Why Your Profile Photo Matters

In order for you (or your brand) to be perceived as trustworthy, you must 1) demonstrate authority and 2) express empathy. Assuming you've got "the goods" to back it up, establishing that sense of trust may not be so hard to do when you are meeting face-to-face with your prospective clients, or if they are reading through your website, marketing materials, or an article you have written. However, potential customers are more likely than not to first encounter us online, before they make the choice to meet us in person or to engage with our written words. So how do we make the best first impression, and leave them wanting to know more? A good place to start would be with an amazing headshot.

If you have a LinkedIn profile picture, please take a moment now to look at it with fresh eyes. Do you like what you see? How does it make you feel? If you were not you, would you want to know you? Trust you? Hire you? What kind of impression do you think your headshot makes upon others?

You've worked hard to understand your customers' pains and frustrations, and to develop targeted, effective solutions. If you've got a less than stellar profile picture (blurry, under/over-exposed, stiff, awkward, deer-in-the-headlights, out of date, or outright unprofessional), or if you have no profile picture at all, have you thought about how that might create a disconnect in the eyes of your viewer? How it might even undermine your efforts to establish trust and inspire confidence?

A high quality professional LinkedIn portrait is a small investment with potentially huge payback:

1. Research shows that profiles with photos are viewed far more frequently than profiles without.

2. There is a direct link between how people visually portray themselves online  and the perceived value of the goods or services they provide.

3. You may repurpose the headshot for your website, for other social media platforms, and for your marketing collateral, and lay the groundwork for a consistent, cohsive online presence.

It's never too late to put your best face forward! And working with a photographer that understands your business and knows how to make you comfortable in front of the camera (hello!!!!!) will make it easy.