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The Power of a Good Avatar

Posted on 04. Mar, 2009 by admin in Books / Resources, Featured Users, Social Networking, Tips, TwitterNews, TwitterStuff

One of my very first cars was a 1965 Volkswagen beetle.  It was the biggest piece of crap that I’d ever seen, but with some time, money, and lots of love, the car was transformed into a beautiful masterpiece.  The car got a complete makeover, receiving lots of body work, replacement body parts, new chrome, paint, a new engine, super tight wheels, and yes, I lowered that sucka to the ground.  This car had lots of character and it definitely represented me, and who I was at that time.

A car says a lot about a person.  What someone drives can tell you such things as their age, income level, music they like, and how “cool” they are (that is of course if they have 32″ wheels with hydros).  The same goes for our avatars.  In addition to our websites or blogs, our avatars are the immediate indicators of who we are.  In the world of Twitter, the avatar is all we have that puts a “face” with our name.  There’s “power” in our avatar and we should choose one wisely.

Of course, Twitter is just one big playground and not to be taken too seriously, but for those that value the power behind Twitter, they should also value the Power of a Good Avatar.  With that said, we wanted to offer a few tips on avatar choices and hopefully help improve the thousands of avatars floating around the world wide web (wow, does anyone even use that phrase anymore?  probably not):

Photo Avatars

If you’re going to use a photo for your avatar, do the obvious and take a good photo.  Be creative with it as well. Straight on head shots are boring and photos of you in very bad lighting make it even worse.  Candid shots are always cool.  Photos of you in a studio with that textured backdrop from Glamour shots is not cool though.  Oh, and if you’re wearing a suit in your photo, you might want to consider a new avatar.  The suit is too serious for social networking.  Look, not even Guy Kawasaki wears a suit in his, and he’s an internet celebrity.  :)  Here are some good photo avatars that you can use as good examples (clicking on a photo below will take you to their twitter page):

Graphic Avatars

I love great design and especially love to see creative graphic avatars.  I know some say that an avatar that doesn’t include a person’s face is very impersonal, but I believe that a well designed avatar begs to differ with that view.  I actually choose to follow many people based on their avatar and if it’s a nice design piece, it tells me that that person is down with design and is someone that I should be following.

If you’re going to use a graphic instead of a photo, make sure it’s well designed.  I say this only to those that are not design savvy, because a badly designed avatar will cause people to pass you by.  It’ll also give people the impression that you don’t know what you’re doing.  Keep the design simple and clean, because remember, your avatar only displays as a tiny 73px x 73px image.

Here are a few well designed graphic avatars for your pleasure (click on each image to be taken to that person’s twitter page):

Become a “Looker”

In the world of Volkswagens, and in the car world in general, a car that draws a lot of attention because it looks so good is referred to as a “looker”.  “Lookers” demand attention and lots of rubber necking.  Become a “looker” in Twitter by beefing up your avatar and demanding that people take a second look.  Have fun with your avatar, but put some effort into making yourself look “good”.  And as the phrase goes, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression”.

- Article written by Hector Garcia w/Dunamis Media:  @hectorgarcia