I knew your photo was important, but...

4 min reading time

Last week’s emailed Journey was materially different than others.

The subject line was “The best way to survey your customers,” but email wasn’t about that topic.

Instead, to access “best way,” you needed to click on one of two links, each a photo of me.

Both selections took you to the article – and gave me your vote, which was the “better Joe photo.” This ploy yielded my highest email click-through rate ever.

Roughly one in three who opened the email voted with a click and got their “reward,” the survey article.

As for the votes themselves,

Mom preferred this one.

This got 78 votes, including one from Mom. Others wrote to say it made me “look younger.”

I didn’t realize I reached the point where I “need to look younger.” Hmm.

I preferred this one. I thought it made me look “smart.”

This one got 52 votes, a full third less than Mom’s choice.

Turns out, Mom had a hollow victory.

Photofeeler

My little photo experiment yielded an email from “Long time reader, first time responder,” Jeff from Captiva Spine.

He wrote, “For a business photo (social or even dating), I came across Photofeeler not too long ago. You get credits by rating other people’s photos.”

Jeff said after three tries he got a satisfactory result. It wasn’t the one he liked best. (Did you use it anyway, Jeff?)

Anyhow, I gave Photofeeler a try, voting dozens of times (because I’m cheap and didn’t want to buy credits). I uploaded the three images.

And this is what The Crowd said:

Sorry, Mom.

They said I don’t look “likable” in the photo you chose. They did think YOUR SON looked highly “competent” and “influential,” though. So I’ve got that going for me.

They liked my current photo best. The likability score ranked 3 of 4 business photos in the database. But “Lovable Joe” looked less competent and less intelligent. SAD!

“Keynote Joe” ranked best overall. THAT guy is SO influential! Competent! Handsome! Funny! A great father…!

Oh.

Sorry.

Where was I?

Alas, “Keynote Joe” is less likable than a third of the database.

And I’m presently out of reasonable photos to Serve the Machine.

Disappointed I didn’t “rock” Photofeeler test, I needed to know, “How the hell do win this game?”

Photofeeler had an answer. A few, in fact.
• 5 Tweaks to Look More Competent in Your LinkedIn Photo
• Why It Pays to Look Likable in Your LinkedIn Photo (And How to Do It)
• 4 Tweaks to Look More Influential in Your LinkedIn Photo

I know you’re gonna check out Photofeeler. It’s free.

Tell me what happens.

99designs

After two successful projects, I returned this week to 99designs to create a new logo for MDTX, the Medical Device Technology Exchange.

This is the current logo.

I was never a fan. It was created before we knew what we wanted to be. The logo looked like it could belong to just about anything with those initials.

Today we have a pretty solid appreciation of our brand: MDTX is the fun and educational event for medical device executives who design, develop, manufacture, and commercialize medical devices. Join us to laugh, learn, and network. 🍨

Bruce championed a “fun” brochure, but we didn’t change logo. It was on too many things already.

So this week I submitted a 900-word creative brief and materials to 99designs, guaranteed a $299 prize, and my design contest ends today. I received 55 ideas of varying quality from a dozen designers so far.

I was happy with Carl’s logo.

And I was happy with Michelle’s lean RAQA systems logo. (Her new site arrives next week).

But I’m not as happy with my MDTX choices. I’ve winnowed them down to the six below. I’ll probably get more today.

Do you like any of them? If you have an opinion, would you email me at email me and opine? Thank you.

Do you like any of these? Which number?

Note: I gave feedback and requested changes for each of these. It’s too much to share here.

Fast Round

14 hours of Joey’s music. I made this playlist for the breaks during MDTX. We didn’t even get a third of the way through.

“Michael” wrote to thank me for playing this song. “Deb” thought the music added energy and fun but maybe I can tone it down next time. It took away from some booth-side conversations.

We experiment. We learn.