How to use crowdsourcing to pick the right profile picture for free?
Short Version: Checkout Photofeeler!
A bit of background on how I went from the picture on the right to the picture on the left.
People spend way too much time picking the perfect facebook profile picture, yet when it comes to LinkedIn they just drop the ball. Judging from friends in my network, people tend to use their crappiest pictures on LinkedIn and so did I, that is until recently. My LinkedIn profile picture was a cropped picture that my friend Joy took at my college graduation in 2015, albeit with a high definition camera.
You can see I am wearing my graduation gown, as well as a purse hanging diagßonally on my shoulder. I have my free google sunglasses on and there is a cable hanging in the background. The picture is terrible, by professional aspects. The only plus side is that I seem sweet and approachable, which is certainly not the main vibe I want to be going for in a professional network.
In late 2018, while preparing some applications for a scholarship and conference talks, where people who do not know me would judge me by a picture, I decided I had enough. The data nerd in me thought, how would I know if my new picture would be any better. I googled a bit and came across [Photofeeler]. Photofeeler is an online crowdsourcing tool that allows you to find out what your profile picture is really saying about you. You can choose photos that make the right impression for your professional, social, and even dating profiles. Other users rate your pictures across different characteristics. There are three metrics that your pictures get rated on: competence, likability and influence.
I rated below overage on two out of the three. I definitely needed a change. Fortunately one of my good friends happens to be a hobbyist photographer and he was kind enough to do a mini photoshoot with me. My friend is awesome and did a great job and I had data to confirm exactly that. My scores improved dramatically, and it doubled in terms of competence and influence. I also had double the people submit votes. I was socked and generally pretty pleased. There were some negative votes of course and someone said I looked cold, which is true.
Takeway: spend some time taking a decent profile picture, it is the first impression people have of you, especially if they look you up on LinkedIn and use Photofeeler to test different profile pictures.
Here is the final result!