Self-presentation in LinkedIn portraits: Common features, gender, and occupational differences

Abstract

LinkedIn is the largest professional social network site in the world, designed for professional networking, job seeking, and recruitment. The current study explores visual self-presentation in LinkedIn user portraits. LinkedIn portraits serve alongside explicit data posted in users’ profiles as a tool for professional self-presentation, yet they have hardly been studied. In the absence of scientific recommendations, non-academic websites offer recommendations for the optimal portrait. In this study, we aimed, first, to identify the common features of LinkedIn portraits and to determine whether they adhere to the popular recommendations found on the Internet. Second, we offered grounded hypotheses suggesting that LinkedIn portraits, and other features of LinkedIn accounts, would show gender and occupational differences. Using a representative city in the United States, 480 LinkedIn portraits and accounts were selected and analyzed. Results indicate that LinkedIn portraits display common features and tend to adhere to popular recommendations. Women were more likely than men to signal emotions, whereas men were more likely to signal status. No occupational differences were detected. The findings suggest that two opposing forces shape self-presentation in LinkedIn portraits. Specifically, social norms, corporate culture, and popular advice drive users to display standard business-like portraits, while gender-related self-expression inspires users to display their uniqueness and attractiveness. These pioneering findings can inform scholars and practitioners on impression management processes in professional online settings.