LinkedIn Tip: Use your personal picture

Social networking for business owners is about building relationships.  It’s about you as a person who owns a business, getting to know others who may become prospects, alliance partners or referrals.   The venue allows us to get to know you, as we would if we met you at a networking meeting.

One of the tips I give my clients is to always use the same photo on the sites you visit, as people will start “remembering” you.  In marketing, consistancy is key.

Social neworking sites have agreements we sign prior to joining.  Most of us don’t read the agreements, but they are there.   If we do something “against the agreement” the social networking site may send you a warning, freeze your profile or take it down until the problem is fixed.

In the Linkedin Agreement it says that you use your  personal photograph on your profile.  Your company logo can be placed in your company profile (another page on LinkedIn, under the MORE tab)

Because being part of a LinkedIn GROUP is about building business relationships, I don’t let people with no photo or a logo photo as their profile’s picture into the GROUPS I run.  I have learned that if they don’t follow LI’s rules, they won’t follow the guidelines of the group.

Every so often, someone with a logo or no photo wants to join a list I moderate. I ask them to put their picture in their profile and I’ll let them join.   I refer to the LinkedIn User Agreement, and a majority of the times, they thank me for letting them know.

Sometimes I get a note back like I did from CP who doesn’t take signing contracts seriously.  She’s in a business where she wants contract signed, too.   While I understand where she’s coming from, as a mother, trying to protect her children, her stance puts her against the contract she agreed to.  And there are things that adults are allowed to do, that children aren’t.  Unfair, but that’s life.

Here’s the note I received from her:
“I understand your policy completely, however I do not post my picture on social networking groups. I do not allow my children to post their pictures on the internet, which means that I must lead by example. Their is nothing worse then teaching your children a very important safety lesson and then doing the exact opposite.”

So instead of seperating herself as an adult, from her children, she’s teaching them to sign legally binding contracts and then not abide by them.  Not the type of person I want to have in my social networking circle, for sure.

From the User Agreement  http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=user_agreement&trk=hb_ft_userag

Don’t undertake the following:

#6  Upload a profile image that is not your likeness or a head-shot photo;