BOOST YOUR PERSONAL BRAND ON LINKEDIN WITH A SMILE

Parents re-entering the paid workforce might wonder how on earth they can stand out among a sea of candidates.

Personal branding is a sure-fire way to set yourself apart and one foundational component of an impactful personal brand for job-seekers is a solid profile photo on LinkedIn.

A personal brand with a photograph on LinkedIn will rank you higher in recruiter searches and get you more overall views.

But don’t just upload any photo.

Here is the cherry on top of your LinkedIn personal brand: Smile.

First, profiles with a photo receive 21x more profile views than those without.

If you’re attracting views, you’ll want to ensure your photo is stellar because an eye- tracking heat map study of the LinkedIn profile photo revealed that recruiters spend more time viewing the photo than any other area.

The image is based on eye-tracking data from a May 2014 study by TheLadders, entitled “Keeping an Eye on Recruiter Behavior.”

Researchers followed recruiters over a 10-week period with eye-tracking equipment, discovering that recruiters hovered over the profile picture for 19% of the total time per candidate while looking at LinkedIn profiles.

This was the top area of focus.

For my Torontonian friends, Lemons and Ants offers incredible professional headshots (they did mine!).

Selfies work, too — just make sure it’s clear and well-lit.

Second, a smile will get you better results. I heard that profiles with a likeable photo –

a smile to nail the

know

***like***

trust

factor

receive better reception overall …

so I tested this theory myself and sure enough, it rang true for me, too.

You’ll see below my experiment on Photofeeler. The two photographs were taken by Lemons and Ants; the only difference is a smile vs. no smile.

My likeability rating doubled with a smile.

Let me say it again: My smiling photo received a likability rating x2 better than a non-smiling one.

Unreal.

I wasn’t expecting that result (and I could leave it up on Photofeeler to aim for closer to 500+ votes), but indeed, the take-home message is that smiling goes a long way.

People hire other people that they like.

Likability is a little-talked about feature of the job search and a smiling photo can do wonders for your LinkedIn profile.

There are many valid reasons why you may opt-out of a profile photograph, and that’s ok.

You get to decide.

But if you decide to add a photo to LinkedIn, do yourself a favour and decide to smile.

TIP: Be mindful of the industry and role you’re after. It’s worth experimenting with your own photos on Photofeeler.

Being perceived as more competent or influential (rather than likable) might be a better goal to elevate your particular brand.