So you have finally decided to pick up and dust your digital business profile image on LInkedin or your official “About Us” section.
You wish to make a great first impression. You pour over your headlines section carefully choosing terms - “keywords” in digitalese to describe your key skills repeatedly assessing the impact it would have on your future employers/clients. You take several critical looks at the experience section trying to make it informative yet crisp. You update the skills section with your recently acquired technical qualification. Before you finalize everything – you run this by your mentor and seek their inputs.
What do you do for the profile photo section?
You fish around. You find yourself a great image of yourself taken on the European holiday you had taken. You fish around a little more and shake up the google drive and you discover the soft copy of your passport image. A third round of shakeup and there you have it, your image from last year’s company offsite. Dressed In the company branded t-shirt and the nice holiday sun-this is it for your profile image. And soon enough you have it posted on your profile.
Cut to other side of the screen.
What does a potential hiring manager or potential client see as they browse your profile? The very first impression they have of you is from the profile picture you recently updated. You come across a personable, fun loving gentleman who loves a good time. Would that be the first impression of yourself that you would like to make on a professional networking platform?
Now consider this. A profile image of you – carefully groomed, formally dressed in a business suit (since that senior position you are eyeing in your next career move requires you to) and sporting a confident open expression that clients/colleagues would love to approach as a business professional.
How would you like your LinkedIn profile image to be? A full-length picture that is barely recognizable as a 1-inch icon or a headshot (Head and shoulder) picture where your face is not just recognizable but also authentic and expressive.
So what is a headshot that works for your corporate profile?
It is an image of your head and shoulders. It has 3 D qualities which are a result of the play of light and shadows on the person making it look realistic. The expression carried by the person conveys his personality in relation to his professional profile. E.g. a HR professional may come across as a warm, open personality. As a first impression on digital profile, this image called a “headshot” makes the very first impression on the audience.
Here is a case-study I am sharing of a recent headshot I made for my associate and friend Mr. Prakash Singh Negi. It will help you understand between a record shot and a corporate headshot.
