Your LinkedIn QR code: where it is, and when to use something else
LinkedIn gives every member a QR code. It is the right thing to show at a careers fair and the wrong thing to put on a plumber's van, and the difference is what happens after somebody scans it.
Your LinkedIn QR code is in the LinkedIn mobile app, and it opens your LinkedIn profile when somebody scans it. LinkedIn's own help page, Using a LinkedIn QR code to connect with members, shows where it is in the current version of the app. We link to it rather than describe the screens, because LinkedIn moves them.
How to get your LinkedIn QR code
Open the LinkedIn app on your phone and follow LinkedIn's help page for your version. The app shows your code on screen for somebody to scan, and it can scan theirs too, which is what LinkedIn designed it for: two people standing next to each other who want to connect.
How to share or print your LinkedIn QR code
On a screen it works as it is: hold up your phone, or put the code on the last slide of a talk. To print it, save or screenshot it and keep it large and clear enough to scan. How big does a QR code need to be? has the sizes, and the clear margin that must stay around any code.
What a LinkedIn QR code does, and what it does not
It opens your LinkedIn profile. That is useful when the person scanning lives on LinkedIn: a recruiter, a conference contact, somebody you want as a connection. To connect with you they need a LinkedIn account.
What it does not do is give them your phone number or email unless your profile shows them, save you to their phone's contacts, or send you anything back. And it only ever opens LinkedIn. If what you want is a call, a WhatsApp message or a booking, the scan lands one step away from it.
When a contact-card QR is the better choice
If you get phoned rather than networked, as most trades and mobile businesses do, print a QR code for a contact profile instead. A free digital business card from UniversalContacts opens your phone number, email, WhatsApp, website and LinkedIn from one scan, saves you to their contacts in one more tap, and lets them send their own details back to you with contact-back. Change your number and the same code opens the new one.
Using both
They are not rivals. Add LinkedIn to your profile and it is one tap from the page your code opens. The free Toolkit also makes a LinkedIn banner, at the size LinkedIn uses for a profile background, carrying your profile's QR, so somebody who finds you on LinkedIn can reach your number from there.
Questions
Where is my LinkedIn QR code?
In the LinkedIn mobile app. LinkedIn's help page on using a LinkedIn QR code shows where it is in the current version.
Can I print my LinkedIn QR code on a business card?
Yes, if it is printed large enough and with clear space around it. Bear in mind it only opens LinkedIn; a code that opens a contact profile carries your number as well.
Does my LinkedIn QR code change if I change my profile URL?
LinkedIn's help page is the place to check that; we would rather not guess at how LinkedIn makes its codes. A UniversalContacts code never changes, whatever you change on the profile behind it.
Can one QR code open my LinkedIn and my phone number?
Yes. A contact profile's QR opens one page that carries both, and anything else you add to it.