Why You Need a Professional Selfie.

We all know that a picture paints a thousand words.
And we know that images are important to our marketing, particularly our online presence.

Why is it then that often the one image that we should have, is missing or at best average?

Which image is that? The SELFIE or as it used to be known as, the self-portrait.

So why do you need a professional Selfie?

When I visit a website I usually go straight to the about or start here page.
It often surprises me how many about pages make no mention of the people behind them.
For whatever reason they have no human images.

In my many years of sales and marking there has been one truism: “People buy from People”.
Usually people they like but most certainly people they trust and know something about.

The human face

There has been a lot of testing and research that confirms a human face on about page increases trust.

When you have trust, the more likely visitors are to stick around and consume your content and/or buy your stuff!

The about (or start here) and contact pages are the usually the most visited pages on a website.

So if you don’t have a picture and some sort of bio you are telling visitors to your site that you are anonymous.

We as human beings tend not trust anonymous.

Sure sites like Amazon or Microsoft are anonymous but they have multimillion marketing budgets that go a long way to overcoming their anonymous disadvantage.

So make sure you have a professional selfie of yourself and your key personnel on your website.

So the first 2 steps to think when taking a professional selfie are:

1. What sort of self-portrait do you think represents your brand?

A financial adviser or lawyer may want a more conservative head shot. Or they may want a full length portrait with business like clothes like a jacket and trousers.

A social media site may wish to convey a trendy relaxed image.
So it may decide that, rather than have a headshot, an image of its employees being active may be better.

A tradesperson my want to have an image of themselves in working gear with a tool as a prop.

Real estate agents tend to want half body (torso and head) shots.

Maybe you want black and white or sepia (a reddish brown hue that resembles the effect of aging in old photographs, the photograph not the subject!) as a point of difference.

2. What are you using it for?

Well as I said earlier the priority should be the about page of your website.
If you have a team then make sure they too are on that page which could easily be a separate page underneath the main about page.

Social media profiles are also pretty important. They show the human touch and are more likely to attract engagement

You may also wish to use it for some printed marketing material like flyers and business cards.

If you have been featured in publications, then a great head shot.
Most publications, primarily due to the cost, are moving away from using a photographer.
So having your own portfolio of self-portraits can be very useful

Maybe you’re thinking really big and looking to get your face on a billboard.

Whatever you are using it for make sure you take plenty of images, trying different poses and maybe different locations.

And by the way, there’s no rule that says you have to use the same images across the all platforms and marketing material.
You may want to convey a different image on your social media accounts than say, your business card.

Why you are at, why not stick a ‘selfie’ on your contact page. It makes it feel more personal.

So you can’t really take too many!

Summary for why you need a professional selfie

People buy from people, so make sure your brand shows you and/or your people.

Take plenty of different professional selfie’s.

Use them for not only your website but for other publications and social media.

Check out some portraits in this gallery

So what do you have? Do you have good ‘selfies’?

Where have you posted and used them?

Please leave the answers in the comments below

While you are at it why not subscribe and get a free e-book to help you take better photos.
The principles in this e-book apply not only to travel photography but to all types of photography. 

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