Every professional photographer is going to kill me. Two out of these 5 tips they will argue vehemently against. Never mind, you want to look your best, professional self on LinkedIn right? Then these three tips are worth checking out.
MIRROR YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE PICTURE (1)
You want to have an open and welcoming posture towards your visitors. Your LinkedIn Profile Pictures sits smack, bang in the middle of your profile. On the homepage, where you share all your clever insights, you appear to the left of the writing. You want to make sure your shoulders are facing straight forward or turned in to the writing. If you face the wrong way: mirror your picture in any old picture viewing software, and upload that version to LinkedIn.
CROP YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE PICTURE (2)
You haven’t got your partner, dog or half empty bottle of booze in your pic right? I think you still want to crop a bit more. The ideal LinkedIn Profile Picture focuses on head and shoulders. It is so tiny, you want your face to be fairly big. Ideally, you crop a teeny, weeny little bit of the top of your hair (if you have any on top of your head). That way you are very ‘present’ instead of framed like on your grandma’s sideboard.
FILTER OR ADJUST YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE PICTURE (3 & 4)
LinkedIn offers filters! Don’t get all excited, you won’t get a rainbow mat rolling out for your mouth like the kids do on SnapChat. The filters can be just what your picture needs if the colour or light is less than brilliant. Which brings me to tip 4. If the filters don’t cut it for you, there is the option to manually adjust brightness, contrast and saturation. Never mind the last option here. We are on LinkedIn, not Instagram.
MAKE YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE PICTURE VISIBLE (5)
Visibility. I kid you not, some people hide their profile pic. LinkedIn is your professional network. You don’t have anything to hide. There is no point to hide your picture from those not yet connected to you. How am I going to make sure you are the person I met last night? LinkedIn themselves state that profiles with a visible picture get 7 times more attention.