Your Twitter Avatar – Photo or Graphic?
This has been on mind for a while now and I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Anyone who follows me on Twitter may have seen a few different avatar images recently as I have been playing with the idea of either having my actual photo or my logo.
What is an Avatar?
An avatar is an image that represents yourself whether that be a true likeness or what you want others to perceive you as. Your on-line presence is very important and up until writing for this website I have always felt a bit awkward about showing my face on the web. I am not really sure why but I have always felt this way.
Twitter lets you choose any avatar you wish so the ideas are endless. This also means that some users choose to update their image to keep up with different trends like making your image green to support a cause. While changing your image frequently is refreshing for you, it might not be all that good for those who follow you.
Your avatar is something that connects you and your followers. They rely visually on your avatar, within an instant of your tweet they know who it is from and if they are interested In reading it or not. Changing your avatar means that your followers have to learn to know who you are. There is nothing wrong with updating your the image occasionally in fact I would recommend it but not too often.
The important thing to remember is that it is about consistency with your brand or image. Take a quick look at your twitter stream and I am sure that you will be able to pick out particular users just by their avatar. If they change this then you simply won’t be able to find them as quickly. You may miss any messages from these users until you notice the new avatar. This is even more true for you if you follow a lot of users.
A photo or graphic?
We know that your avatar is important for your followers to recognise you, but does it matter if you have a photo of yourself or a graphic? This will depend on who you are and how you use Twitter but generally using a photo of yourself means that others can relate to you on a personal level. Having a graphic such as your logo can mean they relate to you as a brand. What do you think?
Do you have a photo or a graphic as your avatar? 
Does it represent you on-line or was it something you didn’t really think about?
By having a photo as your avatar do you think that people will trust you more?
I am very interested in your thoughts.
Written by Lee Doel from The Funk HousePosted on August 15th, 2009 and filed under Social Networking
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34 Responses to “Your Twitter Avatar – Photo or Graphic?”
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Hi there Lee
Well personally I use always avatar because it represents who I am and I think it looks bad without it.
I just use my photo when I am in forums that I know that I can trust.
But most of the time I use an avatar from Isabella Cullen because she is one of my best actors list and she is “hot” has well.
So yeah I use always avatar.
Forget to mention that it is a Graphic.
By using a photo of someone else what do you think that represents about yourself?
I prefer real photos since it shows me a real person behind the text. Thinking about it, it’s far by time for me to update my avatar.
I started off with a logo type image when I first started blogging, as I thought it was a means of establishing a brand. As I became more familiar with the social media, it occurred to me that even I, preferred to see someone’s image, as it tends to personalize the relationship as you’ve pointed out.
I decided to change to a photo, as I feel it is a must for blogs owners who have secured their own name as a domain. JohnDoe.com seems a but out of sorts if you can’t see John Doe himself.
Now I am not against the graphic avatars, I think many of them are cool, with the exception of that “newbie” Twitter avatar. Who designed that thing anyhow?
I think my case against photos is partly because i don’t think i am very photogenic but i think i may experiment with them
According to Charles
Does that mean we should use other peoples avatar since you can upload your own picture.
i think this is unfair or what do you think
please enlighten me more
Photos, as long as it’s of you and not your pet, demonstrate that you take your online image seriously.
I’ve adopted a logo for my online presence. Partly because I tend to change hairstyle a fair bit (between scruffy, unkempt and “meeting on monday” professional haircut). For me, the logo provides a consistency between facebook, twitter, my website, my powerpoint slides, and my physical world appearance. It helps I wear my logo on a lapel badge and have it on a t-shirt as well.
I’m a marketer, I’ve written about personal branding, and I run a personal brand with a brandmark. What’s not to love about combining the theory and the practice?
I also like to use the same avatar on different websites etc i hope in doing so some will remember it. i have thought about using a photo on twitter because it is a more personal thing
On twitter a picture seems better than a avatar.
I prefer a photo for my avatars. Content is more meaningful when you can associate a face with what’s being said.
But that philosophy extends far beyond your Twitter profile – I believe a photo is vital for your blog or website’s About page as well. A couple of years ago David Airey sparked an interesting meme with his Face Behind the Blog post.
Thanks for the link Rob it will be a good read. i think using a photo is good but it has to be a good one that represents “YOU”
Well it seems out of those who have kindly commented so far that most prefer to see a photo so it connects you the person in some way. I think i may experiment with this over the next few weeks.
Definitely photo.
