Immediate-Past President Steven Roll considers the pros and cons of including a photo on LinkedIn and seeks your opinion on the issue.

Facebook seems to be all about pictures. “Friend” someone on the social media website and be prepared to see a never ending stream of photos of pets, kids, and extended relatives having a good time at the wedding they attended last week.

LinkedIn, which has assumed the role of Facebook’s more button-down counterpart, features fewer images. In many cases, people don’t even include a photo of themselves on their profile.

But is it smart to go faceless on the world’s biggest career oriented social media website?

A spirited LinkedIn discussion on this issue looked at the costs and benefits of adding a headshot to your LinkedIn profile:

• your photo is part of your personal brand or image,
• LinkedIn is a form of social media and your photo helps “humanize” your interactions,
• self disclosure (e.g., sharing your image) helps to build trust,
• not including a photo might give the impression that you have not fully embraced social media.

Those who advocated against including their photo on LinkedIn said:

• photos are often misleading,
• people routinely judge resumes without seeing a person’s picture,
• including your photo heightens the risk of identity theft or other types of fraud, and
• photos tell little about a person’s character or qualifications.

Where do you stand on this issue? Are you pro or con LinkedIn photo? [polldaddy survey=”39BDE5972E70A994″ type=”button” title=”Take Our Survey!” style=”rounded” text_color=”FFFFFF” back_color=”000000″]