Three Photos You Really, Really Want to Have

Take a guess at the answer to the following questions. We promise you won’t be graded.

1. What is the MOST clicked on tweets on Twitter?
2. Where does your eye go first on a blog post, web page, or even a brochure?
3. What is the quickest way for people to put a “face to a name”?
4. What is the trend in business cards?
5. How do you start to build personal brand?
6. What stimulates the most interest and some of the fastest comments on Facebook?

If you answered photographs (we’ll also accept “pictures”) to every question, you are correct. Photographs are a critical element in any online or offline marketing strategy, and your social marketing is no different. In fact, I believe there are three sets of photographs you need to have ready if you plan to social network to grow your business.

In most cases, the photographs I am referring to can be snapshots you or a friend takes. For some, it is important to hire professional photographs taken for these purposes. Rest assured, I’ve seen some very successful marketing strategies and personal branding done with both amateur and professional photos. It’s the requirements of the photos that you need to pay attention to.

Profile Picture: You need one nice, professional looking close up picture. This one should be of your face, should have the ability to be cropped in a square, look good as a less than 1″ thumbnail, and compressed for the web so you don’t loose clarity. This picture will be used in the following places:

• Your Gravatar (http://en.gravatar.com) If you are not sure what this is or where it is used, we wrote about gravatars here and here.
• Your Twitter Picture
• Your Google Profile Picture
• Your Email Footer
• Your Business Card
• Your YouTube Channel
• Your LinkedIn Account
• Specific communities or forums you join that offer profile pictures

Examples of Profile Pictures: Please see the upper-left gravatar picture of me associated with this post, the example of Steve’s profile picture at the right, or any other authored posts on this site for other examples.

Creative Business Photo: You need one creative photo to highlight more about you or your company. For many people this is less of a “mug shot” and more of a full body photograph. Some ideas might be wearing your company colors or logo apparel, posing with a product, or an action shot that creatively tells people more about you and what you do. For others, this might be a staff photo or the owners posed together. This picture will be used in the following places:

• Your Twitter background
• Your YouTube background
• Your About Page of your website or blog
• Your Brochure
• Your Facebook Fan Page picture, especially if you are building a personal brand
• Enewsletter, Email Campaigns and/or Holiday Ecards

Examples of Creative Business Photo:The photo at the right is of Vivid Image client, Cindy Haugland who opted to have professional photographs taken for two of the three categories listed in this article. Her business is TidyTightwads, a professional cleaning and organizing business that she cleverly highlights with props. You can certainly get a good idea what she does from this photo, can’t you?!

Random Candids: These photographs are usually amateur snapshots, but can be professional if you feel it is necessary. This collection of photographs should start with all areas of your business that appeal to human interest. Don’t sell yourself or business processes short either. What you think might be boring is usually very interesting to your customers or the public who never gets to see the inner-workings of what you do. Keep a camera ready and take pictures of staff at work, on client calls, conferences and trade shows, events, charity events, etc. The list is really endless. These pictures will be used in the following places:

• Your Flickr account
• Your Various Marketing Campaigns
• Your Portfolio; online or offline
• Your Bulletin Board at the office
• Choose one or two to accompany blog post articles
• Use in an Enewsletter article
• Your Facebook Fan Page photo albums and wall photos
• A personal touch in a client card or thank-you
• Choose one or two to submit with an associated press release/news story
• Share with your Twitter friends

Examples of Random Candids: You can see how Vivid Image uses candid photos by visiting our fan page on Facebook, checking out our Fun Page on this site, or the cool Flickr plug-in below that allows photos brought into a page or post. Want to know the story behind these pictures? You can visit us on Flickr.