Your Face Wins. Stock Photography Sucks.

November 3, 2021 / in Blogging, LinkedIn / by Jason Terry

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Hi, friends! This is one of those topics that’s a core truth and near and and dear to my heart.

What are you going to click on when you’re looking at social media updates from your friends that you’re connected to? Whether that’s Facebook or LinkedIn… The featured image matters so much, and having your photo or the people that work for you in the photo is the most effective. Your face is better than any kind of stock photography that you could use.

One of the things I do with my clients is consistently reinforce the value of taking pictures as things are happening. There is no question that blog posts with featured images of people generally get more traffic than blog posts with stock photography as the featured image.

Try it out!

I tested this recently on my own website. I’ve made sure to include a version of my face in the little window that says “tell your story”. And I’ve noticed an increase in interactivity, comments, feedback, and traffic to my website just on the last few posts.

You need to take photos of your people doing things, and that’s what some of your stories should be about. Even better, let’s say you’re doing a client success story. Take a photo with your client if you can set that up. Sure, it takes a little bit of extra effort, but the analytics should prove you’re going to get attention with this simple change.

I hope you take a look at this for your own storytelling you’ve been doing. If you have a blog on your company page, take a look at the featured images for the last six to ten stories you’ve done. Does the pictures give you a sense of the company? When you do this right, and you have featured images of your people, it looks like a growing, thriving, successful, fun to work for organization.