Congratulations! You’ve just finished your headshot session. Your moment in the sun (however comfortable it was) is finished and the photographer has delivered the images to you as required by contract. What do you do with them now? How can you get the most useful, purposeful, and targeted use out of those images (and the money you spent for them)? Let’s find out!
For the purposes of this article, I will assume you’re in the corporate world (as opposed to an artist, musician, or actor) and that your session included a few “looks” that gives you some ability to choose which looks best fit the various ways you’ll use your photos.
Straight away, you’ll most certainly want to update your LinkedIn profile (especially if you’re in the job market). The best photo to use for that LinkedIn profile is a classic headshot/business portrait. You’re wearing a suit, you’re camera aware, and you’re projecting an air of confidence, professionalism, and energy that communicates volumes to the viewer.
Here are some other uses and ideas for other photos from your shoot that you may not have considered.
Business cards are a great way to put your updated headshots to immediate use. Coupled with all of your pertinent contact information, business cards that feature your headshot are a great way to connect your face with your contact information, your industry, and your PERSONALITY well after your introduction and conversation has passed.
Professional/trade association member mailing lists or local chamber of commerce profiles are also potential destinations for your new/updated headshots. Many of these lists allow their members to establish an “about me” page that can be populated with contact information, brief summaries of work locations and experience, along with the ability to upload photos. If these mailing lists allow for the upload of multiple photos, here’s a chance to show a little bit more personality in the photos that you choose. Certainly upload a different pose for the collection of “classic headshots” that you now have, but also consider uploading one more more of the “casual” photos that you now have as well. (By “casual,” I’m referring to one or more of the photos that feature you more relaxed, with an open shirt and color, or perhaps wearing a polo type shirt that features your company’s logo.
A professional photo in your email signature can go a long way to building personal connections over email messages. Most people find visual content much more engaging irrespective of the channel. A photo that “stands out” against the text of the email is visually stimulating and screams “look at me” (even if for just a second). Once the reader has done that, the rest of your signature line (email address, website, LinkedIn, etc) is right there in their peripheral vision quietly setting up shot in their visual cortex for a brief moment. Sometimes that brief moment is all you need to generate a lasting impression among people you haven’t actually met in person yet.
If you’re in the corporate world (especially if you’re a freelancer or thought leader), you probably spend a lot of time creating presentations (video, powerpoint, etc) in order to pitch/convey ideas, sell/prove concepts, and for general marketing/outreach efforts. Never miss an opportunity to personally brand this content with your photo and contact information. Digital content gets shared (often virally), so never release something “into the wild” without branding it first. Your headshot is a key piece of metadata that you should affix to all intellectual property that you create.
If you’re in demand as a public speaker, then including an updated headshot/business portrait in all media that advances your presentation is an absolute must. Flyers (both digital and print) are generated well in advance of conferences, seminars, and panel discussions in order to communicate who will be featured speakers to all who are interested. Including an updated headshot (i.e., one that actually looks like you on the day of the event) is de rigueur. Older, outdated headshots run the risk of confusing the attendees when someone “other than” the person advertised actually gets up to the podium/panel and starts opining about the subject at hand.
There are other locations/destinations that benefit from your headshot’s presence. Your personal/ professional website is certainly one; press kits and advertising campaigns (where appropriate) are another where your updated headshot/business portrait can really level up your personal brand and message.
To sum up, visual communicate remains as important today as it has ever been. Things are relatively back to normal and our long period of forced isolation is (hopefully and forever) behind us. Despite that, we still communicate electronically – often to people and organizations we’ve never met in person before – and so our headshots become our virtual emmissary as we go about our day.
Make sure your headshot is working for you 24/7. Use your headshots creatively and extensively. Use them to establish a presence in the minds of colleagues, current and future clients, and to people who are just interested in what you do. If you do, you’re certain to meet someone who already has some sense of who you are and why they want to hire you – simply based on the first impression that your headshot gave them days or weeks prior.
Are you ready to update your headshots? Do any of your colleagues need their headshots updated? Call me at 310.614.5119 and let’s talk. I use a sliding scale in my group headshot pricing scheme that sees the price per person dropping by 70% after the 12th person signs up. Let’s talk!