Thanks to all those who took part in the survey it was very interesting to see the results coming in.
The first question was to find out if you already use a photo as your avatar on Twitter. The results were evenly matched but having a photo just edged it with 56.3% Some of the comments on this question were interesting with answers such as I used to have a photo and some stating that they actually have a photo of something else. What was quite clear from the answers for this particular question was that if you were a company you use a graphic but if you are someone on your own you are more likely to experiment and express yourself through your avatar. This is exactly what an avatar is for so it is good to see that there are those who try and come up with something different.
The second question asked if your avatar represented you or if you really didn’t care. This was 75% for your avatar representing you and a few comments such as “it is me as a Panda!” show how passionate you can be about what your avatar shows about you.
I’m not going to go through every question I am sure you would be asleep by the end but the overall feeling I got from the survey was that you love to express yourself in your avatar from a personal view but if you were using Twitter for business then it was a much cleaner look and professional persona. From the corporate view in some ways I feel this is a shame as it not always a good thing to hide behind the corporate image. Twitter in my opinion is about expressing yourself, it is a social media tool and we want to see who is behind the person to get to know them on a more personal level. Twitter enables you to connect with a person. The way I see it is that Twitter began as social tool for communicating with each other but as with many things more corporate and marketing people took advantage of this and saw it as an opportunity to sell. Companies have jumped on the Twitter band wagon and generally don’t see Twitter for what it really is, a social communication tool. Some want the rewards without getting know anyone, of course I am not saying every company does this but there are a few businesses and even some single users who hide behind the commercial image and don’t express them selves. Maybe I am wrong but I prefer it when I can get to know the brand or the person behind it whether they express themselves using their avatar or just through their posts.
One thing that stuck out for was the question about how often you change your avatar, most stated they did it every now and then and I think that is pretty much the same for most users but there were a few who strongly stated that they Never! Change their avatar as it is a part of their brand. While I agree you should not change it too often I do believe you should update it to refresh your identity every now and then, even Coka-Cola update their logo from time to time.
It has been very interesting to hear from you how you feel about your identity online using Twitter, I would love to hear if you have an interesting image or identity.
