LinkedIn Character Limits: The Maximum Character for Your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn Character Limits: The Maximum Character for Your LinkedIn Profile

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In the current age, almost everything has been made easy through the rapidly increasing technological and Internet advancements. People have the opportunity to post and look for job employment and vacancies in just one click, and LinkedIn is one that serves. However, everything has a limit, including LinkedIn character limits.

LinkedIn is widely used in almost all parts of the world, and it has served both employers and job-hunters well. Many people have landed various professional jobs via the website. However, not everything is unlimited. Even LinkedIn character limits are there. 

Together, let’s learn more about LinkedIn, particularly the facts surrounding its character limits. We shall find out the character limitations of every part of a user’s profile, and whether it has a significant effect on the totality of the profile. 

What is LinkedIn?

man using laptop with LinkedIn logo on the wall
Before, we used to see LinkedIn as an online resume. But now, it’s more like your digital reputation.

Before we go into the specifics, let’s first make ourselves familiar with the platform. Launched on the 5th of May 2003, LinkedIn is a US-based employment-oriented and business online service. It’s primarily utilized for professional networking and provides job seekers the freedom to post their CVs and employee seekers to post job vacancies. 

Basically, LinkedIn allows users to create their LinkedIn profiles. In the case of job hunters, the highlight of their profile is their curriculum vitae that describes their education, training, skills, work experiences, and photo. On the other hand, employers could list job vacancies and job descriptions and then search for potential candidates. 

LinkedIn users may look for jobs, save the jobs they’d like to apply for, and even follow other companies’ profiles. The very core of LinkedIn is to provide service and make things quicker for job seekers and employers. 

Is There a Character Limit on LinkedIn?

If you’re a Twitter user, you might find yourself limited to 280 characters per tweet. The same goes for LinkedIn. Users are limited to a certain number of characters per post. Hence, you must know how to formulate your thoughts in a manner that’s fitting to the maximum number of LinkedIn characters. 

While it’s important to know the different LinkedIn character limits, you must also learn how to optimize your online campaigns. Read our Kolsquare review to get started. 

What is the Maximum Character Limit for a LinkedIn Post?

Man using laptop
Deciding what to post on LinkedIn can be difficult. But with the right guidelines, it’s easier to post on the platform and get attention.

 

Users may post various types of content on LinkedIn, including text-only posts, videos, photos, and documents. However, let’s highlight the text-only posts. Some say that text posts are the Rolls Royce of LinkedIn. According to data, views on text posts are relatively higher than views on other types of posts. So, if you want more people to check out your post or profile, you must include text posts in your mix of activities. 

LinkedIn users are limited to a maximum of 1300 characters per text post, including hashtags and emojis. Although, you must take note that MS Word and LinkedIn don’t count characters in the same manner for unknown reasons. Thus, if your total count on MS Word is 1300 characters, it’s possible that it would exceed the character count once copied on LinkedIn. 

If you wish to proofread your content on a different platform, you may write it on LinkedIn instead of MS Word and edit it on Grammarly or other proofreading platforms. That way, you know that your post doesn’t go beyond the intended character count. 

What is the LinkedIn About Section Character Limit, 2020?

Now, you already know the Linked character limits for text posts, but the limitation doesn’t end with that. LinkedIn also has rules on the About section of your profile, formerly called the Summary. Well, this isn’t new for users since most social media platforms and websites limit the About section of their users’ accounts.  

This section provides users the space to introduce themselves, place their career descriptions, and sell their various skills in their own words. The tailoring of this section is crucial because it gives potential employees or employers a short glimpse of who they are and what they can bring to the table. However, the showcase must be done in 2000 words or less. 

You might think it’s not enough but this limitation is more generous than other social media sites. LinkedIn’s About section character count is even higher than the Instagram bio character limit of 150. 

What Other Sections Have Character Limits?

LinkedIn profile displayed on a smartphone
LinkedIn has different sections, and each section bears various guidelines that are helpful for your content optimization.

LinkedIn character limits aren’t limited to text posts and the About section. All the other sections also have their respective character counts, and we’ll go over them one by one. 

LinkedIn message character limit

If you want to be LinkedIn messaging savvy, it’s always best to first identify the two various messaging types the platform offers, and how their respective character counts vary. The two types are:

LinkedIn Connection Message

A LinkedIn connection message is one of the platform’s basic features. Users utilize it whenever they want to connect with other users on the platform. For this type of message, users are only limited to 300 characters, including space, texts, symbols, and emojis. 

InMail Message

The LinkedIn InMail is the platform’s own version of an email that’s natively embedded on the platform. For basic or free LinkedIn accounts, users could only send InMail messages to other users that they’re connected with or those within the same LinkedIn group. InMails are on a pay-per-send basis and users are charged with an amount ranging from $.30-$1 per send, depending on the target audience or users. 

Additionally, users are limited to a certain number of InMails they could send depending on their subscription plan — there are 4 available plans. InMail messages may contain a maximum of 200 characters on the subject line and up to 2000 characters on the body.  

Vanity URL character limit

This feature is part of a user’s profile address that succeeds the https://www.linkedin.com/in/__. The Vanity profile URL has a maximum character limit of 30 and a minimum limit of 5. In addition, users aren’t allowed to utilize spaces, special characters, or symbols. 

Website URL links character limit

Website URL links are different from the Vanity URL. It’s a link that can be placed on your LinkedIn profile. For this feature, the platform has a 256-character limit on top of the 30-character text used to describe the URL. 

