A lot of professionals and entrepreneurs have a traditional headshot – a head and shoulders photo, taken on a plain background, smiling at the camera. Most people use it for their LinkedIn profile, Facebook profile, on their business cards and marketing materials etc. Don’t get me wrong – I am happy to see this over a selfie. (You can read more about my observations on that topic here.)
That traditional headshot definitely serves a purpose and has a place, but when everyone has one, how can you stand out?
Let’s use the example of social media marketing. When you follow a page and they put out the same information again and again or the same photos are used in all of their posts, what do you do? Most likely hit the unfollow button – after all there is nothing new to see and it is just filling your feed with the same old stuff. As a business, we want people to see our pages and follow us so when they need our services, we are front of mind. To do this, we need variety! It needs to be entertaining, educational and engaging. To sum it up – you have to stop the dreaded scroll.
Here is where a branding session comes into play. These sessions can be in studio where we show your personality through different posing and outfit changes. They can also be on location at your place of work or somewhere else that represents your business. For example, if you are a landscaper, you may want to have a session in a local park, somewhere with lots of plants and greenery. Or you could go for the best of both worlds and take advantage of the two options in a hybrid session.
The idea of a branding session is to show your customers the different sides of your business through a variety of images that can be used across the various social media platforms. The photos can give a behind the scenes look into how your business works and what your customers can expect when they choose you. The variety in images keeps your posts fresh and interesting. People will be engaged and want to see more, even actively looking for your posts.
As an example of how important this is, Facebook measures how long people stop to look at your post. If the time is less than a second, going forward your posts will not get as much visibility. A behind the scenes photo with an interesting caption that can stop someone from scrolling past will encourage Facebook to show your future posts to more people, giving you more reach.
Let’s take a look at some different examples of branding photos.
Amanda is a firefighter and she is also a representative for Thrive, we wanted to show both sides of her in one image and I wanted to power pose her to show what a boss she is.
We also took the opportunity to capture her a traditional headshot with a twist. Something as simple as this can stop the scroll as people think ‘what is that on her arm and what is she holding?’
Kelley came to see me so we could capture some images for her women’s empowerment coaching. She wanted to show different sides to her personality and one of her needs was to have some negative space to add text to later.
Heather is a commercial interior designer. When we discussed her branding needs, I asked her to tell me a little more about what a typical project looks like for her. When she mentioned that she goes on to job sites I was pleasantly surprised and I was sure I would not be the only person who didn’t know that that was part of her job so I wanted to make sure we showed that in her images.
Jill has recently started her own aesthetics business. As an injector we wanted to create some fun branding images but we didn’t want to show syringes since most people don’t like to think about that part of it. Instead we chose to use some vials to represent that part of her services.
If you are interested in finding out more about how you can promote your business through a branding session you can reach me on 941-564-5354 or visit this page.
