It sometimes seems like our success in life can depend almost entirely on what other people think of us. However well-qualified you might be for a job, if the interviewer doesn’t warm to you, it’s unlikely you’ll be given the position. If you wear your favorite old sweater on a blind date and the person you’re meeting is in a suit, you’ll have to be exceptionally charming to overcome that poor first impression. Nervous during a pitch? Forget being awarded the contract. Why does your image matter so much, and how can you avoid letting it rule your life?
Why image matters
It’s one of those old evolutionary processes that modern humans are still saddled with, like the desire to overeat when food is plentiful. Our primitive survival technique is to eat when we can, as much as we can, because you never know where the next meal might be coming from. Despite knowing that food is not an unlimited resource anymore, we still feel those urges to eat, and they can be very hard to resist. Ancient man also had to deal with the likelihood of death on a daily basis, and it was essential to be able to judge who was friend or foe, who could be trusted and who was likely to be a threat.
Even though we now understand that it takes time to get to know someone properly, we still make snap judgments about them on first acquaintance. These primary instincts have the power to override our intellectual processes, and you can’t ignore the effect of making a negative or positive impression on people.
How image matters
Let’s first dispose of the myth that you have to conform to society’s ideal model of beauty. While you may wish you were more attractive, the world would be a very dull place indeed if everyone was physically the same. The differences and quirks of individuals are what make them interesting, and although one person may be considered exceptionally attractive to certain people, they will be just as unattractive to others. There is great wisdom in the saying that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so don’t fixate on what you can’t change. Your perception of your own attractiveness is entirely subjective, and you may be over or underestimating your physical appeal, but it isn’t worth worrying about.
The things you do need to concentrate on are being mindful of the basics of positive human interaction, i.e. being clean, having fresh breath, and being suitably attired. That means wearing whatever is appropriate for your line of work, because people will be judging how well you can do your job from the way you look. If you’re a mechanic, no-one is going to expect you to dress in a three-piece suit and have immaculately manicured nails. They will expect you to be wearing oily overalls and for your hands to be black with grease. If you are a beautician, people will expect you to be immaculately made up, manicured and coiffed, because they will want to have the reassurance that you can practice your craft on yourself. What they won’t care about so much is whether you’re wearing dungarees or a tie-dyed dress.
How online image matters
With so much business and commerce being conducted online now, you have not only your personal appearance to think about, but how you are portrayed online. Using top quality photographs for profile pages and job applications can be enormously influential. If you’re claiming on LinkedIn that you are a professional addiction counselor with years of experience, you don’t want a photo that shows you downing tequila on a beach in Mexico. These are the straightforward actions you can take without too much bother, but you need to remember that what you post to the Internet can come back and bite you if you’re not careful. Photos that were a bit of fun at the time, or posts you made when you’d had a few too many may seem no more than slightly embarrassing memories, but if someone puts your name into Google and sees them, your image is going to be rather tarnished. Your business or career may be affected by inadvisable posts and pictures, so don’t assume your secrets are safe online.
How a business’s online image matters
If you run a business or manage your company’s website and social media, you will by necessity approach the task of cultivating the right image much more carefully. You’ll want to make your website look eye-catching and grab people’s attention immediately they hit on your landing page. You’ll want to write interesting Tweets and Facebook posts that inspire confidence in prospective customers and encourage people to subscribe. This is all part of your image as a business and getting it right will make a significant difference. Always use high-quality photos that are clear and relevant to the article or post. Keep your pages up to date, add new material and offers regularly, and talk about as many different topics as seems appropriate for your audience. You could also employ an agency like Reputation Mart to take care of your image for you. Remember, it will be far harder to repair a poor image than maintain a good one.
When they meet you for the first time, people are gathering information about you in fractions of a second, building a mental picture of who you are. They are more interested in how genuine, approachable, knowledgeable and helpful you are than anything else, but their clues will come from your image. Be yourself, and you will be seen as genuine. The same applies to any other form of communication, whether it’s online, by phone or in person. Greet everyone with a welcoming smile and engage them in pleasant conversation, and always do whatever you can to help out. These qualities are far more important to customers than anything else, so when it comes to image think about you and your business as a whole, taking care that you are projecting the right image for your trade, but understanding there is more than looks behind creating the right impression.
