About Face: Pick an Avatar & Stick With It.
With more and more people using social networking sites, your avatar has become your personal brand that identifies you and what others think about you. Your avatar is that little image you upload to visually identify yourself on online profiles and social media websites.
I frequently hear social media users say “update your avatar often on LinkedIn so you appear on your connections Network Updates page more often.” In my opinion this is about the worst thing you can do. There are other ways on LinkedIn to get yourself on your connections Network Updates page such as updating your status, answering in the Q&A section, joining groups and connecting with more users.
Like your company logo, people identify you with your avatar. If you frequently change your avatar, this doesn’t allow people to make that visual connection. You should also use your avatar across as many of your social media websites you are active on as possible.
If you have heard of “The Law of Seven” you know that it loosely means people buying your product or service sometimes will not make a purchase until at least seven exposures to the product or brand are completed. If you change your avatar on a frequent basis, even just for fun, then you are breaking that visual branding to the people you have connected with. Take me as an example…here’s my lovely avatar:
I use this image of myself on all social media websites where I am representing myself, this includes LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. So no matter where people see me or meet me if they see this picture elsewhere it just helps reinforce my personal brand with them. I use a picture of myself but I also added the visual element of the film frame and sepia tone so in the future if I go bald…er or if I grow a huge beard, get laser eye surgery and am no longer recognizable by this photo…I can change the photo BUT keep the frame and sepia tone look so there is consistency in my personal brand. It also helps my image stand out in a sea of avatars which are usually just straight photos of people. One of my favorites is Mike Langford of Next Level Executives avatar that he uses everywhere on a multitude of social media websites. If you’ve seen him in person, you know this is a GREAT representation of Mike but more importantly it’s funny and memorable.
Now the other side of the coin is the avatar I use on social media sites where I am building my corporate brand. This includes on sites such as YouTube, MetaCafe, Revver and Daily Motion where SmartMarket Movie is a publisher of online videos and providers of content. The avatar I use on these sites is simply our logo, which remains consistent and reinforces the connection with our brand.
So the what is the moral to this story? Be consistent with your avatar, it will help build brand recognition for your business and…yourself.
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I really like your avatar, and I like Mike’s. You’re right – Mike’s IS funny and memorable.
I partly agree with you and partly disagree with you.
I agree that you should be consistent. Your core point of having brand consistency is such a huge part of any effective campaign. Dead on, my friend. When you have graphics in part of your avatar, YES, I’m wholeheartedly on board with your point. I’ve seen people ping-pong from different avatars almost constantly. Not a good practice. I’m glad you posted this!
Now here’s where I disagree. My face doesn’t actually change (much!). My smile might, but I’m still me. My brand doesn’t change by uploading different photos of myself. What happens if I dyed my hair platinum blonde? Would your point then extend to me being limited from dying my hair? (not like I would, but I have thought about it)
Only slightly serious with that question, but I think there is a line with consistency. I think people don’t need to be militant with their avatars, but at a minimum, they need to stick to a consistent THEME. IE: mine are my face. Yours would be the cool little film thing with your a sepia tone face, Mike’s would be the cool cartoon… etc.
What do you think? Do you agree?
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I agree with you in part. First thing is I’m speaking strictly from a business perspective not a social/friendship perspective. If all you use these social networking sites for is talking to a small group of friends, then this doesn’t apply. The point of branding your avatar for your business is to build consistency with how people recognize and interact with you. Case in point, on Twitter I have business people I follow that one day that have a picture of themselves, next day it’s their dog, day after that it’s their child and on and on it goes. The problem with this is I don’t know all of the people I follow by “name” on Twitter. Once you get over about 50 it becomes difficult to know everyone by name. So can you change your image if it is a photograph of yourself on your social networking sites occasionally? Absolutely! Just make sure it consistently looks like you and keeps your image easily recognizable. Don’t change your avatar to weird or vastly different angles or use a closeup one week and then a picture someone took of you from a half mile away standing on top of Mount Washington. If you are using social networking for business reasons you wouldn’t change your logo every week for the purposes of your personal branding so it doesn’t make a lot of sense to drastically change your personal avatar image on a regular basis either.
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Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!
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