Want to add some visual flair to your LinkedIn profile? Unfortunately, LinkedIn doesn’t allow formatting to your profile. You can’t bold or italicize text… but you can paste symbols or bullets.
LinkedIn Profile Formatting
LinkedIn hasn’t ever stated why it doesn’t natively allow formatting, but I believe they don’t want to become like the old, defunct social network, MySpace.
Back in the early 2000s when MySpace reigned supreme, they allowed not just simple formatting but full on CSS coding to their profiles. Before long, MySpace profiles were twinkling and flashing like the Las Vegas skyline. Most people aren’t graphic designers and when given the opportunity to format and prettify, they tend to go overboard. By not providing the ability to format, LinkedIn is keeping their users’ tendency to overdo things at a minimum and thus keep their site elegant in its simplicity.
Choose only one or two types of symbols to use in your LinkedIn profile. The more symbols you use, the cheaper and low level your profile appears. Remember, less is more!
Directions to format your LinkedIn profile with symbols
Here are the directions to add symbols/bullets to your LinkedIn profile:
1. Find the symbol you want to use and highlight it:
Stars: ★ ✪ ✯ ✰
Arrows: ☛ ☚ ☜ ☝ ☞ ☟ ⇨ ► ◄ ► »
Traditional bullets: ▪️ ♦ ◆ ●v
Ticks: ✔ ✘ ☐ ☑
Email: ✉ ✍ ✎ ✏ ✑ ⌨
Phone: ✆ ☎ ☏ 📞
Lines: ☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲
▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
▓▒░▓▒░▓▒░▓▒░▓▒░▓▒░
People: 👤 👦 👧 👨 👩 👪 👫 👬 👭 👮 👯
Space: 🌏 🌙 🌟 🌠
Nature: 🌴 🌵 🌷 🌸 🌼 🍀 🍁 🍂 🍎 🔥
Hand Gestures: 👆 👇 👈 👉 👊 👋 👌 👍 👏 👐
Business Concepts: 👑 💡 💯 📎 🔍 🔎 🔑 🎯 🏆 ✂️
Financial: 💰 💱💲 💳 📈 📊
Medical/Pharma: 💊 🔠 🏢 💉 v IT: 💻 💾 💿 📁 📱 📶 📡
Architecture/Construction:🔧 🔨 ⚒ 🏠
Creative: 📖 📰 📷 📹 📐
Fashion: 👗 👘 👚 👛 👜 👝 👞 👟 👠 👡 👢💎 👓
2. Once the symbol is highlighted, COPY it. You can copy it by clicking Ctrl-C or right mouse clicking on the highlighted symbol and choosing COPY from the right mouse menu. If you use a Mac, you can click Apple+C.
Your symbol is now copied and ready to be pasted.
3. Open your LinkedIn profile. Place your cursor where you want the bullet placed.
4. Paste the bullet by clicking Ctrl-V or right mouse clicking and choosing PASTE from the right mouse menu. If you use a Mac, you can click Apple+V.
VOILA! You now have added visual flair to your LinkedIn profile!
Symbols Appear Differently Across Different Devices
Symbols may appear differently across the different devices and operating systems you use to access your LinkedIn profile. That means what you see isn’t necessarily what another person sees when viewing your profile. Smartphones tend to take symbols and convert them to emoji. Emoji are small, colorful icons that are typically used to express ideas and emotions.
If you are viewing your LinkedIn profile on a PC, the symbols in your headline may appear black. Viewing your LinkedIn profile on a smartphone or on a Mac desktop, the symbols in your headline may appear colorful and almost cartoon-like. iPhones and Android phones use different art and so the symbols may look different depending on your smartphone.
When choosing symbols to populate your LinkedIn profile, the simpler the better. Stars, circles, squares, arrows, and check marks are universal and display with consistency across almost all devices. Using more complex symbols like those of folders, books, phones, paperclips, tools, and other items, you risk the symbol either showing differently on some devices or not at all.
