Why Your Profile Pic matters

“But I’m not an influencer, so I don’t need to worry about my personal brand.”

Everyone has a reputation. That is how other people see us and what they think of us. But our personal brand is how we want others to see and think of us. Whereas reputation is about credibility, your personal brand is about visibility and the values that you outwardly represent.

While you don’t always have full control over your reputation, your personal brand is for you to create and shape.

Here are 7 reasons why a professional headshot is a critical component of your and your organization’s brand.

• It takes a tenth of a second to form an impression of a stranger from their face, and longer exposures don’t significantly alter those impressions. (APS)
  

• Research shows that you make your decision to trust someone within 100 milliseconds of seeing their face. (Forbes)
  

• LinkedIn members who include a profile photo receive 21x more profile views and up to 36x more messages. (LinkedIn)
  

• LinkedIn users who have a professional headshot get 14 times more views than those without. (Inc)
  

• Recruiters on LinkedIn use an average of 19% of their time looking at profile pictures rather than reading through other relevant information about the candidates. (The Ladders)
  

• People are twice as likely to trust a business or a business owner if they can see a photograph of them online, according to a US survey. (BrightLocal)
  

• Eye-tracking data shows users are clearly drawn to faces when they visit websites. (ResearchGate)