Your profile picture says a lot about your personality

Events-Portraiture-Beata-Cosgrove-Photography-BathBath Portrait Photographer. Beata Cosgrove Photography Research carried out by LinkedIn shows that just having a profile picture on your LinkedIn page makes you 14 times more likely to have your profile viewed. Your photo is one of the most important parts of your LinkedIn profile, and your photo says a lot about your personality and – how presentable you are, how approachable and professional you appear, and so on.

Given all this, it’s imperative that you do include a photo in your LinkedIn profile, and that you use one that does you justice. It goes without saying that by using a low-quality photo, perhaps a selfie or one taken with your computer’s built-in camera, you may well be selling yourself short.

Here are some tips from the local photographer near you for getting top quality pictures for your profile:

1 Dress professionally

When having your profile photo taken, wear the kind of clothes that you’d wear when at work. This helps you to look the part and enables the person viewing your profile to image they’re meeting you in your professional role.

Studio portrait. Beata Cosgrove Photographyportraiture portrait session the best portrait photographer in Bath Somerset UK England nikon photographer polski gfotograf w Bath sesja z charachterem themed portrait session Linked in work business social portrait

2 Use an uncluttered background

If getting a photo taken in your home or workplace, do be mindful of background clutter which might be visible behind you. You might not have noticed that pile of washing up behind you or your colleague’s jacket strewn across a chair, but anyone looking at your picture almost certainly will. As a professional photographer, I often use rolls of white or grey background paper for this. Alternatively, a clear wall (without pictures on) works well, as does a background with a simple regular pattern such as stone or brickwork, perhaps out of focus, concentrating attention on the subject.

Studio portrait. Beata Cosgrove PhotographyBath best personlaity photographer

3 Spend time getting the job done properly

It’s common for people to use the same profile picture across all their social media accounts. So they paste their Facebook profile picture into their LinkedIn profile. But consider for a moment your social traits that define what you’re like as a friend or how you interact with people at a party. And then think what it is you can offer people in your professional life. The odds are that you identified two very different sets of characteristics. This reflects why it’s probably worth having a different profile picture for your ‘professional’ social media page from the one you use when you’re liking dancing cat videos. It takes a bit more time and effort, but should be well worth your while.

Studio portrait. Beata Cosgrove Photography

LinkedIn themselves recommend getting a photograph taken professionally. Beata Cosgrove Photography in Bath can do this for you, delivering great pictures at very reasonable prices. You can see more of Beata's portrait photography here or contact Beata directly.