The Importance Of Your Photo For Personal Branding

The Importance Of Your Photo For Personal Branding

For many of us, the idea of having to put a photograph of ourselves on our website or blog is one that fills us with dread. We wonder, can’t we just put our message out there and let it speak for itself?

The truth is that whether you like it or not, your message is more likely to be successfully received if it’s accompanied by a photograph of you because we humans are sociable creatures and we are more likely to believe in something if we can see the person that it’s coming from.

Building trust

By using the right photograph of yourself, your message is much more likely to be received and taken in by your audience.

If people can’t put a face to the words, then they become anonymous, and that means that you don’t have any reason to trust them. If you can see the person who is speaking, then it puts you at ease. This means that a photograph is likely to equal more conversions.

A blog owner actually carried out a test to see if this theory held true. First, they posted their contact page with just an icon next to their name. Then after a period of time, they changed the icon to a photograph of themselves. They discovered that 48% more people contacted them when their name was accompanied by a photograph.

Of course, this is a one-off test and isn’t completely conclusive, but it does illustrate an idea that most of us know instinctively to be true.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help

Your photograph can say a lot about you. Ideally, you want it to say that you are trustworthy, of course, but what other messages are you trying to convey? Perhaps you want to project an air of confidence, of approachability, or of authority.

Whatever it is, you can convey all of these ideas through the portrait you use on your website by using the right clothing, background, facial expression, and posture. Telling stories through imagery is an entire skillset in itself, and you don’t need to learn it unless you want to!

Chicago portrait photographer Maggie Rife Ponce specializes in portrait photography for professionals. She, and other photographers like her, can help you to choose what kind of photograph you need and then help you to achieve it.

Using the right photograph

Finally, it’s important to ensure that you are using the right photographs in the right places. For example, if you are using LinkedIn, you need to bear in mind that it’s a site primarily for professionals. Therefore you should ensure that this is the image your photograph conveys if you want to use the platform successfully.

Places like Instagram are a little more artistic, and so you might want to concentrate on having a visually effective image on your Instagram page. Facebook is more personal, so you don’t need to worry quite as much, although you should be aware that people will be able to see your profile picture when they do a search for your name, so it’s a good idea to ensure you don’t have photographs from drunken nights out as your profile picture!