When to use it
Business cards, conference name badges, presentation closing slides, email signatures printed on stationery, CV headers, trade show banners. A LinkedIn code is the professional counterpart to a vCard code: the vCard saves your details to the phone, the LinkedIn code connects you online.
The example code on this page points at getqrstudio.app, because we do not encode third party accounts here. Yours will follow the pattern above.
How it behaves on phones
iPhone: the Camera app shows a banner naming linkedin.com. Tapping it opens the LinkedIn app on your profile if installed, through the universal link, or Safari if not.
Android: most Android scanners open the link and Android routes it to the LinkedIn app. Without the app, Chrome shows the public profile.
Common mistake
Printing 500 business cards with https://www.linkedin.com/in/ada-lovelace-1b2c3d4e5 because that was the default URL. Set a custom URL first. https://www.linkedin.com/in/adalovelace is shorter, looks better in text under the code, and makes a code one version smaller.
Gotchas
Set the custom URL first. The default public URL includes a random suffix. Change it in Edit public profile and URL before you print anything. The old URL keeps redirecting, so changing it later does not break codes, but it does make the printed text look untidy.
Public profile settings. If your public profile is switched off, people without an account see almost nothing. Check what a logged out visitor sees before you print.
Company versus personal. /in/ is a person, /company/ is an organisation, /showcase/ is a product page. A company page can be renamed, which changes the slug; if that is possible use the numeric form or a dynamic code.
Size. https://www.linkedin.com/in/username is 36 characters and fits version 3 at level M, 29 modules wide. Removing www. saves four characters and still works.
Tracking parameters. Links copied from the app include ?utm_source=share and more. Strip everything after the question mark.
Pair it with a vCard. On a business card, a vCard code saves the contact and a LinkedIn code makes the connection. Two codes fit on one side if each is 2.5 cm; label them so people know which is which.
Try it in QR Studio
QR Studio has a LinkedIn type for personal and company URLs. It strips tracking, builds the link, and can pair the code with a matching vCard code in the same design.
Print advice
Level M, Q if the code carries a logo. Business cards and badges are read up close, so 2.5 cm works. A trade show banner read from 2 m wants 20 cm. Print your name and “Connect on LinkedIn” beside the code so people know what to expect before they scan.
Try it yourself
Build both codes for the same person and see the size difference between a full contact card and a profile link.