If you want to establish a relationship with clients and future customers online its imperative that you have an up-to-date portrait of yourself to help build that trust and transparency. But let’s be honest, that’s the minimal effort. Let’s move you up one or two levels with some tips on how to make you look great and really stand out from the rest.

  1. Get your business portrait done professionally. People can tell the difference and it the most cost-effective way to improve your branding.
  2. Show head and shoulders only.  Profile pics are small. Nobody is going to be able to see you if you’re posting a full length shot of yourself in it!
  3. Create separation between you and your background. This makes the image of you a lot clearer. Some apps can even remove the background from your picture and replace it with something else, though its hit or miss whether it will do a good job or not.
  4. Consider using an app to change the shape or framing of your profile pic, but keep it minimal. Avoid badges and emojis or busy frames that detract from your image.
  5. Add a small motion or video loop to your image through an app.

Now, I know you probably don’t have the software to do any of these tweaks so I’m going to make it easy for you. Here’s a few online sites and apps that I think could be useful in changing up your profile pic.

 

Online:

PFP Maker – Free. Easy to use online program that offers circular profile templates with a lot of background pattern and colour choices. You can remove your background but its success rate is dependent on the contrast between person and background. Downloads a png file for you to use.

Pic Monkey – $8 per month (free trial). Much more options for users to add motion, graphics and video to pics. Different shapes, frames and filters are available too. This is a program that can also be used to create other online content with templates, collages and themes.

 

Mobile Apps: (Note: A lot of these apps have very similar names. It’s easy to get them mixed up)

Avatar Maker – $9 per month, but you can get a free avatar if you watch a 30 second video. This is basically just adding a circular border to your picture. Very simple.

Clubhouse Ring – $4. This app has a few different frame shapes and colours, but it’s difficult to edit the positioning of your image after you import it to the frame.

Profile Shapes – Free. This app has several different picture shapes and mostly plain coloured frames. Easy to use.

Profile Maker (Clubhouse Kit) – Free. Gives you only two shapes to choose from. Fairly simple interface, which is nice. Ability to remove background (costs extra $) and add a solid colour profile ring, but no customization of ring frame except choosing the colour.

Social Profile Picture Maker – Free. This app has a ton of round frames with different styles, colours and patterns. Annoyingly there are ad pop-ups to contend with, but it may be worthwhile for what you get!