Using Your Headshot to Own Your Digital Image

You've heard the stories. Raunchy photos result in people getting fired, kicked off the team or appearing less attractive potential mate.

But what if you could make the images people find online, great?  

Innovative educators know you can with a headshot.  

Amy Brougher Milstein captured "the awesome" of winners of the Excellence in #NYCSchoolsTech  awards by taking their headshots which they can now use in all their online platforms to set the stage for their story. These educators know that their image should reflect how they want to be perceived by students, staff, colleagues, families, and even potential employers or partners. They dressed to impress and are conveying their personal brand.  

Here's what they'll do next:

• Upload image as your profile picture to your social networks (i.e. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter).
• Crop it tight.  Your face is often in a little thumbnail. You want people to see it.
• Upload the image to photo sites like Picassa and Flickr.
• Make sure it is public. It won't be searchable if it is not.
• Tag your photo with your full name. Be consistent with your tags.  
• Cite the source. Photo credit to Amy Brougher Milstein  

The end result will be a Google search that will eventually look something like this:

Because I actively control my digital image, when you search it, it conveys the story I want told. That is because I tag photos I like of myself and make them public. It also means I set tagging permissions so that I have to approve tags from others before they are published. Here is an example of how to do that on Facebook.

Owning your image is important. What story does your headshot convey?