Status updates character limit

LinkedIn status differs from the usual Facebook status. It isn’t space for users to write down what they did on a Friday night or what the newest restaurant in town is. Instead, a LinkedIn status is a space wherein users could ask questions or gather feedback from professionals regarding a relevant matter. You may also add an insightful commentary on a particular article or share what you’ve learned at a business summit, professional development event, or something similar. The limit for LinkedIn status updates is 600 characters 

LinkedIn Publishing Character limit

The publishing feature is beneficial to users by allowing them to receive profile visits while establishing themselves as leaders in the field. Each feature has different character limits. For the headline, it’s 100 characters. While the character limit for the article is 40,000 and 250 for photo credits. 

Posting content on LinkedIn is easy, the hard part is capturing the right audience. If you want to target and reach the right users for your LinkedIn campaigns, check our Freachly review. 

Experience Section Character limit

The experience section of LinkedIn accounts showcases the users’ work, training, and other significant experiences. The character limit for the job title is 100, while the position description’s limit goes up to 2,000 but with a minimum of 200. The experience section must be thoroughly curated with the right keywords. Potential employers often take a long look at this list to check whether a certain user passes their experience criteria.

Recommendations Section Character limit

Placing quality recommendations on other LinkedIn profiles would do good for the users. Potential employers would be more convinced of a job seeker’s skills and experience if they can see authentic recommendations on their account. It would help job seekers stand out among the pool of candidates. To get valuable recommendations, ask your previous employers or colleagues to write honest feedback about your work with a maximum of 3,000 characters. Of course, don’t forget to return the favor.

Is Character Count Similar to Word Count?

We’ve already been talking much about character count or limits; however, do we really know what character count is? Many people, particularly newbie Internet users, get caught up between the two terms—character count and word count. Word count simply refers to the number of words you’re going to post, while character count refers to the number of symbols, letters, numbers, special characters, or even spaces placed in a certain post. 

Some platforms and software automatically keep track of the number of words and characters present in a file or document, such as Google Docs, Grammarly, and Microsoft Word. There are also conversion tools available online that you can use for free. Say, how many words is 60 characters? If you don’t know the answer, the best thing to do is to use a character-to-word conversion tool.

What is The Importance of Character Limits?

tablet computer displaying LinkedIn Analytics dashboard
When you know the character limits, you can optimize your LinkedIn profile well. And when you can optimize your profile well, you’ll stand out among other users.

It might seem like a limitation for most, but character limits are more beneficial than we think. They don’t just exist for nothing.

When it comes to marketing yourself to potential employers or your business to your target market, you must know how to get them with few but meaningful and concise words. You don’t have to be very lengthy and verbose in your language; you just need to be precise in hitting the right points through clear language. The more concise your language, the more you’d make a powerful statement.

With limited characters, you’ll be forced to tell your story well. There’s no time and room for senseless ramblings. Plus, there’s less room for errors. It would also push you to check the dictionary or thesaurus for shorter words to expand the space a tad more. Remember that every word counts, and it’s no exception to LinkedIn character limits.  

How Could I Hit the Character Limit?

With character limits, it’s crucial to learn how to reduce your character count without entirely altering or affecting your content. Here are some tips worth considering:

Remove redundancies.

We often say the same thing in various ways, adding up to the word and character count. So, be straightforward and avoid unnecessary repetitions.

Omit the v-word.

If you notice that the word ‘very’ can be found in almost all of the adjectives on your post, better trim them down. You may refer to a Thesaurus to use more powerful words instead of using the v-word. 

Keep an eye on multi-word phrases.

An example of this is the phrase ‘a whole lot.’ This phrase takes up too much space, so better simplify or revise it. 

Be mindful of the passive voice. 

Writing in the active voice reduces your word and character count. If you’ll notice, your sentences are shorter when you write in an active tone rather than passive. This tone is also more engaging for your readers.  

Revise the transitional devices. 

‘Plus’ is a shorter word than ‘in addition to.’ You may also replace the phrase ‘in order to’ with simply the word ‘to.’ You can use a variety of transitional devices, but consider using shorter words or phrases than longer ones. 

Use ‘the’ wisely. 

Notice how the phrases ‘both the content and style’ and ‘both content and style’ maintain grammatical correctness. Some words or phrases can do away with the article ‘the,’ you just have to know when to omit it. 

Eliminate conjunctions when possible. 

Instead of using the ‘and’ or ‘but’ conjunctions, you may divide the sentence by using a comma, period, or semicolon.

LinkedIn Character Limits Make the Difference

 

Social media channels that digital marketers use
Nothing can beat LinkedIn on being the top platform for B2B marketing. | Source: Foundation

Character limits, whether on LinkedIn or other social media platforms, aren’t meant to limit your thoughts and what you have to say to other people. It’s not even meant to silence you. These limits are placed because, somehow, being concise and on-point resonates more to most people. Not everyone has the luxurious time to read lengthy posts that are mostly just beating around the bush. 

Keeping up with LinkedIn character limits might at first be difficult and overwhelming. Getting satisfied by your post, only to find out that you’ve exceeded the maximum limit could also be frustrating. So, give yourself ample time to practice and get used to these limitations. Don’t forget the tips—they could spare you from angry hormones.

If you want to know the ideal post length of other social media platforms, read our article about “Size Does Matter: How Long Should Social Media Posts Be?” 

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