Your headshot can turn heads.
Try this experiment: go to a crowded mall and stand where lots of people pass by. Arbitrarily look up to a spot on the ceiling. You’ll notice other people looking in the direction of your eyes. Why you may ask. I’ll tell you why; because we are hardwired to follow other people’s gazes. It’s how our ancestors protected themselves from threats in the environment.
With this knowledge, how could you benefit financially? One way is to have any photographs of you facing the correct direction. With photos of you on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., it’s important to understand how your cute little face resonates with the viewer. Let me explain.
We have a predisposition to analyze our environment for potential threats. We seek cues from the gaze of others to help us stay safe. This means that where we notice other people looking, and we instinctively look in the same direction. Where do you want people to look?
If you post your photo on LinkedIn or Facebook, you want people to naturally read the information posted on the right of your photograph. Guess where your face should be positioned in your photography? Right! We should see the right side of your face…not the left. When humans view a person’s face pointing, even in a photograph, toward our right, we instinctively look in the direction that the photograph is facing.
As indicated in the heat-map of these two photos, we see that where the baby is looking causes more people to view the information in the direction the baby is looking. We also notice that when the baby’s face is looking into the camera, the same is true and more people fixate on where the baby is looking.
To capitalize on your headshots, make sure that you post those that face where you want to viewer to look. This is also important to images on webpages and advertisements. Always post photos of people looking into the direction of where your message will be displayed. This is increase conversions dramatically and will help you achieve your marketing goal.