Refresh Your LinkedIn Profile Photo to Elevate Your Professional Personal Brand

Invite your next employer, client or contact into your personal brand with an engaging LinkedIn profile photo.

Research estimates that 60% of recruiters review social media profiles during the hiring process. So, as the shop front window of your professional personal brand, what is your LinkedIn headshot creating for your credibility in your search for new contacts, clients or career opportunities?

We’re usually taught, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” It’s a nice idea, but as the science shows, it doesn’t reflect reality.

In 2006, Princeton Psychologists, Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov, published research concluding that first impressions are formed within as quickly as a tenth of a second.

Research participants were shown photographs of strangers’ faces. Longer exposure to the photographs only increased their confidence in their initial judgments. Trustworthiness showed the highest correlation. It suggested that an accelerated ability to judge trustworthiness has been evolutionarily hardwired into us humans. It forms a crucial component of our natural survival mechanism.

So, what if your LinkedIn profile headshot is what is silently sealing the deal for your next job opportunity, client or professional relationship? If it’s time for an update, refresh your LinkedIn profile with a new personal brand photo.

1. Dress for the job you want

As the saying goes, dress for the job you want, not the job you have. Match the vibe of the role you want or the industry you want to align with.

What to wear in your personal brand photo

When planning the perfect wardrobe choice for your new professional personal brand photo, you might consider these categories:

Business professional: Think tailored suits, shirts, blazers and corporate dresses.

Business casual: Think relaxed button-down shirts, sweaters and well-fitted pants.

While casual clothes might match the vibe of your industry (like a cool tech company or creative field), I suggest using laid-back casual with caution and opting for business casual for your LinkedIn photo instead. A touch of formality can increase your credibility. Various studies support that compared to those who dress more casually, those who dress more formally attract more perceived competence.

In The Unfair Advantage, Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba say:

“Your Status is your personal brand. It is how others see you. It is your social standing, your appearance, your gender, your age, and how you dress, stand, and talk. It’s also your perceived credibility.”

The psychology of colour for your personal brand

Consider colour psychology in your wardrobe choices. In an earlier blog, I explored what your personal brand colours are saying about you. Colour communicates for your personal brand. Different colours have different connotations. For example, consider these common colour meanings:

Black: Elegance, power, mystery, authority and formality

White: Purity, simplicity, cleanliness, perfection and innocence

Blue: Trust, authority, intelligence, friendliness and calm

If you have built your professional personal brand around a signature colour, it’s a nice nuanced touch to wear your personal brand colour as a part of your signature style, too. However, a good default is to opt for neutrals, as they are less polarising and generally perceived as more professional for your personal brand.

Hair

If you have more hair to work with, what is your hair saying for you? Straight, curly or wavy? Super straight says sleek. A wave is more relaxed. Curls can come across as expressive.

Makeup

A bit of makeup can help you look a little less washed out. It can be a subtle form of self-expression. Depending on your ideal roles, industry or clients, it can also be excessive. If you’re applying makeup, be intentional about your LinkedIn profile goals.

2. Match online You with real life You

There is no use picking the perfect outfit or communicating the perfect colour if it doesn’t reflect your authentic personal brand style. How will you actually turn up to a meeting, interview or work every day?

Remember, science shows people are judging you in a matter of milliseconds. If a potential employer or client has discovered you via LinkedIn, they’ll be comparing their expectations from your online personal brand to your real-life personal brand. If they don’t match, at best it’s distracting, or worse, you risk breaking trust instantly. By matching expectations with reality, you help ease our already naturally negative survival instinct.

If your professional personal brand photos are many years out of date, it can also be distracting when the real-life you no longer matches your online profile photo. I’d personally be as pedantic as updating your personal brand photos if you change your hair colour or hairstyle notably.

Even when I am meeting with my personal brand coaching clients, especially for the first time, I try to ensure that I reflect the personal brand style they are accustomed to seeing online to help relax their reptilian brain.

3. Take an engaging photo

Smile like you mean it

Humans are tribal creations. We can think a serious face screams ‘boss’, but remember we are socially motivated too. Outside of your technical capabilities, we need to decide whether we can trust you. As a hiring manager looking to protect the tribe, we naturally also ask ourselves, ‘Do I like this person?’, ‘Do I want to work with this person?’, ‘Do I enjoy working with this person?’

While a serious face might communicate competence and that you take your work seriously, a smile says warm, inviting, and approachable. It says you’ll be someone I’ll enjoy working with while you get the job done.

So, consider at least a slight smile or your best beam grin, just make sure it looks authentic. For example, don’t smile with only your mouth. Smile with your whole face, especially your eyes. This is the difference between a smile that feels forcefully painted on and a genuine smile. Humans can subconsciously perceive micro facial expressions, so project trustworthiness instead of feeling fake.

Pay attention to your posture

Take a photo, consciously aware of your whole body.

For a professional personal brand photo, head and shoulders are best practice. Too close feels invasive; too far feels distant and distracting. However, if you can execute it well, I do personally love a touch of background that aligns with your personal brand personality, industry or value.

Using your smartphone

If you’re taking the photo on your phone, use the timer in selfie mode (set up your camera with a stand or tripod). Just don’t use selfie mode, holding your phone.

Look into the lens, not at yourself on the screen. As a result, your eyes connect directly with your viewer.

Another option is asking a friend or family member to take the photo for you.

4. A simple edit to elevate your photo quality

In visual design, contrast is key. It makes the most important parts pop in a space - for your LinkedIn profile photo, that’s you!

• Canva makes creating contrast like a professional embarrassingly easy:

• Create a free Canva account (if you don’t already have one)

• Create a new design using the profile image you’ve uploaded

• Click Edit image

• Click fx effects in the left-hand menu and select Auto Focus

And Voila! In seconds, you have subtle depth-of-field for your LinkedIn profile picture. To feel extra elevated, apply a tasteful filter (perhaps with the intensity level lowered) and go from dull to dazzling.

Elevate the brightness if you need to, as this is more inviting. You might also try adjusting the contrast further.

5. What to avoid

You make your own rules, but if you want to elevate your professional personal brand, it’s generally best practice to avoid these:

• Someone else in the photo

• A cropped photo from a personal party

• Inappropriate attire

• A blurry, pixelated, dark or poor-quality photo