A decent photo of yourself can tell a lot about you. There is a reason why certain tribes refuse to have their photo taken, it shows more than just your receding hair line or your big nose.

Right on the same line here with you Mark, I guess I make exceptions with media, HBR, BNET, NYT, etc… although I follow their writers personally I also subscribe to their feed. You do it the right way with MH and DimePR twitter accounts. Some should learn…

Hope you had a great weekend, I guess you followed the game yesterday, who were you for?

Yes, most gringo’s, along with much of the sporting world did catch the Super Bowl last night. I wasn’t really for any team, although it turned out to be a pretty exciting game.

In regards to larger corporations or media organizations, I think a personal touch on every social platform they’re on could make them more effective. The avatars of those managing their social streams can and should be front and center.

Just my opinion anyhow : ) — make it a great week John and I appreciate you adding to the conversation here sir.

An avatar with a little personality is great. If it’s a business account or blog you’re running, keep it professional (no photos of you rockin’ out at that concert/party). And the more consistent you keep it across your professional networks, the better! Consistency matters and you want people to recognize you after all.

As for logos, I’m sorry, but if you’re not a big name brand like Coca-Cola, I’m just not all that likely to carry a conversation with you. Unfortunately, I’ve been trained to associate logos with spam in this day in age. Sad, but true. I’d much rather connect with the face behind the brand.

Great post Mark and certainly worth thinking about!

Great minds think alike Ricardo — : )

Thanks for sharing a piece of your mind here Ricardo.

Cheers to you!

I definitely feel the same way. No logo all the way..only real humans will do. Nuf said

Cheers Dino : )

Agreed, there was no second-guessing when I created mine. I genuinely want to learn from others, have conversations, and offer value. Why do that behind a logo or with a goofy image?

Hi Mark!

Thanks for the insight. It does make connecting easier when there’s a face to relate to compared to just a logo or a random picture.

I read an article about how a simple brand managed to attract a lot of customers through their website by showcasing their staff. By having real people that are relateable on their site, customers felt that their brand was more trustworthy and down-to-earth.

Another simple but great post. Thank you!

Tariq and Shaheera

Are you doing a criminal investigation?

Hi Tariq, thanks for sharing your insight here. I absolutely believe you made the right choice. Trustworthy and down-to-earth are two qualities that are better revealed through photographs of real people/ staff vs. a logo.

Thanks for adding to the conversation : )

I’m glad you brought this up Mark as you mentioned to me the other day your suggestion about changing my lion avatar. Let me say, like you, I’m into faces. I want to know ‘the person’, but I think there is a big difference between an avatar on the blogosphere and your photo on Facebook or Linked In or generally speaking.

When I first started blogging, I read Glen Allsopp’s book–’Cloud Living’. Anyone that has been blogging for any time has likely heard of Glen, and his avatar is very unique…and he has discussed this very same topic—that your avatar should be memorable.

My brand, obviously, is Marcus Sheridan-The Sales Lion. If one goes to my site, my personality and face are plastered everywhere. But the Lion is an intricate part of the brand called ‘Me’. There is a story behind the Lion but having ‘Aslan’ as my avatar has, in many ways, proved very successful. For example, before anyone actually knew who I was, if I’d got on a blog and leave a comment with 50 other comments, I’d often have an unusually high click through rate to my blog. Why?— because when everyone had faces and I had ‘Aslan’.

Also, here is another example— when I submitted my guest post to Men With Pens, the first response James (the owner) gave me was– “Hey Marcus, I remember you from the Lion avatar…..”

What I’m saying here is showing your real face is a key to marketing, yes, but also having a brand is key. Will I change my avatar one of these days? Yeah, maybe, as I’ve learned to never say never, but for many on the blogosphere they recognize the Lion immediately.

Great topic Mark, thanks for starting the conversation.

Hey Marcus — it’s certainly hard to argue with results and this avatar has served you well… heck, I find myself looking for the darn lion when I’m leaving comments on other blogs!

