Everyone has beauty inside of them, right? It’s what my mother always told me, I believe it, and you should too. So if none of us are ugly then why don’t you have a picture uploaded to online profile (kudos to you if you do have a picture – now get your connections to do it)? It can make all the difference in the world.
A picture can lead to success. People looking for other people online trust the profile more if a picture is present. With many site profiles being viewable by the public, don’t you want to create that trust among potential customers searching for you? This building of trust by showing your mug to potential new business relationships has been statistically proven, albeit in the most competitive field of all.
As discussed on this blog previously, economist Stephen B. Levitt, author of the books Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics, adding a picture to a dating site profile significantly increases the likelihood that person receiving a communication from would be suitors. ”Of the many ways to fail on a dating site, not posting a picture of yourself is perhaps the most certain,” Levitt said. ”A man who does not include his photo gets only one fourth the volume of email response of a man who does; a woman who doesn’t include a photo gets only one sixth the response.” This means that a man who describes himself as low-income, balding, and overweight but who includes a picture of himself will get 24 email responses versus 6-email responses for a man who lists himself as high-income, full head of hair, and fit, but does not include a picture. For a woman who lists herself as overweight, low-educated, and brown hair (a statistically less appealing color in online dating sites than blond) but who includes a picture of herself will get 24 email responses versus 4-email responses for a woman who lists herself as thin, highly educated, and blond.
Customers picking a business to work with are not to different than people looking for mates, especially when they are looking for professionals like doctors or lawyers. The lawyer or doctor is someone they are going to have to work with through potentially emotional and difficult challenges. They need to like that person and creating a connection online can start with the photo.
If 3 minutes could yield one new client would that be time well spent? As the visibility of social and professional networks continues to rise on the open web, professionals with pictures have a statistically proven benefit of landing new relationships. Those without a picture don’t stand a chance.
