Who is checking you out?
Having recently photographed over 60 barristers and staff at 9 Gough Square Law Chambers for their new website headshots, it was interesting speaking to the barristers within the firm about how important a headshot is for their profile.
A website is one of the ideal places to ensure you have a good headshot, especially in a professional career. It gives you stature, professionalism and the impression that you want to illustrate towards your audience.
Be it a barrister, actor, accountant, doctor or scientist, everybody has a specific image that they want to portray to certain clients.
But if it is only a headshot on a business card, why does it matter?
It is not only your customers that want to see a professional outlook and get a picture of who they will be talking to. It is your competitors too. Most companies regularly do a SWOT analysis and competitor profiling to see what they need to challenge and who their main competition is. With so many people now having web based profiles, we all have a digital footprint we are trying to commit – whether it be for a corporate company or as a leisurely freelancer.
So, why is it so important what our competitors think? Well to start with – your face is going up on Google, your website, your company webpage and most probably your social media platforms. If you are in a professional industry and trying to establish a secure career, do you really want your potential clients seeing you drunk on Friday night with friends? No!
So determine and establish what you want your clients to know about you and what you want them to see. It would also pay off to check out your competitor websites and view their headshots. If you feel they have a more professional image, talk to whomever is in control of your own site. Your headshots help to create your brand. From a business point of view it is also worth having the SEO and advertising in place to make sure you are at the top of Google, especially ranked higher than your competitors. This will also ensure that your headshots are in Google images – as 9 Gough Square now are.
