Can I See Your Picture Please?
LinkedIn has decided to allow members to upload photos to their member profiles from 28th September, 2007. There’s already a lot of discussion about this and some articles. One concern is whether this is going to turn LinkedIn into a social networking site, instead of its current perceived business type of networking site. Some will want to add their photos, others won’t.
I’m in two minds – I do have my photo on my blogs and some of my websites – using professional shots. On LinkedIn I wouldn’t want to see the types of pictures I’ve seen on social networking sites – pictures of Shrek for example, or animals, caricatures, even photos that concentrate on various parts of the anatomy, etc – if members of LinkedIn are going to put photos up I’d prefer to see professional (not professional glamour but professional business) or suitable photos that relate to the industry of the person or at least, how they would look in their work environment – assuming that environment is suitable to have on show. After all, this is a business network and silly photos could work against those who put them up on display.
But I can see some value in it. Possibly people who like to press the IDK (I don’t know) button when receiving an invitation from someone they don’t remember, may just have their memory jolted if they can see a photo of that person. And what about old schoolmates being able to see how their best friend has turned out 20 years down the track? Or, if you’re planning to have a face-to-face meeting for the first time you know who to look for – now, that would have been handy when meeting with Dean for the first time when I was in Japan last month!
Perhaps having photos on the business profiles might not be a bad thing after all! If you want to see my profile, you can find it here. And to find out how the photos will work at LinkedIn, you can read about it at their blog.
