Personal Branding: the importance of a professional profile photo

Jan 11, 2017 10:16:33 AM

How important is personal branding to you? In our latest eCommerce salary survey, 78% of recipients told us that they believed that personal brand building was important for their careers.

While many of us spend time promoting our personal brand online, how many of us devote enough time to creating the perfect, professional head shot for our work-related online profiles?

Personal branding and first impressions

Like it or not, in the world of digital networking, first impressions are often made based on your profile. People want to know how you've positioned your personal brand. Do your words match the image of yourself that you're presenting via your profile picture? Are your skills and experience relevant and credible? Do you look approachable? If you're a manager or business owner, your personal profile - and the profiles of your entire team - matter. Do you and your team look trustworthy, professional and motivated?

Making the right first impression

We all know that it's very hard - if not impossible - to undo a negative first impression. That's why getting your online work-related (or publicly viewable) profiles right is so important. The first step to personal branding success? Choosing the best profile picture for your professional accounts.

To find out more about the importance of professional profile photos, we got in touch with James Beedham, professional photographer and founder of James Beedham Photography...

Context: what the panda is going on in the background... and why?!

So, why are professional photos so good for work-related personal branding?

"The first thing is context", James explained. "If you look at piece of art work, everything in it means something. Maybe it's trees painted in the background or just the way the light is falling. You know the artist put all of those details there for a reason. It could just be giving us context or something bigger.

The same applies to photographs. Looking at how the leading photographers work, every little detail works together to create the image itself".

So, how does this apply to professional headshots? James told us: "We interpret context in everyday photographs as well. The problem is that we don’t all put the same amount of thought into that. Let’s say you have a really nice photo of yourself but you are in a dreary office (not your company’s office though). I suddenly wonder, hmm maybe the company is not doing that well because I assume that it's your current office. Or I think, maybe you’ve not worked for the company for very long and what if you don’t know what you are doing?Or I translate that onto you and wonder subconsciously: are you a dreary person yourself?

My point is that the more things there are in an image, the more questions it raises. As someone looking at another person's photo, we want answers to questions like, “what are you like?” - and nothing else. A photo wants to draw a viewer to you. Show that you are a relaxed, professional, and great person to work with who will get things done."

Why Instagram or Facebook photos just won't do

Right, so now we know the importance of context. Make sure that the photo is about you (the professional you) - not about your friends, about the 2 for 1 cocktail happy hour you love, and not about that crazy waterslide you visited on your last holiday to sunny Orlando.

While getting a separate, work specific photo can seem like a bit of a pain (i.e. you hate photos, you already have plenty of photos of yourself on Instagram, *insert other excuses here*), it really does pay to spend a little extra time getting this part of your professional image right.

Why? "A professional image shows a professional person", James told us. "You don’t want a potential client, colleague, supplier etc to have their first impression of you be of your social life."

"Let's say you are out and in your work clothes. You're not cropping your friends out of the picture from a night out. Let’s also say that I am a third party trying to negotiate a contract with your company and I see that image vs a professional image.

No, there's nothing wrong with your social focussed image. However, even though there's nothing wrong with it, you run the risk of presenting the wrong first impression to a third party. When it comes to generating work, a third party will most likely prefer the company with the professional images because they appear to know the importance of their brand to their business; they take their business seriously and they've taken the time and effort to portray it in a professional manner. The same applies on an individual level, when you're searching for a new job or networking online."

Final word: A professional photo is...

The final word on professional headshots from James? "A professional picture is something that always impresses and will make people trust in your work. It adds that extra gloss and high-end feel to your brand."

Great advice and lots of food for thought there. Discover how to take the perfect do-it-yourself headshot with more great tips and tricks from James in an upcoming Panda Pointers post (watch this space!). Or just skip the selfie session and get in touch with James to help you improve your professional brand or create an incredible first impression for your entire team.

Get in touch with James and find out more about James Beedham Photography Get to know James, take a look at some of our headshots and keep an eye out for James' incredible work in our Hiring & HR focussed print magazine (coming soon to clients!).

What do you think?

Share your thoughts on this post - whether you agree, disagree or have your own insight to share, we want to hear from you!

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