LinkedIn – WE WANT PICTURES!!!

I’m on a mission.

I love LinkedIn – it’s by far the most effective social media tool I use for my business. But I have one big issue and I want to get it resolved. Why isn’t there a place to put your picture on your LinkedIn profile?

The other day, someone contacted me through LinkedIn referencing our meeting over a year ago at a networking event. I can’t remember her. The name sounds familiar and I know I had a conversation with her, but if I had her picture it sure would help me spark my memory.

Adding a picture to your professional profile would also help when you’re sending new invites. People remember faces easier than names or titles. If I had an invite with a face I recognized, it would increase my feeling of connection with that person.

So, in an effort to make this request known, I’m starting a petition to gain support for LinkedIn adding the option to upload pictures to their service.

To sign the petition, simply leave a comment below.

If you’re curious as to what LinkedIn is, or how to use it – check out these blogs:

LinkedIntelligence

LinkedInBlog

BuzzNetworker

LinkedIn Business Discussion Index

Boost Your Career With LinkedIn

LinkedIn Notes

LinkedIn User Manual

10 thoughts on “LinkedIn – WE WANT PICTURES!!!”

I would love to see pictures on linked in for all of the reasons you just mentioned. I’d also like to be able to import my feed like I can on Facebook or Myspace.

Yes, I do support your petition.

Hi Andrea,

Just dropped by to see what you’re up to and I’m glad I did. This is the first time I’ve heard of LinkedIn and it sounds interesting. I’m currently experimenting with MySpace for social networking and promotion (I’m helping to organize a music festival) which is addictive, as you know.

I’ll try LinkedIn for networking my web business when time permits. And thanks Brad, until now I didn’t know it was possible to import my feed into MySpace.

Thanks!
Peter.

consider using Pledgebank if you want to get the masses involved. Here is a Seth Godin pledge; http://www.pledgebank.com/SethGodinUtah

Yes, I would hold out for other options beside LinkedIn…to get your photo posted you are going to have get a premium membership there and I am not sure paying for a membership there is really worth it. I finding more people leaving LinkedIn than I am finding joining it, but I have not found where they are all going to…it is not MySpace or Facebook.

I want pictures too. I think their argument is something along the lines that if it’s someone you know well, you don’t really need to keep seeing their picture. But there are a number of reasons for photos, even in the LinkedIn context.

For one, seeing people’s picture helps me continue to feel connected to them. Also, if it’s someone I’ve never met in person (at least half of my contacts, and I’m a “tight linker”, are people I’ve never met in person, even though I’ve done business with many of them), the photos are useful so that when I’m planning to meet them, I know how to spot them in the restaurant, airport, etc.

I love the quote from Esther Dyson that we used in The Virtual Handshake:

“Photos are what make those sites feel like real communities, and they are an endlessly compelling medium, even when they depict people you don’t know and will never meet face to face.”