{"id":22953,"date":"2017-03-15T11:39:49","date_gmt":"2017-03-15T18:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=22953"},"modified":"2017-03-15T11:39:49","modified_gmt":"2017-03-15T18:39:49","slug":"social-media-profile-pics-biff-not-so-mcfly-on-linkedin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/uncategorized\/2017\/03\/social-media-profile-pics-biff-not-so-mcfly-on-linkedin\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Media Profile Pics &#8211; Biff Not So McFly on LinkedIn"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_22954\" style=\"width: 197px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22954\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-22954\" src=\"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/mcfly.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"187\" height=\"182\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-22954\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Biff McFly, angelic pointer guy<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Please don&#8217;t take a profile picture like the one to the left. Just because you say \u201ccheese\u201d before you take a photo doesn&#8217;t mean you should be cheesy.<\/p>\n<p>Before jumping into content marketing and inbound marketing, I spent a few years as an online community manager and managing a lot of AIIM&#8217;s social media accounts. In addition to being a lot of fun as well as extremely informative (there are many wicked smart people online willing to share their knowledge with you), spending a lot of time on social media can be hilarious.<\/p>\n<p>That brings me to . . . this not so fly for a white guy.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve ever seen Back to the Future, you know the photo isn&#8217;t a real person. However, it is based on two profile pictures on LinkedIn that we&#8217;ve been killing ourselves laughing about today.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Hair gelled and swept back. Check.<\/li>\n<li>Serious expression on a young face. Check.<\/li>\n<li>Perfectly centered. Ug, c&#8217;mon, rule of thirds. Check.<\/li>\n<li>Pointing at the camera. Seriously?!?! Check.<\/li>\n<li>Blue high school background? Oh, yeah. Check.<\/li>\n<li>Guaranteed to make the squirrel-chasers here at Prospect Builder giggle for over an hour. Check.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We don&#8217;t focus on social media advice, but I will say this \u2013 unless you are OBVIOUSLY being satirical \u2013 do NOT have a profile pic with:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A background that looks like it came from a high school yearbook photo<\/li>\n<li>You pointing at the camera<\/li>\n<li>A look like you went to Glamour Shots<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For the record, the guys we were looking at on LinkedIn weren&#8217;t going for a LOL and ridicule response to their pics. Granted, social profile pics feel like a minefield of possible screw ups.<\/p>\n<p>Your profile pic needs to be \u201cnative\u201d (that&#8217;s the consultant word for \u201cappropriate\u201d) for the social media site it&#8217;s on. My pic on LinkedIn is professional (I also realize that it doesn&#8217;t conform to some of the best practices, but it&#8217;s the best I&#8217;ve got at the moment). My Twitter pic is a selfie (taken with actual film \u2013 olde skool baby!) of me and my two daughters when they were younger. It&#8217;s been my pic since the beginning, and since my Twitter is a mix of personal opinion, random thoughts, and mostly work-related material, I&#8217;ve never bothered to change it. My Facebook profile varies \u2013 today it&#8217;s a\u201cManflu Survivor\u201d button, and it&#8217;s been me, my family, my pets, or a unicorn in a mankini. Like I said, it varies.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, we just wanted to share a laugh with you. Make a serious point that you really can be judged by your profile pic. (At least initially, I never fully judge someone based only on a photo, I&#8217;ll wait until they prove themselves to be an idiot in comments or in their writing before completely ignoring them.) And provide a little bit of guidance. For additional guidance about social media pics:<\/p>\n<p>The best tip here: smile (even if you hate your smile).\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.socialmediatoday.com\/social-business\/5-elements-successful-social-media-profile-picture\">http:\/\/www.socialmediatoday.com\/social-business\/5-elements-successful-social-media-profile-picture<\/a><\/p>\n<p>More psychology than you probably want, but interesting. The best part is Guy Kawasaki&#8217;s advice, so scroll to it if you&#8217;re in a hurry.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.bufferapp.com\/best-profile-picture-science-research-psychology\">https:\/\/blog.bufferapp.com\/best-profile-picture-science-research-psychology<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This one has some useful tips for making the entire profile useful for you to set yourself to best advantage.