How you should choose your profile picture 📸
My 2 cents
Imagine you visit a LinkedIn profile that looks like this 👇🏻
What is your first impression? Do you feel engaged? 😅
What about now?
I think you will agree that the second one looks more engaging, and pushes you to scroll.
On the contrary, the first one looks flat, anonymous, and doesn’t motivate you to stay. 🥱
That happens because we are social animals, and we are naturally attracted by our fellows. And obviously, we can feel empathy only when we can see their faces. 👀
So, first of all, forget that rule you have been told about CVs where putting a profile picture would be considered a bad practice 👎🏻
On LinkedIn, it’s a completely different story.
By watching a profile picture, your synapsis transmits signals with information that is going to help build a judge.
When you choose to not upload a picture, it’s probably because you want to avoid a negative judgment.
Many times in this newsletter, I will try to dissuade you from being scared of doing something because of others opinion 👈🏻.
So let’s try to build the best positive perception you can create on the visitor!
What do I mean by “positive”? It’s pretty easy: your picture should be
well visible
recognizable
What you want to have, is not simply a picture that stands out, but that also has that “iconic factor”.
Remember, your profile is not displayed just to people visiting it.
It’s also displayed in their feed, under posts, every time you react to something or comment, and also when you might be suggested as a possible contact.
People will often see your face multiple times before deciding to add you. For this reason, it’s essential that they can remember, and it’s way easier to remember about a face, rather than a name.
So, you should try taking a picture that somehow invites people to click on it, but also it’s very important for that photo to be easily recalled and, in particular, recognized when you appear again.
Then, what should it look like? 🤌🏻
Make sure your face is in the foreground and looking at the camera.
Resize it in order to have your face fully visible: remember it’s a small circle, and in the feed, it gets even smaller.
Choose black and white if you want to look “serious” and “monumental”
Choose colors if you want to look “friendly”, and in this case SMILE (I recommend this)
Do not use sunglasses, you want to have eye contact.
Use a neutral and bright background, this way you will look closer.
Informal is 90% better than formal: unless you aim to work in very formal environments, I suggest being casual, and spontaneous.
Don’t forget the background photo! Choose a cover picture that has colors that match the palette of your avatar (this will boost the user’s attention)
Now, I want to give you a jolly tip, which I consider one of the most important: find a suitable picture, upload it, and keep it as much as you can.
Change it only when you find a better one, or when the current one doesn’t represent you anymore.
The reason is that you want to give people the time to memorize your face and be recognized: it’s very likely that HRs will see your profile multiple times, and re-consider your appetibility a second, a third time, etc…
Continuously changing your photo would be a mistake because people wouldn’t have enough time to remember your face.
Consider your picture as the logo of a brand, and re-brand only when it’s necessary.
My first picture was from April 2021 to March 2022
Then, after doing a favor to humanity by cutting my hair, my second one lasted from 2022 to November 2024 (more than 2 years!)
and now, at the time I am writing this article, this is my latest
