If it no longer looks like you, replace it.
Each time I see a writer’s post on Facebook, I see a tiny version of that person’s photo. If I click it, I see a slightly larger version on their home page.
The potential for confusion comes when that writer does a live event — which shows how they look today. This past week I did a double take when I tried to reconcile the difference between the two images.
The live image displayed the typical problem of a selfie — the writer’s face too close to the camera — which distorted the size of her nose and chin. Ditto the deep shadows that people don’t think to fix by moving their laptop to a place with better lighting or by bringing in a lamp to light their face.
The real problem lay in the writer’s official portrait. While technically excellent, it had been taken at least ten years, twenty pounds, and two hairstyles earlier.
Readers want to trust what you write. You don’t build that trust with a photo that’s painfully out of date.