Just my observation — I think you’re the only personality that can effectively use a lion as an avatar; you must be special :p

I made a remark about the lion avatar when I was speaking with Danny Brown about you the other day and he said “I like the lion!”

It goes to show there really is no right or wrong way to present yourself effectively on social media platforms — and while considering advice from people you respect, you need to find what best fits your personality, serves your mission and get’s you positive results.

I appreciate you providing some good food for thought.

And you are one cool cat yourself Mr. Marcus ; )

My avatar does not fully reflect the power of my photogenicity. The truth is that I am actually a horribly ugly dude, but I sure do look good in a photo!

Ha! Well if Danny said it then we now know the facts Great response and well said Mark. It’s fun to have healthy debates, I’m only sad there aren’t more of them

I thought your avatar could have used a bit of a Photoshop makeover – haha!

Oh, don’t lie to me, Mark. I recently found a personal ad with my avatar on it. I cannot tell you how strangely similar it was to you. The dude’s name was Mark, he lives in Costa Rica, has a squillion kids, loves the beach, and makes fun of people who live where it snows. Coincidence? I don’t think so! LOL

I support logos over faces because those logos pay me more money than the faces ever could. Some of the problems I have had is trying to get payment from faces. Call me a prostitute it you will, but I do appreciate you guys and hope you will not throw me out because of this.

I must say that this is an instance where I strongly disagree with you. The proof is in the numbers, and not in speculation.

People want to know people, and a face has real psychological impact that we develop early, as infants.

In instances where you want to be recognized as a representative of something, a stronger attachment is made to a human photo than a logo or other icon (unless you are a lion ). In instances where a group of more than one is represented, a logo is appropriate and often expected.

Sure, you can doubt me. It happens all the time, but I may have to start pushing my books on you.

You’re thoughts are welcome and appreciated here! I would address you by name, but it doesn’t appear anywhere.

That is an interesting statement you’ve contributed, and funny too! All companies are made up of people either way… I’m associating larger companies with a well known brand behind it with your statement. All I can say is, while those companies do pay [eventually] it’s many times not on time, not accomplished without a fight and this can cause cash-flow problems for smaller companies or consultants. To reiterate, they always pay.

In regards to an effective social media strategy, I still believe it’s most effective when you have your team’s faces front and center if they’re representing you on the social web. Such a little thing most would say, but a much stronger connection happens between people, not company logo’s.

Thanks for sharing a piece of your mind here and I would be disappointed if I didn’t see you again.

Cheers to you and yours!

I also agree that the proof is in the numbers. A large organization whose sole purpose is to manipulate the minds of the general public to only buy their products and services can create more than 100 faces in social media all working in different ways. These will be real people (well sort of) working under a directive to protect and serve at all cost (obviously they are going to be paid well)
I have seen this in SEO over the years. Sometimes I thought it was a battle against several websites and companies only to find out later on that it was the same people with multiple faces and channels. We need a Pale Rider like Clint Eastwood to join our communities and even the odds.Maybe you guys know how to effectively enact justice with a six gun!
Of course I believe the people here are more noble than those I mention, but I do not want to underestimate what measures an organization will take to ensure that everyone is singing the same song.

I appreciate this blog as I do with Mark’s blog. I would have no problem meeting any of you guys face to face one day. You can be assured that I will not be wearing dreadlocks or smoking exotic plants.

Gaming numbers does not build long term value – only a short term facade.

Well that’s good news!

Hi Mark
Just come over from the Sales Lion’s site where he is talking about avatars.

SL has the following quote in his article “…an avatar should be unique, memorable, and brand worthy.”

I don’t use a photo of myself but my avatar is all three of the above.
Not sure that a photo can do all three.

Looks as though you and the Sales Lion have got us all thinking about avatars.

Thanks for starting the discussion.

Hi Keith — somewhere in these threads of conversation I mention that there really is no right or wrong way to present your brand/ self image through your avatar — I just believe you should take a thoughtful approach to deciding this if your a professional, or business brand.

