Have you ever looked for a real estate agent online?

Have you ever hired a nanny or a babysitter?   

Have you done research on the executives of a company?

In each case, which do you check out first - the picture or the bio? 

Like it or not, our picture says a lot about us - especially within the world of social networks.  However, often times, members of professional social networks can be hesitant to post a their picture.    I have had many discussions with a number of environmental professional members of commonground and the hesitancy is typically because we:
 

• don't have a picture

• don't know how to do it

• are waiting until we have a great picture

• do not understand what the value is

• do not feel comfortable doing so (for a number of reasons)

For those of you who don't post one because you don't have one or perhaps you don't know how, here is my simple suggestion.

1)  Have one of your coworkers, a spouse, or child take your picture with your Blackberry, cell phone, iPhone, or theirs.  I guarantee you someone you know has a phone that takes pictures.  And typically, the quality is decent.

2)  Email that picture to your desktop/laptop and save it in your "my pictures" folder

3)  Open up your profile on commonground, go to settings, and then click to edit your avatar, go to the section to upload an avatar, and select your photo from your files.

4)  Hit save - and you now have a new profile photo. 

This process takes no more than five minutes from start to finish.  If you are waiting for a great picture, post a temporary one. You can always update it when and if you get that new picture.

For those of you who are concerned about making your picture look as professional as possible, I encourage you to read Seth Godin's blog post titled The power of a tiny picture (how to improve your social network brand).  His insights and feedback is (always) extremely valuable.

If you are hesitant because you don't understand the value, I encourage you to check out this post by Alin Wagner-Lahmy called Why is your Profile Picture So Important. 

Moving forward, our intent is to recognize the top participants on commonground to help provide you all with additional incentive for your contributions.  Therefore, now is the time to add and update your photo so that you can benefit from the premium professional and personal visibility.

Lastly, you should never hesitate to post a picture of yourself, being yourself.   After all, that is who you are.

Hopefully, this information addresses the above concerns and enables all of our members to find more value out of the social networking experience on commonground.

Please feel free to respond and let me know if you have further questions, comments, or concerns, and I will be happy you out.