Putting Your Best Face Forward

[massageblog]

Is it just me?* I keep seeing the craziest photos for people’s profile and header pics.* Have you seen some profile photos that make you wonder “what were they thinking?â€* I can *somewhat understand when it is your personal profile and you feel like showing off your kids, or your favorite pet, or new baby but I’m seeing some really strange photos being uploaded on business pages which I’m having a difficult time relating to them.
These are “social†networks, and entertaining folks with the cute cartoons, babies, flowers and other pretty photos is okay, however, remember that people do want to know, like and trust you.* Therefore, share a photo of yourself.* I have a friend who jokingly says all the time that he “has a face for radio†which makes me chuckle but he still shares his photo on his profile.* Eventually, if they do ever decide to do business with you; they are going to see you, it’s inevitable. **I’m no super model, and even I was a little bit self-conscious about sharing my photo at first but I did it.* This weekend, attending the ONE Concept Conference reminded me why photos are so important.* Several attendees that visited our booth made a statement “it’s so good to put a face with the name.â€* This struck me odd in two ways, first, I feel like my face is everywhere so how could they not know what I look like, but, it was interesting the number of times I heard that.* This leads me to the second revelation which is people like doing business with people.* They want to see the face of a practice or company.* Which can be as simple as a staff photo, it doesn’t have to be just your photo if you are camera shy. **People are on social sites for the E[SUP]3[/SUP] experience.* E[SUP]3[/SUP] means that people on social sites are looking to be entertained, educated or empowered whenever they log on to the site.* They want to feel as though they are personally connected to the brand.
Therefore always be thinking about your brand, whether it is your personal account or practice.* That may be a beautiful sunset but how does that translate and relate to your customers and potential customers? What does a beautiful landscape have to say about the benefits people receive by working with you?* Whether it is your website and social media sites, you have this big billboard type space to upload the wonderful photo or image that says something about your brand.* Is the message crystal clear of what you want your followers to know about you or your practice?* Sometimes a photo or image alone won’t do it, consider adding some text to the image.* One of the sites I recommend is picmonkey.com that allows you to upload an image and add text.* I have also seen photos that are so dark you can’t make out what is happening, so do not* hesitate to play with the settings a little, lighten them, add contrast, make some corrections to it before uploading.* *If you are Photoshop savvy, I encourage you to utilize it to enhance your photos.* Most practitioners I talk to aren’t technical that is why I recommend picmonkey because it is very user friendly and you don’t have to be a graphic artist to make it work.* (Plus, it’s free- they do have an upgraded version, but most find the free version is sufficient.)
We are all familiar with the saying “a picture is worth a thousand wordsâ€; this is very true for all online sites.* The beauty of today’s social media environment is that it gives us the best and quickest ways to get people to know, like and trust us.* Society today is looking for instant connection now more than ever, and social media sites are wonderful tools for practitioners to build relationships quickly.* Having professional quality graphics for your website and social sites that translate the right message to make the right first impression can go a long way to building that relationship quickly.
For those of you who have not uploaded a photo yet, what are you waiting for?* I know personally that I am less like to accept a friend request or confirm a connection when someone hasn’t bothered to upload a photo.* Perhaps that makes me a photo snob, but I also question the professionalism of the practice if they can’t or won’t make the time to add a photo.* So, if you are still one of those people hiding behind the mysterious blue/grey generic outline of a person’s head – ADD A professional PHOTO already!* Enough said.
Okay, I feel like a went a little negative there, and I want to end this on a high note, so I’m sharing with you some pointers on how to cultivate the best image you can use to brand your practice.
Decide what kind of impression you want to create with your audience

• Do you want to add value?
• Do you want to entertain them?
• Is your end goal to educate them?
• How are you going to create excitement among your audience?

Be crystal clear on what your practice does for your customers/patients

• What is your practice known for?
• What is it that you do best?
• What do your customers/patients say when they are giving you a glowing report?

Map out what you want people to do when they see your photo or image – be specific with what you want them to do next.* (e.g. like your page, subscribe to your channel, add* comment, make a connection, send you a tweet, pin your photo, visit your website, or attend your event) whatever your end result is you want to have happen, make sure your message is crystal clear with the image you are using.
Once you have decided what you want to achieve, work on gathering personal photos or purchasing images that represent that message and then use professional graphic tools to bring everything together so you are translating the right message to your audience.
Hopefully that all makes sense, if you have questions about this, please put them in the comments below or message me on www.SRBSolutions.net .* I would love to hear from you.