8 Ways to Select the Right Photo for Your LinkedIn Profile

Your profile picture is only one small aspect of your LinkedIn profile, but it’s one of the most important – it adds to the first impression you make on employers and clients.

To help you create the best first impression, here are a few tips for choosing the right photo for your professional profile:

1. Ensure high quality images. If you want to come across as a true professional and make a lasting impression, use a high-quality profile photo. If you don’t have one, now might be the ideal time to schedule a professional personal branding photo session.
2. Make sure it looks like you. The photo you use on your LinkedIn profile needs to look like you. If you have changed your look or you’ve gotten a little older, it’s important to use an updated photo.
3. You should be the only one in the picture. This is YOUR LinkedIn profile, which means you should be the only person in your profile picture. If there’s more than one person in a photo, people who visit your profile won’t know who you are.
4. Consider your brand before you pose. Next, you want to choose a photo where you have a relevant expression. Is your personal brand more serious? Your expression should convey this. And if you are going to smile, show your teeth, these photos generate a more positive reaction.
5. Make it about your face. That photo someone took of you on top of a mountain won’t make for a good profile picture. Your face should take up at least 60% of the frame – people want to know what you look like.
6. Ditch the distracting background. Again, your face should be the focus of your profile photo, so opt for the least distracting background possible.
7. Go easy on the filters. If you are planning to take your own profile picture, go easy on the filters. A photo that is heavily edited comes across as less trustworthy.
8. Natural light is best. Shooting in a soft, natural light will produce the best images as it won’t make your skin look too pale or shiny.

By choosing the right LinkedIn profile picture you can increase your referral and response rates as a professional, so choose wisely.

Jamie Salima Love is a FingerLakes, NY and Boston MA based Headshot and Personal Branding Photographer extraordinaire. She has helped thousands of small businesses, brands, and entrepreneurs over her 20 yr career by creating updated photo libraries with stellar imagery. She is available for a multitude of services, whether you’re looking to work with her to simply update your Headshots, or to create an extensive Personal Branding Photography strategy and library with all the bells and whistles she’s got you covered.