Let's be serious.
Just kidding. But I am going to touch on the idea of the "serious" business photo.
One of the first questions clients often ask is: "Should I smile?"
And generally, the answer is that you should do whatever feels and looks like you, with the caveat that you are trying to initiate connection with people, and people generally respond more favourably to someone who appears to be, if not outright joyful, at least approachable.
I've written about this before. As have so many. In fact it was ten years ago (!) that I found (and shared) a handy diagrammatic breakdown of what one organization has determined makes the perfect profile photo -- https://photofeeler-blog.s3.amazonaws.com/perfect-photo-infographic.jpg
-- and you can see that, according to them, smiles are really important.
However, sometimes there are good reasons not to smile. Some people just aren't smiley. Sometimes a smiley photo just wouldn't feel right, if, say, you are the CEO of a funeral home, or work in a similarly serious organization. Even so, I just wanted to make the point in this post that there is (scary) serious, and there's (still approachable) serious. And no matter who you are, if you are using a profile photo at all, I suggest it will most likely serve you better if you look at least somewhat accessible. Unless anger is your brand.
As always my suggestions are presented to help most people, most of the time. They are not rules, and they don't cover every circumstance.
Always remember what the goal of your profile portrait is. And remember that generally you want to draw people towards you, not frighten them off.
kathryn@hollinrake.com
