Positive comments are of course nice but very important too is how you deal with people who may citicize you or those who dislike your product or service. If you understand how to interact with such ones in a friendly, patient and witty manner it can leave a very positive impression on others about you and your business.

Nevertheless, a finding that strangers will respond more positively to ‘pictures with positive social cues’ and ‘positive comments’ than they will to neutral pictures and ‘negative remarks’ isn’t terriby exciting.

Also, the subjects that reviewed the profiles were college students that presumably knew nothing of the individuals in the photographs. The findings might be useful if you want to be ‘friended’ by random college students whose only source of information about you is your profile photo and related comments. It may be a stretch to extend the conclusions to ‘friends and potential employers’.

For example, an employer will usually have some additional information about the FB user from their application, CV, referrals or referees. They may not need or seek the same cues that a random college student will seek. In fact, a clear headshot might be more impactful because it provides a degree of familiarity at interview.

Likewise, friends (and fans/followers) outside of FB will have additional information and pre-formed opinions about a FB user before they view the profile. Amongst people I know, a clear headshot for positive ID and a genuine smile are more appealing than thumbnail image of a friend performing some sort of image-defining action.

Then again, I could still be missing the point of the article.

How does society define you? Or, how would you LIKE society to define you? If you define yourself as a footballer, then a photo of yourself playing football is more engaging and likable than a photo of your face, regardless of whether you’re conventionally attractive. If you’re a business person, perhaps this could mean a photo of you in a presentation, or being interviewed, would benefit your online persona.

This obviously won’t apply to many, who perhaps don’t want to be ‘pigeonholed’–then again, sometimes being pigeonholed helps people to become an authority on a topic, or to be more facilitate ambitions to be recognised as best-in-class.