THE POWER OF A GREAT LINKEDIN PHOTO

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting with a young woman just moving from “The Bay”. Like so many of us who did so over the years (my trek was in ’99), she is recovering from her corporate startup experience. Wonderfully, she’s reconnected to her fine-art painting roots and is allowing the brush to restore her soul.

After sharing coffee with a colleague of mine, she was introduced to me as someone in Austin who could get her connected to cool people. (I wonder if I can make that into a tagline?) My gift is an ability to visit with someone and see them connected to random people I know – whether in Austin or around the world. This young lady brought up the face of a client in my head which I worked on a single project about 10 years ago. Usually, the person’s name will roll in not long after my brain remembers the face, but this was such a short, happy engagement that the neuro pathways were just not connecting the dots for me.

The client’s face was clear as day – and I remembered the content of a book she had just launched. I was hired to write the writer’s bio. Even the pressure and anxiety I felt delivering her bio came back. I immediately jumped into my client folders. Dang, this was under a contracted brand, and left her folder behind. I googled the theme of her book and was not rewarded. Then, I hit my contacts in LinkedIn and attempted searching – epic fail.

Next, I pulled up all my LinkedIn contacts in the ‘greater Austin’ area and began to scroll. Hundreds and 100s of faces began to roll by my screen, and I could remember little tidbits about people, and jotted down those I wished to reconnect with. 10, 15, 20 min of scrolling – and now I was in to the no photo area. Each name took me several seconds to connect without the photo – ugh. Then, there was the person’s photo I was looking for. Boom – our interactions came rushing in, and I was ready to connect my new friend with someone who could become her friend, mentor, who knows?

As a person who spends time in LinkedIn every day and receives contract opportunities and great networking connections via LinkedIn, I implore you – get a great photo done of yourself for LinkedIn! Hire us or a firm like ours to support the development of a LinkedIn profile that shares a bit of you with which people can connect. We want to remember you.