In most of my online memberships and whatnot my avatar is a picture of myself. Since music is my industry it’s usually me with my viola. However I sometimes use a graphic to change things up; right now my Twitter avatar is a cartoon representation of me with my instrument.
I am a photographer and I use my photo as my avatar.
This allows me the flexibility to change the photo periodically with minimal recognition loss while keeping a fresh look.
A photo is also a part of my background graphic.
Personally, I use a graphic.
As a social media journalist, I want to be remembered for my content instead of my face. I use the same graphic on other social media websites, such as FriendFeed, and believe using multiple graphics only confuse readers.
It always makes me think will people like “me” or am i not what i thought etc by having a graphic you can still portray who you are
We’ve thought about this subject since joining Twitter earlier this year, and it’s been a bone of contention with a few of our regulars.
We’ve adopted a Graphic to sow ourselves as a couple of different people monitor and relpy to our guests question, and we think this adds to a concise & appropriate Corporate Face for @MacdonaldHotels & @BotleyPark.
Both accounts are answered by staff from Macdonald Hotels and are operated in slightly different ways. We have tried the general approach of Tweeting mainly information and offers from our @MacdonaldHotels account, keeping DM messages out of the feed, we felt on occasion’s that other guests picking up on individual replys that were ment for someone else might be misleading.
Where as out @BotleyPark account has been a little more open and chatty, feeding @replies into the general feed. We found that this is much harder to follow & has been less readily recieved.
Your comments would be greatly appreciated vis Twitter. We would like to activley engage our Uk Followers more so please do chat to us, were here to help in any way we can.
Rgds SIR
@MacdonalHotels
@BotleyPark
I would l think that the more personal approach would be better from a customer point of view as it shows your relationship with your customers. You should try using something like Mixero where you can have more than one account and you can easily follow everyone using groups.
you might want to trial using a face for your twitter avatar if you get a lot of queries through it as it will give them confidence when they come to visit you – they will already know the face
I am a photographer and I use my photo as my avatar.
This allows me the flexibility to change the photo periodically with minimal recognition loss while keeping a fresh look.
A photo is also a part of my background graphic.
James Pauls
twitter = eyecrave
http://www.eyecravephotography.com
As you are a photographer i think you are obligated to use a photo as it is another way to show you are good
It’s funny I thought about it these days because I changed my profile and I was wondering what is better. I agree with what you’ve mentioned. For a private person in my opinion it’s better to have a picture/ a photo and for companies resp. brands it’s better to have a logo or maybe an avatar. I’m really getting used to the pictures of the people I’m following but sometimes it could be interesting if they would change the picts.
Absolutely use a photo, even if you twitter for business. It makes us feel we know you a little and therefore fosters trust. I generally don’t even follow people who use a graphic avatar. I’ve been told that since I use the same photo on all my social media accounts, people recognize me right away.
Hi Lee:
It’s funny that I happened upon your post today as tomorrow I am having a new photo taken to use as my new avatar. It was a point I considered for a long time before I called my photographer, and, for all of the reasons you wrote! I’ve decided to seguey my followers/friends/contacts by having the new photo taken in front of the same backdrop, a certain wall in our home. Perhaps I will draw on other similarities as well, so that these online connections will not have such a difficult time “finding” me. Just as the big companies change their logos to symbolize keeping up wither with the times or changes they have made within, so, too, it was important to me to have a photograph that more accurately depicted who/what I am now to augment my brand. It’s not something I plan to do often, but, for now, I think it is the right choice!
Ellen C. Buchine aka @standoutcopy Be on the lookout for a shorter haired me later this week! : )
Wow i would never think of having a photo done for my Twitter avatar i am impressed! I will certainly keep my eye out for your photo. It would be interesting to hear back from you about the increase of followers or if any make a comment about it etc
thanks for sharing
just started with twitter and decided to draw myself. this is a very personal touch i guess. it looks a bit like me, but i don´t like those fancy photos:-) it depends if you are a company or a single person who tweets.
@sixwaypaul
Hi Paul, i like your avatar the sketched look is nice and it kind of makes it look cheeky and friendly
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Hi Lee, excuse me if this has already been mentioned in a previous comment. Although business identities are shown within Twitter avatars, when they represent a group of people it’s important not to single anyone out. For me, however, when there’s just one person, a photo wins every time.
Thanks for your comment David, I would agree with what you say about the business identity, depending on how they set up their twitter account for the business. If they have multiple accounts then a photo for each person would in my opinion be ok but if they only have the one account then having a logo would be the best thing as you say. I am thinking of going for a photo for my account but im not sure what type of photo to have i quite like your black and white photo