Your avatar is that spunky little photo of you that you use when commenting on blogs, on Twitter, on Facebook, on MySpace and on all your social news websites.
Should you stick to the one image? And what’s the best kind of image to use?
Seth Godin gave some timely tips on avatars on his blog post on avatars recently. His ten points can be summed as:
Keep it simple
Keep it professional
Happy is more important than beautiful
Seth’s guide is easy and intelligent.
But there is room to make your avatar fun and distinctive if you wish. Australian social media commentator, Laurel Papworth, has a purple-haired illustration with a rather stern expression for an avatar.
It works for her!
How to choose your Twitter avatar
Twitter is fast and ‘noisy’. Your profile image should easily and strongly identify you. A blurred or indistinct image won’t do you any favours, and neither will changing your image frequently.
If you’re branding a business, your logo is a good choice of avatar (although it’s not as friendly as a photo!)
If you want to use your logo, make sure it’s clear. If using your whole logo results in tiny illegible text or images that you need a microscope to see – crop a distinctive part of your logo and use that.
A comprehensive guide to choosing an avatar: – Twitter Avatars – Choosing a brilliant one (Malcolm Coles) Malcolm has used lots of avatar photos and designs to show you what he thinks makes a great avatar.
Should you stick to the exact same avatar right across the board?
If you’re running a business, and you’re trying to brand yourself as the face of your business, is the best thing to stick with the one image of yourself? Probably.
If you’re using certain social media mostly to catch up with friends and family, changing your avatar or profile photo is fine. For example, your Facebook friends and family love it when you change your photo– it makes them feel a part of the changes in your life.
The avatars in the image at the top of this page were created with http://illustmaker.abi-station.com. This program allows you to create many thousands of different looks, including the ability to align any feature.
Seth Godin and I probably disagree on everything.
By keeping my avatar grumpy and distinctly personal I am not distanced from the audience and I tend to have more interesting conversations than I would with a boring professional smiley avatar.
It’s taken me many years of running communities to be comfortable with presenting such a personality online – not for everyone I guess. Still, it makes my char stand out, and that’s what it’s all about in an attention economy world.
Thanks
Laurel @SilkCharm
Don’t like Seth’s purple cow theory? Heh heh
I love your avatar; therefore had to include it. (And love your work.)
Also, I am entranced by your site’s tag cloud– truly.
I get bored with the uber-smiley professional shots too, but wanted to present a rounded view. For most people, they work.
That’s a great point on your avatar allowing you a ‘down-to-earth’ relationship with your audience.
Thanks for your comment
Tag cloud – go to plugins (ADD NEW) and type in wp-cumulus. I think you activate in Widgets.
Suggest you also add Subscribe To Comments as it will allow commenters to be emailed when a response has been submitted and come back with more comments
Oh cool! I’ve got quite a few things to add in down the side, but that tag cloud is admittedly funky.
Yeah I think I should have set this site free earlier so I could test out the comments better. (it’s been private until today)
Good advice – thanks so much!
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I’m just starting to brand an image. I stick to the one photo which is a professional shot. There’s lots of twitter pix that look like they were taken at a family bbq and it doesn’t suit if your trying to show a professional image.