Profile Pics - Are Important!

Author - David Broadbent

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Profile Pics - Are Important!

I’m still amazed by the number of LinkedIn profiles which don’t have any sort of profile image at all.

When you think about it, all of those individual business people have decided that LinkedIn, this rapidly expanding professional social media site (predicted to be a key element of your social media strategy in 2014 – Forbes) is right for them to tell their B2B story, that it’s a great channel for connecting to other businesses in your key target sectors - but somehow a picture of the person you want them to engage with doesn’t rank as a main consideration? In fact, the complete lack of images is a problem with a great many LinkedIn profiles. Think about it this way? No one would image that a Facebook profile with only reams of text and no pictures would be very interesting to read! Obviously there are different considerations for your choice of images to represent your business to anything you would use on a personal site – but it is still true to say that a picture paints a…………..

Profile headshots; all business networks, such as LinkedIn, are designed to help with those crucial first B2B approaches and to allow other people to start to engage with you. It’s a great, and personal, way to connect with many people you could ever hope to meet face to face. It follows therefore that real consideration about how you want to be seen is necessary. This is the bit where you realise that the anonymous default head silhouette, a scan of a 6x4 of yourself at some ones wedding wearing a bow tie (they are on there) or an arms-length “selfie” from your phone or tablet isn’t going to work out too well!

Your profile image needs to be genuine i.e. recent, appropriate and relevant to the target market you want to engage with but it also needs to look natural. I work with artists and performers who don’t suffer the angst and accompanying navel gazing afflicting mere mortals (myself included) when we get in front of the camera. So, unless you “do five minutes when the fridge door opens” build in some time to relax. A good portrait photographer won’t even start work on the final images until she or he can see that you are starting to relax in to it. This is not going to happen if you’re already behind schedule, your phone is vibrating constantly or you’re worrying about your latest quarter figures. Here are some of the basics 

• Think about, or discuss with your photographer, how you want to look – what’s your message/s? A good photographer will create a mental “brief” from this conversation that will help with any other work they do for you.
  

• Do you want studio, indoor (workplace) or outdoor PR shots? If you are commissioning other work at your plant or offices – make sure you specify an in-situ PR shot in the package. Ideally you’ll have a few great PR shots so you can ring the changes on your social media. 
  

• For studio shots, think about the background colour you need to blend with your website theme particularly. It’s not just about stills either – a studio is an ideal location for a video piece to camera. 
  

• Take a change of tops or jackets (headshots) so you can get a couple of different shots in the same session. Props are cool too but need to be used intelligently.
  

• Have a little bit of fun while you’re doing it and let the real you show through. 

David Broadbent is a professional photographer with over 30 years of editorial experience now represented worldwide by the Alamy picture agency.  As well as fully equipped location work, David also runs Summerhouse Studio, an informal small studio ideal for stills and video of people PR and products, from his home in the Forest of Dean. To see more of David’s work visit www.davidbroadbent.com or his folios on LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook. Or to actually talk to another human call him on 07771 664973.

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