From LinkedIn headshots to professional family photos, professional photographers play a still very essential role all throughout the United States. This is still the case even with the rise of the amateur photo. With as many as seven hundred and thirty billion user shared photos shared on Facebook alone over the course of a single year, it is no surprise that the professional photos stand out. After all, while amateur photos are great and hugely accessible, the quality just cannot compare.
And therefore, professional photos are still prized and important in our society as we know it. Professional photography has many uses as well. For instance, many families get portraits taken of all members together, providing a professionally done keepsake for years and years to come – and often an artful piece of photography that can be prominently displayed in their homes. Professional portraits are also common, with many mothers choosing to get professionally taken pictures of their child as they grow up, high in quality and a great way to look back on those magical but fleeting early years of life.
Professional pictures can also be put to good use when they are used for corporate headshots as well as LinkedIn headshots. Having professional pictures to display as a representation of yourself is critical. In fact, it is only becoming more so and we delve further and further into the digital age and much of how we are seen as people and as professionals is represented on our online profiles.
The LinkedIn headshots are particularly important, as having LinkedIn headshots on your LinkedIn profile is likely to bring your profile up to eleven times the views that someone without LinkedIn headshots would be getting. In addition to this, a person with LinkedIn headshots included on their profile will get more than forty five percent more messages than a person without them, meaning that the mere presence of LinkedIn headshots can increase the overall hireability of a job candidate, something that is of course incredibly important for anyone who is looking to get a job as soon as possible.
But it’s not enough just to have LinkedIn headshots on your LinkedIn profile page. These LinkedIn headshots must also be high quality ones, preferably taken by one of the headshot photographers in your area. Casual picture that you would post on Facebook or on another social media platform are typically not advisable. These types of pictures, while charming and perhaps a good portrayal of your life as a whole, just might not represent the professional demeanor that you are trying to project.
After all, much of a first impression is based on your physical appearance, from the warmth of your smile to the attire that you have chosen. Cultivating this is something that you have control over when it comes to LinkedIn headshots and, like it or not, it is these LinkedIn headshots that will help potential employers to craft a first impression of not only your appearance but of who you might be as a person as well as an employee and a professional part of the workforce.
There are many ways that a professional photographer can instruct you to create the best first impression possible. For instance, a slight crinkling of the eyes is often reviewed positively, as is a smile that isn’t close lipped but shows teeth instead. An accentuated jawline is also helpful in creating a good first impression, and can be created even if you yourself do not have particularly defined jaw. Making eye contact with the camera is also particularly important, as it can convey a great sense of trustworthiness to any potential employer here in the United States.
Here in this, in the middle of the digital age, much of your persona and the first impressions that people make of you will come from online platforms that you’ve cultivated. Your LinkedIn platform is one such platform, geared towards being hired for a job you are qualified for and that will help you to advance in your career. From the information your include on the profile page of your LinkedIn account to the headshots that you have acquired from a photographer, your profile must be crafted with care.
