A good professional headshot is a must on your LinkedIn profile today.
Your profile picture is the first impression that people have of you, it shows up in searches and in Google, and it enables you to connect with others and visually convey your personal brand.
Supporting the idea that a LinkedIn photo is a key part of your profile, according to LinkedIn’s official blog, “Members who include a profile photo receive 21x more profile views and up to 36x more messages.”
You’d be surprised just how many casual (and unfriendly/unapproachable) headshots there are on LinkedIn, and those can be detrimental to your brand. Photos in which you are smiling and dressed professionally are key as well as updating your photo if it is more than a few years old (hey it’s okay if you’re bald!).
Almost as bad as having a low-resolution, unprofessional LinkedIn photo is not having any photo at all.
Here are some tips to ensure you have a strong #linkedin profile photo in my latest JD Supra article.