Or are you a Ghost Endorser yourself?
I’m talking about one of the faceless, white, androgynous people on the grey background in the skills lists and beyond…
What kind of impact does that make? Is that really the message you want to send?
We all know how important it is to stand out from the crowd in our industry. You’re working hard at building your profile, creating contacts and developing your expertise and putting effort into build your industry standing….and then you upload a profile without a photo!
Not having a photo on your profile is right up there with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors in your Resume or CV – probably voted the number one cardinal sin of career development. In my opinion, on LinkedIn, the number one sin is not having a photo. LinkedIn’s own research shows that just having a picture makes your profile 14 times more likely to be viewed by others (Source: LinkedIn Talent Blog, December 3, 2014).
LinkedIn is about connecting with people. It doesn’t matter if you won’t win a beauty pageant. With a bit of effort on the photo front, you can still look interesting, approachable, curious, professional, appealing, intriguing, pleasant, knowledgeable, inviting, unusual, expert, creative… get the picture? But what hope of developing a real connection when I can’t see your face?
There are any number of experts out there who can create your perfect profile photo. I like to recommend a website (www.brisbaneheadshots.com.au) that has a gallery of different types of poses, backgrounds, facial expressions and moods that can provide some inspiration for your photo. If you don’t want to invest in getting a professional shot done, then at least use sites like this one for some ideas, and get a friend who’s handy with a camera to snap away until you’re happy with the result. That’s the beauty of digital photography!
Think about the message you want to portray. Think about how you would stand (or sit), what you’d wear, how would you style your hair, to makeup or not to makeup, what kind of background is not distracting – so many factors that go into a good shot.
So if you’re being endorsed by ghosts, do them a favour in 2015. Send them a personal message to get a photo on their profile, and get more profile views for them and you!
Lynda Bundock is Principal Consultant for Top Job Coaching, based in Brisbane, Australia.
Lynda can help you with your LinkedIn Profile, Resume, Interview Skills Coaching and more (and she has a photo on her profile!)
Contact: lynda@topjobcoaching.com.au or visit www.topjobcoaching.com.au
Phone: + 61 (0)498 652917
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