No, this article’s title doesn’t refer to what back in the day was a geek who was too bright to appreciate social skills.

The “egghead” in the title refers to those of you who refuse to put your profile picture on your social media tools and let the default egghead show instead!

(Don’t deny it!  You know who you are!  Do I have to name names?)

Do your social media profiles lack a good head shot of yourself?

(Which means it’s neither taken at your office Christmas party nor your wedding.)

Why won’t you do this?

Look around you!

Go through your LinkedIn connections, how many people these days don’t have a photo of some sort included in their profile?

(And don’t even think of using their poor quality photos as an excuse for you not having a good one!)

Visual content in social media is critical today.

At a minimum, you need to have your profile picture included in your social media profiles.

Having a profile picture is an indication of your willingness to engage with your social media community.

I’ve met many people who are leery of connecting with social media if they don’t have a picture even if they already know that person!

Many social media consultants (myself included) advise clients to steer clear of others who won’t include a picture in their profile.

Why my rant today?

I recently noticed a good friend of mine, who has a senior position at a global consulting firm, didn’t have a picture in their LinkedIn profile.

(I’m doing all I can here to protect my friend’s privacy here!)

Their reply was that they didn’t need one now.

My reply was what were they going to do, wait until they were fired to add one?

I also pointed out that their boss, who was even more senior than they were, had a picture in their LinkedIn profile.

(Further, I told my friend that their boss had a picture in their Twitter profile as well.)

Subsequently, my friend added a picture to their LinkedIn profile and, last I heard, hadn’t been fired.

(Unfortunately, my friend is still resisting Twitter.)

What should you do?

I’ve blogged before about ensuring that tools like LinkedIn are complete and current and aren’t just used when you need a job.

The important thing to do is to prepare a social media program for yourself and to especially establish your social media footprint properly.

Your profile picture is just element in your social media program.

But, it’s the one that everyone else will see when they come to visit your profile and it screams to the world that you’re not yet ready for prime time!

That’s it for now!

In the meantime, thank you for following and reading my blog!

I look forward to any and all comments that you may have.  I will reply to any comments made to this blog post as promptly as I can.

Remember!

I do this for a living and if I can be of any assistance to either you or your organization, please feel free to call on me.  Our initial discussion will be of no charge to you.

I can also be reached at conpsweeney@someddi.com.

My Twitter handle is @conpsweeney.

Stay well!