Another LinkedIn item of interest:
(Source) This Friday, professional social network LinkedIn will provide the ability to add a photo to your profile page. It’s clearly a move that aims to keep up with Facebook, which increasingly looks set to steal LinkedIn’s audience.
I don’t know that we should set this up as a competition between Facebook and LinkedIn, though. Studies have shown that networkers who include photos in their profiles, no matter which social network they are a part of, do better overall than networkers who don’t. That is, they get more friends requests, join more groups, and get more of their own requests answered. People like to see who they’re networked with. That’s just human nature.
That isn’t to say there aren’t good reasons for not having a photo. Maybe you value your privacy. I know I certainly do. But when it comes to networking and growing a business through your social networks, it pays to include a photo. I think the folks at LinkedIn realize that and are ready to give that benefit to their users. At any rate, I think it’s a good move.
Obviously, Facebook and Linkedin are both still here and wildly successful. There are also SEO benefits to adding the picture in addition to the fact that people like to “see” who they’re networking with. Linkedin includes the person’s name in an Alt Tag associated with the profile picture, helping you get closer to “100% profile completeness” and closer to having an optimized social profile.