The time has come and your online presence is due for a little revamping. As you sit and deliberate the nitty gritty of your new look, you’re posed with a question that makes your blood run cold.
Do you want to use stock imagery, or should you set up a photoshoot at the office?
More often than not, our clients tell us that their primary concern about featuring staff online comes down to ensuring that the photos are up-to-date when new recruits come in, but particularly when current staff members are on their way out.
This is a fair point.
While we’ll leave the intricacies of staff retention to the HR specialists, your priority here is to use authentic images to show that your company is human.
What should your priorities be for your online presence?
Let’s look at this from a potential client’s point of view.
Sure, a nice website will draw them in when they’re looking for a service or product, but finding friendly faces and warm service is what will keep them coming back.
Potential clients aren’t looking for faceless, cold companies to work with. They want someone who can understand their needs, and who better to do that than the very people that represent your company?
When it comes to digital, good visuals are key. We all know that images and videos are guaranteed to boost your reach on social media and you can bet that people will be pulled in by genuine and candid content.
But you’ve got to keep in mind that consumers are smart; they know when you’re using stock imagery. And let’s be honest here, stock imagery is limited and hardly representative of what your company looks like – just take a look at this wonderful sample we’ve put together.
Why yes, you’re guaranteed to find a group perfectly made up of diverse individuals who are happy to work together in a local office.
This is what female office workers get up to when you’re not looking.
Don’t you just love it when you’re giving a presentation and your iPad screen times out?
If your business is operating in a small community, such as Malta, then people will appreciate knowing who works with you – it could also come in handy if you cross-tag people on social media! (Why? Guaranteed, more free exposure!)
Plus, some might say it’s easier to remember a face and a name than a brand, its ethos, and its complete product line.
So how can you put a face to your company?
Step 1: Get everyone dolled up
Call for a photoshoot and have pictures taken of each and every staff member. This a good way to get quality shots of everyone, and we’re sure there are some elements of team-building somewhere in there.
Step 2: Start uploading
There are myriad ways you can utilise these sparkly new pictures of your lovely staff. You can have a section on your website which highlights the different roles within your company, and you can also build a database for other staff members to help them get to know each other. This is especially important in large companies.
If you have a blog, having author avatars for each of your posts is super important (and if you don’t have any blog posts planned… dude, what’re you waiting for? Hit us up, we can help.) Basically, you’ll want each author of your blog post to have their name and face either at the top or bottom of their post.
Why?
1) because it makes people feel good to get recognition for their work, and
2) because potential clients are much more likely to take advice, and come back for advice, from a real person than a sea of text written by a faceless bot.
Another great way of making your company look more human is by including avatars in your company email signatures. This is a fairly basic practice, where along with your name and contact information, a small icon with your face with appear in your email signature. This may also be a good way of keeping creepy clients from looking you up on Facebook since you’ve already shown them what you look like, but of course, it’s no guarantee!
Step 3: Get candid!
This one’s a tricky one. Social media is a fantastic place for your staff to show some personality and reach out to your audience.
There’s no guarantee that all your members of staff are going to want to engage with social media, and truthfully we don’t think it’s imperative that each and every person does. But, hey, think about it this way – for every person that shies away from the camera, you might have someone who can’t put their phone down when the lighting is just right. Get your staff to engage with social media by taking snapshots on those warm and fuzzy moments in the office, like when someone’s brought in doughnuts to share. (FYI, we LOVE shooting candid photos, so if you’re up for us disrupting you once in a while, we’d love to do that for you too.)
We really can’t recommend enough that you give your online presence a human touch.
Never forget, no matter how snazzy your website looks or how good your company is, people want to connect with other people. And you know what they say… you’ve got to give the people what they want!
