Building a Brand? Show Your Face!

Marketing & Personal Branding Tip - Show Your Face! 

I want to offer a helpful suggestion to those using social media to build their personal brand, or even a newer company brand.

Faces sell. Logos do not.

If you are using anything but your own smiling face for your profile pic, you are likely hurting yourself in terms of marketing potential. I'll explain.

The best marketers understand human psychology and behaviors. No, you don't need to be a psychologist to understand this, there are several books on influence and marketing that you can learn from. I'll offer the shortened version.

Humans seek connection with others. We are wired this way. The best ads always show another human. The best websites always have smiling faces shown. The power of testimonials is unquestionable. Faces build connection. Connection builds trust, and that leads to sales. People do business with those they like. It is really this simple.

When you use a logo, or worse - some cartoon or strange photo as your profile pic, you miss out on hitting your marketing potential. People are skeptics by nature, so now the initial reaction to your pic is "What are they hiding?" - the complete opposite that you want, as a brand builder. Until your brand logo is well-established and recognized by the masses, you are likely better served by using a picture of your company representative.

I used to have a logo on both my Facebook and Instagram business pages (365driven). Someone gave me this same advice a year ago, and my follower count literally doubled on both pages, in a single year. I didn't change my posting behavior, I just added a more "human" aspect to those accounts.

Now, let's see those smiling faces!