Why You Should Invest In Professional Photography

I’ve mentioned time and time again that networking helps you grow your confidence.

Investing in professional photography to develop your brand, both personally and professionally is another way to boost your confidence. Let’s take a look at why you should invest in professional photography.

Well, think about it. If you are running a business or starting a business, you need a photograph for everything. Let me stress that again.

You need photos for everything.

What’s Everything?

Here are a few things you will use photographs for:

• Your personal website
• Your company website
• Your blog
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Linkedin
• Facebook
• Facebook for business
• Business cards
• Autosignature on email
• Press releases
• Journals
• Memberships of communities and networks where you have a profile
• College
• Award entries and applications
• Avatars
• Conference & trade shows

You may also be interviewed for articles, newspapers, webinars and other opportunities, so it’s worth having a professional photograph, as you’ll feel much more confident about putting yourself ‘out there’.

Why Resolution Matters

You need them in colour and you probably should also look at having black and white versions of them as well on file. You will need them in high resolution (300dpi) for print and in low resolution (72dpi or more) for websites and social media usage. The use of colour or black and white images will largely depend on your own brand and your overall brand colour schematic, but when you get out and about, promoting your company, e.g. for media interviews, the journals, papers and fora may have specific formats that they want the photos in, so it’s good to be prepared for all eventualities. It’s not going to cost a lot more, so bite the bullet and just do it.

Just Don’t Do It

Using a holiday snap or a pic from a party is such a NO! Don’t do it. I implore you. Don’t do it.

Of course you can use these pics for Facebook stories and feeds, for Instagram stories and feeds. This content is live and in the moment. When I’m referring to is the static photos that represent Brand You.

I see a lot people using their logo in place of their photograph for social media. What a wasted opportunity. People buy from people and they want to know what you look like, who they are conversing with and spending time building a relationship with. People want to see if you are like them. They want to know who is the person behind an email, a social media handle. They want to build trust.

What To Do

Find a great brand photographer – this step is important, as photographers tend to specialise in certain areas, and being a brand photographer requires a certain personality, skillset and knowledge. I work with a few, so if you need a recommendation, please do ask and I’m happy to make some introductions.

There is a whole process that goes behind getting a brand photo shoot done and the photography will help you choose the right shoot location. They’ll organise to get your hair and make up done, as appropriate to your gender. They’ll help you work out your wardrobe for the shoot. This may entail a few different outfits, so it’ll all be planned out in advance. All of this will come together to help you achieve an amazing end result. And just imagine…once you’ve all this done, it’ll also be easier to know how to put yourself out their when you are networking and attending conferences, events, networking meetings and other business gatherings. You can read more tips on how to dress for networking events here.

If you are not fully clued in to ‘who you are’, a good brand photographer will meet with you and help decipher this story with you. They’ll help define your brand and help convey it through authentic and powerful imagery that will boost your confidence and help you sell your product or service with new verve.

Variety

I listed out a few uses for photography above. A brand photographer will take a lot of images that tell the story of what you do and how you do it. How do you work with clients, where, what environment, how you dress…if you start using photos for all the reasons I list above, do you want to use the same image or do you want to mix it up? You’ll probably want to have formal head shots, as well as ‘environmental’ shots of you in work mode.

Personally I get bored with seeing the same image all the time, so I prefer to mix it up, depending on what I want to get across to the audience. Do I want a ‘serious me’ image or a more light hearted image?

Also, the image you use for Linkedin is very unlikely to be the same image you’d use for Facebook but it might be the same as the one you use for a business card. It’s worth spending a little time to strategise about how you are going to use your images, and going back to my original point; if you’ve got a bank full of amazing images to choose from, you’ll never be short of the right one to choose for the right occasion.

Building Trust

Having a professional photograph also helps to build trust with your audience. One thing that people often get wrong – and I’m guilty of doing this in the past – is not updating their photo often enough. If you had a nice photo, with make up, hair done, but have since changed, then you need to get this updated. If you’re a man that had a beard and then shaved it off, well it’s time to get new photographs. If you had long hair and cut it short – get your photos updated. I could go on, but I think you get the point.

People want to see the person they are going to meet. It’s disconcerting when you meet someone that you’ve been building up a relationship with on social media and then you meet them in person and they look nothing like their photo. Automatically, it’s subliminally damaging the trust in the relationship.

Earning Potential

Investing in professional photography will earn you money, as it shows you are worth it. And when you believe you are worth it, your clients will also believe they are worth it and know you invest in you, so they are going to be more willing to invest in you too.

If you have other ideas and suggestions, I’d love to hear them. You can reach out to me at [email protected]. And do connect in with me on Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram. Let’s keep the #networking conversation going!

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