It needs to best reflect to your audience who and what you are.

The only thing that will definitely have a big impact on the effectiveness of your overall social media efforts is what you do after you’ve figure out the window dressing.

Get engaged with the conversation, contribute value and insight, and be helpful when given the opportunity.

I appreciate you stopping by here Keith and contributing to the conversation — I’m going to check out your social footprint, so see you again soon : )

Hey Keith, I can’t seem to find a blog or other social platforms you’re on… If you’d like me to check out your work, just send me some links.

LOL – sorry Keith, just received your latest blog post in my email box. You should complete your profile on Disqus for those who may want to find you in other places

Something to think about, Mark, is unless one is active on Facebook or Twitter or similar social networking sites, one likely never heard of the word AVATAR — other than the recent James Cameron film. A picture might be more known, and a picture representing oneself might be better known.

If one is googling and comes across a blog article and is inspired to add a comment, what is an avatar without a link explaining what it is? That’s why if you click my name and visit one of my blog articles, at the bottom of each one is a sentence encouraging would-be commenters to visit Gravatar.com to upload such an image to follow that person around the web.

So, while your points are great let’s all take a step back and think about who we’re deleting before we hit delete.

A very good point Ari… Somethings that should be obvious becomes a bit obscure when you get sucked into the bubble : )Now that you bring that point up, I find myself asking whether or not I would take the time to check someone out prior to hitting delete. I mean, do I really have the time to research every person who sends me a notification who just doesn’t peak my interest with a nice short bio on who they are with a nice picture attached..? I don’t think so…Clarification: maybe when I was starting out, but now that I’m connected to thought leaders, and people like yourself who are contributing to conversations and shaping a valuable network, I would not. To top that off, there are so many spammers and degenerates out there these days, I don’t have time to waste time. Hopefully sincere people will find articles like this one or others like the ones on your blog and many others that can help them develop an effective presence. I like the sentence you insert at the bottom of your posts, that can certainly be helpful to those who are new to social media. I hope you don’t mind me using that idea on my articles.I’ve had some very recognizable brands follow me, even ones that I like, but I don’t follow back because I don’t want to talk to a logo. My desire is to connect with people – or brands with people who front and center who are there to serve, help and/or contribute to conversations. There are many brands who do this and I just prefer to connect with the brands/people who I can really connect with. Just a personal preference I’ve found that enhances my experience — but everyone is different, and there is no right or wrong way to do what you do. Results are what people are after and if they are fruitful with their efforts, helping and connecting with their customers in meaningful ways, then that’s a good thing.Thank you for stopping by and leaving a piece of you mind here Ari – I hope you’ll visit again my friend.

[...] Harai correctly noted our Avatars should reflect our personality by posting a  real photo of who we are. A photo isn’t the whole story. Our bios in Twitter [...]

[...] No Gravatar: When I spoke to the Competitive Edge group in Green Bay recently, they were learning about the basics of social media. One of the members told me to find his profile and he was there but everyone started laughing because he was the default Twitter egg. One of the keys of using social networking is to let people get to know you. It isn’t hard to upload a photo. It doesn’t have to be a professional photo but neither should it be a mug shot. Check out this post by Mark Harai for more Twitter avatar tips. [...]

[...] friend Mark Harai asked if your Avatar showed us our best side, his main grief was with Marcus Sheridan’s Avatar, the lion. Why put a wild animal as a [...]

 E-learning
is great and nice concept these days and becoming more and more popular
now.Very well written article. Superb article with excellent
information.Thanks for sharing.

I missed this comment! Too much – and get the point. Thanks for popping in and sharing your thoughts.

Cheers to you!

Thank you for the kind words… Hope it may have sparked some ideas or insight.

Cheers!

[...] No picture is an automatic fail. I don’t follow eggs. Ever. Cartoons are ok but I won’t take you seriously if you are a business. Logos annoy me. Why? Because there is a person (I hope) behind the account talking to me. I want to see your face. Mark Harai wrote a great post “Does your avatar show us your best side.” [...]