Business profile pictures or corporate headshots have been around in one style or another for almost as long as photographers have been able to capture light onto film, but the world that people do business now is a very different place to back then.
We live in a hyper-connected, highly sophisticated, time-pressured environment, where sharing your everyday actions is almost compulsory, working remotely is an accepted norm and making new business contacts on social platforms such as LinkedIn, can be as important to your business growth as meeting in real life.
Therefore, your business profile needs to stand out from other potentials by quickly differentiating your profile, conveying a level of trust and showing something of your character to the viewer. In this world full of noise, your viewers' attention span is reduced dramatically, maybe even to a quick 5-second glance. Like you, they make extremely quick judgments about people based on their image. This is not always a positive experience sure, but unfortunately, this is the world we live in. Conveying the right image within this time frame is paramount if the right impression is to be made and the first contact to be achieved. Raising your profile above the noise is extremely difficult with a still image, but can be much easier in a short video clip.
The world of video as a contact medium to engage with customers is nothing new, but the short 'bite' sized video clip has been popularised by many mobile phone apps, Snapchat and Vine to name a couple. This 5-sec glimpse is very popular with customers, website owners, prospective employers, and business associates. We consume so much 'on-demand' or streaming video content that, social media platforms are prioritizing video content above other still images as a method of engaging with its user base. Users engagement is increased massively when they're able to click through to watch a video, far more than static images and traditional text. So are you being left behind in this new streaming, video culture?
We had a recent portrait session with a new client VAS Group (see below), however as we were wrapping the shoot up and we suggested a quick video clip. I'd love to hear your feedback on this new product.
Do you think the market is ready for the change? Do you think the still image is relevant today?
Interesting questions and maybe something to think about for your next planned shoot.
Here are a few examples from the corporate headshot and the small business video clip (as seen above), which do you think has the most impact?
We'd love to talk to you about combining your next corporate profile with a video short, so if you feel we can help, please get in touch.