A Profile Photo In Your Facebook Shouts Out Loud

Social Media, the toy that now seems to connect us all globally.  Facebook in particular is simply huge.  Hard to imagine only a few short years ago, it was the product of collegiate fun.  Now that fun has become the connection point of global colleagues and to promote ourselves and our businesses.   How times have changed!

Facebook is one medium that has captured 1.06 billion users at last count.  It is said there are 100 billion photos on Facebook and the number is growing every day.  You would think that anyone who signed up with Facebook would be willing to share even one single photo to represent their identity and put a face in their profile.  And most people do!  After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.  However it seems more and more these days I get ‘Friend’ requests from people without a profile picture.  While some are spam for sure, some are legit.  Let us examine why people should have a photo in their FB profile if they are truly considering using it for if nothing else, social networking!

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Recognition – when I google someone’s name or search it up on Facebook  there are instances that the profile names are the same and the only thing that can prove that it’s he or she is through his or her profile photo.  However if there is no photo, I am in limbo looking for some more names that he or she might have been using.  Recognizing a person in an instant through profile photos is a great help especially if your time is limited.

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Confidence – A face really is worth a lot.  It shows you’re humanity.  (you are human, yes?)   Face value cannot be understated.  Like a smiling photo can show a friendly personality.  Of course, we can’t just rely upon a person by face value but without a face it grows a seed of doubt as to the legitimacy of who is friending you.  There is no shortage of account that has no profile picture where the account is no longer valid.  Coincidental?  Hard to know for sure. 

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Networking – as business people, one of our goals in using FB is to connect to other people in businesses like ours.  This is one of many ways to network, extend a hand, share our services and possibly work out a deal together.  We have done more than one deal off of Facebook now so the credibility it gives can be huge.  Seeing you in photo and not just reading an invitation to connect is more than helpful for me to decide that yes, it is worth to network with you.    

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Popularity – FB users are into popular personalities.  Many people like to connect with people who have a lot of friends in their respective fields.  In real estate, I would like to be connected with agents whom I worked with in the past, my mentor, colleagues and several more.  When I look for them I tend to look for them by trying to find them by their name.  

So a photo is not just a photo, it’s more than that.  It is an identity that can make or break your social media status.   Privacy is important no doubt and that can never be understated however hiding our identity completely can have its setbacks.   In business, a single photo is all what you need to encourage people of your legitimacy.   It shouts out loud and says, yes, you and your business may be trustworthy.  I am genuine and people like it when people can be real with each other!