The CEO of Tinder says the secret to attracting attention on the dating website is simple - just be yourself.

Tinder co-founder Sean Rad says that data from the site shows that using model-y poses in your profile picture just does not work.

He says if your picture expresses something about your interests and your personality, then you will do better.

Rad also says head shots are off-putting - and pictures where you are hanging with your friends don't appeal to users because they can't work out who is who.

Speaking in front of an audience at the Advertising Week Europe conference in London, 29-year-old Rad, said: "Our data shows that when your photo expresses something about your interests - like it shows you skiing when you're a skier - or personality, you do better and get more matches. 

"I always tell people 'be yourself'. If someone is being fake you can easily figure that out."

Tinder claims to have made 11 billion matches worldwide since launching in 2012 - up from just under four billion this time last year.

It currently has around 10 million active users.

"Model-ly poses never work," continued Rad, who is on Tinder himself, and also advised against choosing group pictures.

"Photos with friends are confusing. You have to swipe through the rest of the person's images to work out who they are.

"Head shots also don't work. It's those that display what you look like but also the environment you live in, and your interests, which do.

"An action can tell more than a thousand words. People think first impressions are superficial but they're not," he said.