9 Reasons Why Your Image Is Everything

Branding matters, and that rings true for both companies and individuals. 

The way you present yourself has a profound impact on your career. And it's not just your body language or how you dress, the Internet has presented folks with countless new ways to bolster their personal brand -- or completely ruin it.

Social networks, YouTube, blogs and other online tools help us project things out into the world with ease, but  putting yourself out there so prominently makes it easier for people -- and potential employers -- to judge you by your cover.

We've compiled nine reasons why your image is incredibly important. Take a look:

It takes 0.1 seconds to form a lasting impression of a stranger.

First impressions matter.

A series of experiments by Princeton psychologists Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov reveal that it takes less than a second to form an impression of a stranger from their face, and that longer exposures don't significantly alter those impressions.

To make sure you put your best foot forward, know these 12 statistically-driven ways to nail a first impression.

45% of employers -- more than double from the previous year -- said they use social networks to screen job candidates.

More employers are turning to the Internet when making hiring decisions.

In a recent survey, 45 percent of supervisors said they use social networks, like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, to screen job candidates.

The year prior, that number was significantly lower (just 22 percent), says The New York Times.

8% of companies have fired employees for their behavior on Facebook and LinkedIn.

A poor image could also get you fired.

2009 study by Proofpoint, an Internet security firm, found that at companies with 1,000 or more employees, 17 percent reported having issues with employee’s use of social media.

Eight percent of those companies report having actually dismissed someone for their behavior on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. That’s double from last year, where just 4 percent reported having to fire someone over social media misuse.

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