It takes us only a moment to form our first opinion of someone. This first impression will tell us whether that person might be friendly, smart, honest, kind, trustworthy … or not.
Judging a person by their appearance may not always be the best thing to do but it’s something that we’ve been trained to do by our parents, the media and many thousands of years of evolution.
Pop quiz: which of the following people would you trust enough to do business with:
In today’s business world, there’s no excuse for not having a business portrait of yourself. A business portrait always makes a connection with the viewer (and hopefully a positive connection). Or to reverse it, no picture means no connection.
Photograph = emotion = power to influence.
If you see yourself in the above collection of empty headshots then you have a problem. A trust problem, a credibility problem, a business image problem, a marketing problem.
Facebook users with a profile photo get more “likes” and more responses than someone with no picture. The profile picture is the most noticed item on the page.
LinkedIn users with a portrait get more connections than someone with no picture. Employers are seven times more likely to visit a profile with a business headshot than one without. These employers will spend 19% of their time looking at the headshot which is almost as much time as they spend reading about the person’s skills and past experience.
A Twitter account with a profile picture gets ten times more followers than one without a headshot.
The “About Us” page is usually one of the most-visited pages of any web site. It’s most visited by potential customers trying to make a purchasing decision. The value of using headshots on a web site has been documented.
The value and importance of a business headshot is undisputed. Online, there’s no shortage of public relations folks, marketing experts and photographers(!) extolling the importance of business portraits. Maybe they have a point?
If you need a business portrait, contact your favourite corporate photographer or business headshot photographer today. Every city has a number of professional photographers who do great work. But here’s the secret: shop photography first, not price. Your portrait and your business will thank you.
