Do You Really Need a LinkedIn Profile Picture? Having a professional quality headshot is a must if you want to succeed on LinkedIn.

Thanks to the old human algorithm, your LinkedIn profile picture really is the key to your success. Did you know that people are constantly searching for you online? Maybe they met you at an event, or someone mentioned you to them in passing. Professionally, they may have received an email from you or one in which you were copied in. You may have applied for a position with them, or you came up in a position candidate search. They may have even seen a comment you made on a social media post. There are so many reasons why and chances are, you are being searched by multiple people daily.

So whether you like it or not, what your Google search results say about you can have a major impact on your life and potential future successes.

Try a quick little experiment. Open another browser window and Google your name.

Now, let’s see how close I am to your search results:

Your LinkedIn Profile is in the Top 3 results?

If you have one, the first image result of you is your LinkedIn profile picture?

There is a 90% chance you said “Yes” to both of those questions.

What we find is that when those multiple daily searches for you are done, there is a near 100% chance that the first thing they find is your LinkedIn profile. Add to that, your LinkedIn profile picture will probably be the first image they see of you.

Why Is LinkedIn So Important?

LinkedIn recently conducted an in-depth polling of recruiters and business relationship managers. When participants asked how many of them look up someone’s LinkedIn profile when deciding whether or not to reach out to them, a staggering 93% responded “Yes”. This means that regardless of what the Google search results show them, they are most likely going to look at your LinkedIn profile first. In addition, they will likely decide whether or not to reach out to you based on your profile. LinkedIn has essentially become the ultimate gatekeeper for all job candidates, business development professionals, and people in professional services. So much so, that when you go to someone’s bio on their company’s website they will include a link to their LinkedIn profile.

How Important is My LinkedIn Profile Picture?

The short answer is “Very”! That picture may also play a much bigger part in your success than you might think. In fact, according to that same poll, your profile picture might be more important than your credentials. When asked, 68% said they formed an opinion of the person they were searching for based on their profile picture.

It should not come as any big surprise that people will still judge others based on their picture. The one good thing is that respondents seemed to care more about how professional your profile picture appeared. Is it a high-quality image of you in which your appearance is professional?

As to your profile picture’s influence on your credentials, we can refer back to the polling. Those polled were also asked whether a bad profile picture would make them hesitant to contact a person who is great on paper. A staggering 69% said they would definitely to most likely NOT respond to someone who looked good on paper but had a bad profile picture. Essentially, they felt that they did not trust the resume if the picture professionalism didn’t match.

So regardless of your profession, having a professional-looking picture on your LinkedIn profile really could play a major role in your success.

In addition to traditional headshot services, I also provide special LinkedIn Headshot Sessions. These are for those who only want a professional picture of themselves on LinkedIn and other social media profiles. Feel free to reach out to discuss coming to my location or having me come to your location to shoot your professional profile headshot. You can learn more about my headshots here.

You can read more about the study here.