“LinkedIn members with profile photos receive 14x more profile views than those without.” – LinkedIn

To drive visibility for your personal brand, a LinkedIn profile picture is a must. But how can you put your best foot forward and ensure the image you portray resonates with colleagues, recruiters, and potential employers?

Dress to Impress: Save your mountaineering and mud run photos for other social networks. Business casual and formal interview attire are your best bets for maintaining a professional appearance.

Focus on Your Face: Best practice recommends that your face should take up 60% of the photo frame. Avoid distance shots, group photos, or awkwardly cropped photos of you with your significant other.

Be Selective with Color: Choose a neutral background to emphasize your face and features. Then add in pops of subtle color with your clothing or accessories. Power colors like red, blue, and green are great go-to shades to portray confidence to your network.

Optimize to LinkedIn Specs: LinkedIn profile photos are 400×400. Your photo should work well within this space with strong resolution. If you’re cropping or resizing a photo to fit this spec, be sure the finished product still maintains high resolution and doesn’t appear overly-altered, pixelated, or “homemade.”

Be Authentic: Portray yourself as you truly are today. If you’ve lost 100 pounds, changed your hair color drastically, or a decade has passed since your last photo-op, take the time to update your professional photo. This is especially critical if you’re actively job searching so recruiters and prospective employers gain a true snapshot of you as a professional.

When In Doubt, Stay Simple: Classy looks effortless and your LinkedIn photo should follow this same vein. Below are a few great examples of winning LinkedIn photos from LinkedIn to serve as inspiration for your own shot:

Burchard & Associates is an executive search firm specialized in accounting and finance recruiting across all business sectors, including manufacturing, retail, wholesale/distribution, healthcare, financial services, and more.

If you’re searching for executive positions in the accounting or finance industries, be sure to check out the latest job postings on our website and LinkedIn!