Monday 19 September 2011

Get a Clear Head Shot

Over the past, what must be now, six months, I have seen about loads of online discussions entitled, something along the lines of 'How important is your headshot/personal avatar?'

And as much as I understand why people get all huffy about - people shouldn't make assumptions - and you can't read a book by it's cover - and all those other great phrases of insight ...

We are (as far as I am aware) human, and as humans we make judgements and assumptions all the time, with and without knowing it. We just can't help ourselves.

It is an evolutionary trait - We judge everything by its appearance.
  • We choose better looking fruit, veg, food stuffs, because that is what we are programmed to do. Anything else might not taste good, or worse, be bad for us.
  • We make the majority of a decision - ie if we like someone or something - just by looking at it/them.
  • We judge the intelligence, background, social skills, personality, status of people when we look at them - without thinking about it. We can't help it.

But let's get real. When talking about online avatars and headshot photos, perhaps we should just be sensible. People have profiles and online accounts to network, comment, build profiles etc .... they are there, one way or another, to be judged - so I suggest we all get over ourselves, work with human nature and put up a good clear headshot of yourself. To not do it suggests that you are hiding/
scared/lazy/dodgy.

Anyway, perhaps the question shouldn't be - 'How important is your headshot?'. Perhaps it should be - 'How do I want to be percieved?'. Having a photo of anything, yourself, or nothing will, whether you want it to or not, communicate an image and message to your online audience. Live with it!... or better still, work with it!

To find out more visit the Lippy Marketer website at www.lippymarketing.co.uk or email thirza@lippymarketing.co.uk

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