Are you getting gradually immersed within the Web 2.0 World? Might I suggest one thing to keep in mind: Your avatar.
David Meerman Scott talks on Pistachio Consulting about the importance of keeping one’s brand, personal and professional, consistent. While he focuses on the overall management of one’s microblogging interface of Twitter, he does mention that it is imperative to replace the banal default application avatar with your own portrait. Replacing the default icon does two things:
- People want to see people. If you don’t like the way you look in photos, take a look at the photos of people you do like -this will give you ideas on how you’d like to be seen.
- People want to connect with other people. Replacing the stale avatar with your pet -or a pirated one from an artist site whose work you admire- only promotes the idea that you’re hiding something. Don’t let this silent messenger harm your personal image.
My current avatars:
Social media, like Twitter, gives me the option to post both my self-portrait in my illustrative style as well as my most recent photo taken by my husband in London; thankfully, this is one photo of me I actually like. Also, this opportunity to post both allows me to:
- Leverage my personal connection with my real face, and
- Promote my business ID/brand with illustrated self-portrait.
Love that!!
Meanwhile, using both avatars interchangeably also allows me to comply with other social media formats should they enforce strict guidelines. Recently, upon joining an online women’s group, they asked me to change both my avatar and my moniker (CREATIVEGoddess) so that people could relate to me. What’s not to relate? 😉 All’s not lost, and I’m heartened actually, because I do get weary of those who are still hiding behind their cat.
Next up: BrandYOU: Your Avatar – Part 2: Crafting Your Avatar.
creativegoddess.wordpress.com 
Great blog, well put. I can see that I must give this a little more attention. Although… I do like my Facebook photo. I think I’ll keep that one.
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OOhhh, I love the portrait. It is great. Really gets your personal brand across in a very human way. David
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These two posts on avatars are good ones! When I was redoing my web site, I kept thinking about a photo, but decided against it as I don’t think how I look matches my artwork at all. Let’s see—for my love of sculpting nudes, I could strip to my birthday suit and take a photo—and everyone would run. I could paint myself with the ink paints and look like a walking tattoo, but then it would be difficult to change if I ever wanted to go a different direction—not that I am thinking I ever will. I have barely explored working with them. I could wrap myself in fabric to get my love of textiles in there. I will have to think on this. Maybe I can come up with a self-portrait that would work!
Very interesting post.
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