You are your LinkedIn Profile Image

We all know that a picture paints thousand words. And we know that images are really important to our marketing particularly our online presence.

Why is it then that often the one image that we really need is missing or at best average?

Which image is that? An image of you

When I visit a website I usually go straight to the “about” page and it’s surprising how many “about” pages make no mention of the people behind them. So consequently they have no human images.

In my many years of selling there has been one truism “people buy from People”. Usually people they like but most certainly people they trust and know.

So to not have a picture and some sort of bio is telling visitors to your site that you are anonymous online business and generally speaking we don’t trust “anonymous”.

Sure sites like Amazon or Microsoft are fairly anonymous but they are almost part of the fabric of our society and most are public listed companies where transparency is key to their stock price.
There has been a lot of research and testing on this over the years and all the findings confirm that a human face your website or social media page increases trust and therefore the more likely visitors are to stick around and consume your content and/or buy your stuff!

Similarly, a LinkedIn page may have a profile picture of someone with their dog or children or even nothing at all.

What’s the point of being on LinkedIn if you are not going to show people what you really look like?

Here’s a few pointers.

1. Don’t have anyone or anything else in the image. No one is interested in your dog, your kids or your motorbike. Save all that for Facebook. Or mention them in the hobbies and interest’s section.
2. There are 101 reasons for people to look at your profile. Prospective Employer or head hunter, new work colleagues, new customers etc. etc. Make it count!
3. Have your face the main subject
4. Make sure people can see your eyes.
5. It can be shoulders and up or just the head.
6. Smile – not ha ha smile but a nice, relaxed smile
7. Decide what sort of self-portrait you think represents your brand best

For example, a financial adviser or lawyer may want a more conservative head shot and dressed in more business-like clothes like a jacket and trousers.

A graphic designer or someone in IT may wish to convey a trendy relaxed image. So just a smart and plain T-Shirt.

• Light is everything. If the light is dull or too bright the image can be too dark or ‘blown out’ (a term for images that have the highlights way too bright).