇡ ⇢ ⇣ ⇤ ⇥ ⇦ ⇧ ⇨ ⇩ ⇪ ⌦ ⌧ ⌫
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Money: € £ Ұ ₴ $ ₰ ¢ ₤ ¥ ₳ ₲ ₪ ₵ 元 ₣ ₱ ฿ ¤ ₡ ₮ ₭ ₩ ރ 円 ₢ ₥ ₫ ₦ z ł ﷼ ₠ ₧ ₯ ₨ K č र
Compare: ≂ ≃ ≄ ≅ ≆ ≇ ≈ ≉ ≊ ≋ ≌ ≍ ≎ ≏ ≐ ≑ ≒ ≓ ≔ ≕ ≖ ≗ ≘ ≙ ≚ ≛ ≜ ≝ ≞ ≟ ≠ ≡ ≢ ≣ ≤ ≥ ≦ ≧ ≨ ≩ ⊰ ⊱ ⋛ ⋚
Phone: ✆ ✉ ☎ ☏
Write: ✐ ✎ ✏ ✑ ✒ ✍ ✉ ⌨
Question: ❢ ❣ ⁇ ‼ ‽ ⁈ ¿ ¡ ⁉ ؟
Smileys: ☹ ☺ ☻ ت ヅ ツ ッ シ ϡ ﭢ
Love: ♥ ۵ 웃 유 ღ ♂ ♀
Scissors: ✁ ✂ ✃ ✄
Music: ♪ ♫ ♩ ♬ ♭ ♮ ♯ ° ø
Religious: ✡† ☨ ✞ ✝ ☥ ☦ ☓ ☩ ☯ ☧ ☬ ☸ ♁ ✙ ♆
Political: Ⓐ ☭ ✯ ☪ ☫ ✡ ☮ ✌
Chess: ♔ ♕ ♖ ♗ ♘ ♙ ♚ ♛ ♜ ♝ ♞ ♟
Cards: ♤ ♧ ♡ ♢ ♠ ♣ ♥ ♦
Weather :☼ ☀ ☁ ☂ ☃ ☄ ☾ ☽ ❄ ☇ ☈ ⊙ ☉ ℃ ℉ ° ❅ ✺ ϟ
Flower: ✽ ✾ ✿ ❁ ❃ ❋ ❀

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I hope you enjoyed this article and it provided value for you. If so, please click on the follow button so I may continue to share valuable content with you or the share buttons to share with your network.

I help people identify and set a path to achieve their career goals by using the V Formula:

Your Value + Your Voice = Visibility

Visibility is the leverage to move in, move up or move on in your career; expand your book of business or territory, grow your company and strengthen your team.

–Lisa

Lisa K. McDonald, Owner and Principal of Career Polish, Inc. is a favorite speaker and seminar facilitator at colleges, professional organizations and companies around the US speaking to leadership, sales and athletic teams; transitioning/downsized employees and networking groups about personal branding, networking, creating executive presence and achieving career movement success. To find out more, visit Career Polish, Inc.