DeVera Parkinson came into my studio to get a new business portrait for use on her employer's website. The employer had a style guide that they provided in order to ensure a relatively standard look for all of the images on the site.
Here's a new marketing piece that I put together to use on Facebook, LinkedIn, and a few other places on the web. I'm going after the Calgary Headshots market and I'm targeting Business Portraits for Small Business, Actors, Authors, Corporate Executives, and more.
Carolyn O'Reilly | Better Business Portrait Do You Show Your Face on your Business Card? A new client came into my Calgary portrait studio last week to have a new business portrait made. She needed an updated headshot for her social media accounts (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) and has also recently decided to include her picture on her business cards. I find this to be a very common practice among Real Estate agents, Mortgage Brokers, and other direct sales professionals, but quite rare in the majority of other business people. I'm always curious to know how my clients make their decision whether to use their picture on their cards or not. If you have your picture on your card, please feel free to leave a brief comment explaining why. If you don't have a headshot on your card, tell us why not?? Here is a link to a great article from Entrepreneur.com discussing creating a great business card: Creating a Great Business Card | Entrepreneur.com Having your face on your card - whether it's a photograph, a drawing or a caricature - helps a contact remember you the next time he or she sees you. Images representing a product or service, or a benefit your business provides, can help you communicate your business better than dozens of words. A splash of color (rather than just black and white) is often helpful on a picture card, too. Genesis Vacations The client pictured above, Carolyn O'Reilly, runs a full service Calgary travel business specializing in groups and corporate travel. She is a travel consultant offering clients personalized service and travel expertise for all their travel needs. Whether it is personal or group travel Carolyn can make sure [...]
So your headshot or business portrait session is all over, you've made your image selections, and you've downloaded your digital files. Now what? Well of course you're going to send the digital files over to your webmaster and graphic designer to get your marketing materials updated. But you also need to remember to update the profile pictures on your social media accounts. This is something that I see my clients forgetting to do all the time, but it's really easy and hardly takes any time at all. Note - The bonus "Low Resolution" jpg files that are conveniently included with any Calgary Headshots portrait session are sized perfectly for use on most social media accounts and should not need any further cropping. Having said that, if you want your social media picture cropped differently than the image I have provided for you, please ask! I would be happy to do it for you to ensure that you have a highest quality headshot available that isn't distorted, blurry, or off-color. All of these things can happen if you aren't sure what settings to use in your photo editing software... To help you out even further I have compiled a list of links and basic instructions on how to update your profile picture on several of the most popular social media sites. Please feel free to call me if you need even more help than this. I would be happy to walk you through the process for any website! Update your Facebook Profile Image https://www.facebook.com Log into Facebook and go to your own profile (timeline) by clicking on your name Mouse over your existing profile picture Click on "Edit Profile Picture" Click on "Upload a new photo" [...]
New Photos for a New Website Calgary based entrepreneur Cody McLean came in for some new portraits for his website and marketing materials. He is consolidating the web presence for several of his Calgary businesses and he needs some great headshots for the new materials. In addition to the website the images will also be used as his LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter profile pictures. We made a variety of portraits using different outfits and a couple of backdrops so that he would have a good selections of photos to choose from. When should you update your Headshots? One question that I get asked all the time is "How often should I get a new headshot done?" The simple answer is whenever you aren't happy with the old one anymore. A slightly better answer is that your business portrait is the first thing that most people see when they find you online on a social media site or on your own website. It's very important that the photo you use actually looks like you and that it represents the image you want to portray. So if you're still using a picture from a few years ago and have different glasses or tend to dress differently now than you did back then, it's probably time for an update. If you would like to discuss your options I would be pleased to offer a free consultation. I will look at your existing website and social media accounts and make some recommendations about how to improve (or modernize) the look and feel of the images you are using. Feel free to contact me if you would like to take advantage of this service.