When and How Often to Update Headshots

Ask any expert in branding, marketing, or career coach about the longevity of headshots, and the answer will most often be that it should be as current as possible. Why? The simple answer is that it is the most real, genuine, honest snapshot of who you or your business is – it should be fresh, up to date representing today, not several years ago.

But there are other reasons and events to update headshots – let’s explore them for both businesses and individuals:

Updating Individual Headshots

Most people think about updating their headshot when they’re either about to look for a job or it’s been so long since they updated one that they look very different. But there are other reasons to consider:

• Your current headshot isn’t professionally done – selfies, while great for Facebook and Instagram, just don’t send the right professional message for your LinkedIn headshot. Nor does that shot of you in the parking lot taken by a friend with their iphone, or the one where you’re with someone else and you’ve cropped out the other people. This is your career, your livelihood – put yourself in a hiring manager’s shoes for a second and think about what those images say about you; you’re not willing to invest your own money in your career, so why should they? Enough said.

• Your appearance has changed

  Maybe you’ve changed your hair color, grown a beard, lost weight, or just look different because you’ve gotten older. Most experts recommend updating your headshot at least every 3 years due to the fact that you simply look different, even if you haven’t made any changes to your appearance intentionally.

• You’re looking to move to a different role/position

  When you were developing software for a cool startup, that image of you wearing a hand painted tshirt may have been cool – but if you’re looking to move into management, or consult for companies where you want to convey that you have the experience and skills to help them be successful, you’ll want a more business oriented, professional look.

• You’re looking to move to a different industry

  Unofficially, many business categories have “looks”. For example, you’re likely to see very typical professional looks for people working in corporate finance/wall street and law vs. more casual looks for software companies. If you’re looking to transition to a different industry, research key people in roles at leading companies in those industries you may be interested in working for to see what their typical look is.

Updating Headshots for your Business

Businesses also want to insure the headshots of executives/staff on their website is also current for similar reasons. Other events/initiatives that would benefit from updated headshots include:

• New/updated website design

• Changes/additions to executive team/staff

• A new branding strategy

• Social media initiatives - One area that is often overlooked is when businesses implement social/business media (ie, LinkedIn) marketing strategies involving their staff posting articles, links, etc.. In the case of LinkedIn, when someone writes a post or article, their LinkedIn profile picture is displayed in the feed. You’ll want those profile pictures to look professional and have a consistent, high quality look to amplify your brand.

For more information on what makes great LinkedIn headshots, download my ebook “Best Practices for Professional LinkedIn Headshots”.

If you’re a business and want to learn more about what makes great team headshots, download my ebook: “Marketer’s Guide to High Quality Team Images”