#protip

If you aren’t a teenager and want to be taken seriously and professionally, perhaps a photo of you in a bikini or shirtless isn’t the best social media profile picture no matter how good you look.

Your profile photo is the first introduction to you. The wrong photo can easily convey the message that you aren’t serious or professional. You don’t want a potential employer to search for you, find your photo and say to themselves, “She doesn’t look like she’s fit into our culture.”

As this article from Neil McKenzie on the blog for Creatives and Business, LLC aptly points out, your profile picture is one of the most important visual elements for an effective social media or web presence. It creates a tone for your brand.

“It is the first thing people will see when they visit your profile or ‘About’ page,” he writes. “Many people will make an opinion of you from your picture and this will influence whether they want to connect with you on social media or spend more time on your website. Make sure that your personal image makes people want to know more about you, your art and not turn them away.”

With that in mind, here are some things to avoid in your profile photo:

badly lit photos (overly exposed, dark, etc.)
brands on shirts
badly cropped images
blurry photos
a photo that isn’t of you
old photos (your photo should be recent and represent how you currently look)
photos of you and another person, especially without their permission. (You don’t want the potential employer or business associate to guess which one you are)
bad body language (you want to come across as open and friendly, not sour and standoffish or worse desperate for attention)

If you aren’t sure what kind of message your profile photo sends, try asking a trusted friend what the photo would make them think about you. Ask that person if he would want to be friends with you based on the photo alone.

Above all else, it’s better to fail with an overly professional image on Twitter and especially LinkedIn that a party picture that is better left on your bookshelf.

While nearly all of these can be summed up with two words: kindness and consideration, sometimes it takes more than 140 characters to share words of wisdom. These are the long versions of some of the #ProTips I shared on Twitter yesterday.

1) Don’t ask for easily accessible information. This also means don’t ask for something you’ve already asked for recently. For example: email addresses. Before you contact a colleague or professional contact for an email address, try Googling or at least searching your own past messages. Email addresses aren’t hard to find. (See this post on finding an email address.)

2) Don’t be unrealistic in your requests. If you want help, make sure it will take the person you are asking for help from less than 10 minutes. Whether it’s a presentation review or resume edits also make sure that the person you are asking for help from:

has the time
doesn’t have a conflict of interest
isn’t something they have clients for

3) Don’t ask for something for free if the person you are requesting help from usually gets paid for the same service. Instead of asking for free help, think about what you can offer in return. Maybe it’s just a cup of coffee. That’s ok. But at least acknowledge the hard work the person has done to build their client base and be honest. Telling the person you are needing help from, “I can’t afford your usual rate, can we work something out?” is better than assuming the person wants to help you for free and having the advisor bristle at your request. Knowing whether or not the advisor typically charges for the service means doing a little research.

4) Do be considerate, asking for helps from 20 people makes you look desperate and as if you didn’t do your research. Your ask should be specifically targeted to the specific person, not a blanket request. Make sure to include as many details as possible about what you need help with and why. It’s better to err on the side of over information that not enough.

5) Do understand the person you are asking for help from will research you. That means you should make sure your LinkedIn and Facebook work history are as up to date as your resume.

6) Do be gracious if the answer is no. Don’t burn the bridge, you never know when that might come back to bite you. Most importantly, burning the bridge you asked to be on is not the wisest idea, especially if you ignored advice #4 and did a mass request and then were indignent when the person researched you, asked questions and gave an honest answer. In this specific case, all 20 people you originally asked for help from will see you burning the bridge and probably start to question if they want to help you at all.

7) Don’t ask for someone to teach you what took them years to learn. You should not expect to become an expert html coder in time for an interview. For example, you should not expect to become an expert in public relations or analytics in just a few days. If you follow no other piece of advice, this is the most important. If you don’t, your request comes across as insulting.

8) Don’t ask for help in fooling an interviewer. Know that when and if the person helps you, he or she is putting his or her name and reputation on the line and that might mean telling you, this isn’t a good use of your talents. A hint that this might not be a good fit, is if you are trying to learn several new skill sets just for an interview. (See advice #7)

Am I missing anything else that needs to be on this list?

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