Picking the perfect picture for your “Me Site”
The single most important element of your Me Site is a great photo. It is your first impression. It must instantly fix you in the mind of the hiring manager in the role you are seeking.
It is NOT a dating service style photo. It must be a professional photo of you in a professional setting.
Before visitors read your carefully crafted profile or click on your carefully chosen links, they are going to look at your picture and be intrigued and impressed, and thus more likely to keep exploring. Or they will unimpressed and turned off and more likely to click away from your page.
How do you keep them on your page clicking through to your resume or blog or videos or writing sampes?
Well, for starters, it means you can’t just copy and paste your Facebook profile picture onto your Me Site. That wouldn’t impress anyone!
The best Me Sites have large, engaging photographs that tell you about the person and make the page interesting and memorable. Because, let’s face it, there’s only so much that can be done with fonts and background colors.
There are lots of examples of forgettable Me Sites out there with plain old boring pictures. You know the ones, pictures of people smiling with flowers or in front of an urban background. Sometimes they’re a bit more creative with a person looking at the words that are written next to his picture.
But the best Me Site pictures do a lot more than decorate the page; they tell you about the person you are trying to learn more about.
There are lots of ways to do this. Some people have it really easy; their profession has lots of easily identifiable symbols that tell you immediately who they are and what they do for a living. Take for example this cellist. She did a great job with her photo: It’s clean and simple, but it includes the cello and tells you exactly who she is and what she’s about before you even begin reading her page.
This doesn’t apply only to musicians; athletes, photographers, and bunch of other professions have this advantage in choosing a Me Site picture.
It gets a little trickier when you are in a professional that doesn’t have immediately identifiable images associated with it. Take writers as an example. Seeing someone at a computer doesn’t really tell you what their profession is, but that’s what writers look like when they are doing their job. So for a writer’s Me Site picture, you have to get a little more creative.
This writer chose to balance books, and with the colorful background it works as a dynamic and interesting photo. Another writer might choose a photo that shows off their style, like this one who used a humorous photo to display the type of work he does.
With some images, the picture can show off some of your professional skills. For example, this guy made a graphic that shows off some of his computer skills. The image tells the audience right off the bat what kind of work he does by making a little pixel man of the designer.
In a similar profession, this woman chose a fun, compelling picture of herself jumping next to a science fiction character. As a video game designer, this picture both tells you about what she does and shows a likable, creative, fun personality. Talk about a great Me Site photo!
The point is, whichever profession you’re in, you can find an awesome shot of yourself showing off your skills. Even in fields that don’t lend themselves to obvious symbols or photo settings, there is always room for creative solutions to enable you to design a stunning Me Site.
Jackie Pauley
Latest posts by Jackie Pauley (see all)
- Picking the perfect picture for your “Me Site” - October 30, 2012
- What is a “Me Site” and why should I have one? - October 29, 2012
