Your avatar should be a photo of you. Not your dog, your wife, your child, your logo, or your new shoes. You.
I felt like such a failure because I couldn’t find an image of me suitable for the @brandcampblog Twitter account. And then my Mom sent me a stack of photos, including this one:
Note the classic Marie posing: smile, stand stiffly, hold your arms to your sides, get in front of a ‘pretty background.’ Of course, this image is backfocused, because that’s my Mom’s signature. I’m in focus in approximately four photos from my childhood.
This also shows off my killer glasses — you know, the ones the size of my face that I threw a tantrum to get because they were so PERFECT — and my overachieving ways. Badge after badge after badge. I was a perpetual merit badge earner. My Mom sent me a bag full of badges I earned that she never bothered to sew on with this photo.
My point? Be personal. Forget your effin’ logo already. Get the camera out of your face. Do dry cleaners have hangers in their avatars? Do SEO gurus hide behind a laptop? Let me see your face. Even if it’s your face from twenty years ago, it allows human connection to happen on the internet.
Oh, and um. Follow Brand Camp on Twitter, won’t you? You can also score a mini-branding consultation with me while supplies last.
The "classic Marie posing" reminds me of my friend's mother…
Every photo, for any occasion, she would make us hold something. Hold the flowers! Get the cat! One year at a picnic, we decided to handle that part for her, and as a result, I have a photo of myself and five friends all proudly holding condiments.
Sweet! I would totally have fought for the ketchup. Relish? Ick.
Do pet photogs hide behind the noses of their fave pups??
I'm happy to report that I did a session swap with another photog last week & will soon have my own face in my avatar (although I will miss looking at that big schnoz)!
I couldn't agree more. I also like it when someone uses the same avatar on all their social networking accounts.