Why Pictures Matter On Your LinkedIn Profile

Professional social networking website LinkedIn is now an invaluable business tool for hiring managers and recruiters to find new talent as well as for workers to promote themselves to prospective employers. Microsoft certainly sees a lot of potential in LinkedIn and has forked out $US26.2 billion to buy it. Sure, you may have a profile on the networking site that is fleshed out with words about your qualifications, but have you spent much time thinking about the pictures you put up on the page? Here’s why images on your LinkedIn profile deserve more care.

As the assistant director for Syracuse University’s Career Services department, Kim Brown has poured over a plethora of LinkedIn profiles for students eager to make an impression with potential employers. She said LinkedIn isn’t just about writing the best descriptions in every category. Users should pay attention to the visuals that are added to their profiles.

Brown noted one of the common mistakes that people make on LinkedIn is they treat it like Facebook. Posting personal pictures on LinkedIn is a big no-no. Don’t use a picture of yourself with your significant other as your profile image, even if the both of you look perfectly sensible in it.

If you’re desperate to show a bit of personality in your display picture and want to upload an image of yourself doing something funny; don’t. Remember: LinkedIn is for your professional self and Facebook is for your personal self. Keep the two of them separate.

Another thing Brown noticed was that people weren’t making use of LinkedIn’s background image feature. You can now add a background photo to your profile and she recommends picking something that matches your brand. For example, I use the Lifehacker Australia banner as a background picture on my own LinkedIn profile.

You can get more LinkedIn tips from Brown over at Business Insider Australia.

[Via Business Insider Australia]


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