Last week I watched a webinar replay and read some of the comments that followed. The website used Facebook Comments so you could see everyone’s profile pics. One person in particular caught my eye because the question asked didn’t match the profile I was looking at. They were interested in coaching others, yet the profile pic was not of a confident person. Instead it looked like someone who was really sad and desperate. I’m sure, that was not their intent.
As a coach you’d want to display confidence, warmth, and the list goes on. The comment was regarding how to get more clients for their program. I wondered if the profile pic could be turning people away. It also got me thinking how many people, subconsciously judge based on profile pics?
In an earlier post Will the Real You Please Stand Up, we discussed the importance of being your authentic self and how it can shock your audience if you are one person online, but another offline. If you don’t know who you are, how can you connect with people?
Pictures speak and our last post, What Does Your Profile Pic Say About You? proved it.
We asked you to look at 4 pictures and quickly answer questions regarding characteristics of the person and whether or not you would do business with them.
The results are in (last updated June 30th):
| Which words best describe him? (check all that apply) |  |  |
| Warm | 10.7% | 0% |
| Demanding | 85.7% | 53.8% |
| Inviting | 7.1% | 0% |
| Confident | 21.4% | 53.8% |
| Easygoing | 3.6% | 0% |
| Kind | 3.6% | 0% |
| Generous | 0% | 0% |
| Successful | 10.7% | 53.8% |
| Would you do business with him? | ||
| 6.9% | 27.6% | |
| Which words best describe her? (check all that apply) |  |  |
| Warm | 0% | 14.8% |
| Demanding | 73.9% | 29.6% |
| Inviting | 8.7% | 37% |
| Confident | 0% | 33.3% |
| Easygoing | 17.4% | 25.9% |
| Kind | 4.3% | 7.4% |
| Generous | 0% | 14.8% |
| Successful | 0% | 14.8% |
| Would you do business with her? | ||
| 0% | 17.2% | |
Just because someone seems warm doesn’t mean you want to do business with them. And just because someone seems confident or successful doesn’t necessarily mean you want to do business with them either. Clearly there are many reasons for wanting to do business with someone:
- Skill
- Results
- Price
- Referral
- Compatibility
- Availability
One thing is for sure, your picture could be turning potential clients and customers on or off. The whole point of this, oh so scientific experiment, was to get you thinking about your online image. Is your online image in alignment with who you are?
I’m sure all of the folks featured in this post are great individuals, however because of their pictures 51.7% of you decided you would not do business with any of them.
Call it what you will, agree or not, it happens, we all do it, make decisions based on what we see and not what necessarily is.
Now it’s your turn. Did the results surprise you? How so?
This is fascinating, Tiffany. Thanks for sharing!
My pleasure:)
Tiffany,
What a great post. I am one of the ones who would not do business with any of the 4. Hope everyone takes a good look at your results. It would be a shame for a great person to miss out on business because of a bad choice of photos.
Thanks so much Michele! This is exactly why I wanted to do this post.