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kissmetrics.com\/successful-social-media-profile\/\">https:\/\/blog.kissmetrics.com\/successful-social-media-profile\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As with all social media advice, it&#8217;s subject to change. If you&#8217;re breaking \u201cthe rules\u201d but are successful online anyway, keep on keeping on. Sometimes the experts don&#8217;t know jack.<\/p>\n<p><em>Editor&#8217;s note: This guest post originally appeared on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prospectbuilder.net\/blog\">Prospect Builders blog<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Please don&#8217;t take a profile picture like the one to the left. Just because you say \u201ccheese\u201d before you take a photo doesn&#8217;t mean you should be cheesy. Before jumping into content marketing and inbound marketing, I spent a few years as an online community manager and managing a lot of AIIM&#8217;s social media accounts. In addition to being a lot of fun as well as extremely informative (there are many wicked smart people online willing to share their knowledge with you), spending a lot of time on social media can be hilarious. That brings me to . . . this not so fly for a white guy. If you&#8217;ve ever seen Back to the Future, you know the photo isn&#8217;t a real person. However, it is based on two profile pictures on LinkedIn that we&#8217;ve been killing ourselves laughing about today. Hair gelled and swept back. Check. Serious expression on a young face. Check. Perfectly centered. Ug, c&#8217;mon, rule of thirds. Check. Pointing at the camera. Seriously?!?! Check. Blue high school background? Oh, yeah. Check. Guaranteed to make the squirrel-chasers here at Prospect Builder giggle for over an hour. Check. We don&#8217;t focus on social media advice, but I will say this \u2013 unless you are OBVIOUSLY being satirical \u2013 do NOT have a profile pic with: A background that looks like it came from a high school yearbook photo You pointing at the camera A look like you went to Glamour Shots For the record, the guys we were looking at on LinkedIn weren&#8217;t going for a LOL and ridicule response to their pics. Granted, social profile pics feel like a minefield of possible screw ups. Your profile pic needs to be \u201cnative\u201d (that&#8217;s the consultant word for \u201cappropriate\u201d) for the social media site it&#8217;s on. My pic on LinkedIn is professional (I also realize that it doesn&#8217;t conform to some of the best practices, but it&#8217;s the best I&#8217;ve got at the moment). My Twitter pic is a selfie (taken with actual film \u2013 olde skool baby!) of me and my two daughters when they were younger. It&#8217;s been my pic since the beginning, and since my Twitter is a mix of personal opinion, random thoughts, and mostly work-related material, I&#8217;ve never bothered to change it. My Facebook profile varies \u2013 today it&#8217;s a\u201cManflu Survivor\u201d button, and it&#8217;s been me, my family, my pets, or a unicorn in a mankini. Like I said, it varies. Anyway, we just wanted to share a laugh with you. Make a serious point that you really can be judged by your profile pic. (At least initially, I never fully judge someone based only on a photo, I&#8217;ll wait until they prove themselves to be an idiot in comments or in their writing before completely ignoring them.) And provide a little bit of guidance. For additional guidance about social media pics: The best tip here: smile (even if you hate your smile).\u00a0http:\/\/www.socialmediatoday.com\/social-business\/5-elements-successful-social-media-profile-picture More psychology than you probably want, but interesting. The best part is Guy Kawasaki&#8217;s advice, so scroll to it if you&#8217;re in a hurry.\u00a0https:\/\/blog.bufferapp.com\/best-profile-picture-science-research-psychology This one has some useful tips for making the entire profile useful for you to set yourself to best advantage.\u00a0https:\/\/blog.kissmetrics.com\/successful-social-media-profile\/ As with all social media advice, it&#8217;s subject to change. If you&#8217;re breaking \u201cthe rules\u201d but are successful online anyway, keep on keeping on. Sometimes the experts don&#8217;t know jack. Editor&#8217;s note: This guest post originally appeared on the Prospect Builders blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[79,1650,1638,1],"tags":[335],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22953"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22953"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22962,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22953\/revisions\/22962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}