Avatars what you should know part 2 -

Image via Wikipedia

In the previous article (Avatars what you should know part 1) I discussed how to select a good avatar. In addition I covered unified vs unique avatars based upon the content of the destination site as well as being appropriate to your need. Now that you understand how to choose a picture that best represents you lets consider then next issue of how often you should update it.

As I stated several times there are no hard fast rules regarding avatars and this holds true with how often you should changed them. Many people I have discussed this with feel that once you have a easily recognizable icon you should stick with it forever while others change their avatars regularly. I think of avatars like author bio photos and recall the day one of my favorite new paper authors finally updated his. He aged over night 30 years. I was shocked and had to look several times before I was sure it was him. He went from late 20’s to early fifties over night and it was shocking to say the least.

I change my avatar especially on fast moving social networking systems like twitter fairly often. Funnily enough the first thing people say to me when we meet in real life is “Where’s the hat? I am always looking to see what crazy hat you are wearing next.” Yes changing my avatar because of a new interesting hat has become a bit of a past time for me and many readers. All humor aside I usually opt for a face picture because let’s be honest graphics and cartoon images can be too similar but your face is well your face. I change it so often because I want people to recognize me when we meet face to face conferences.

Image via Wikipedia

Regardless of whether you change your avatar as a result of a specific holiday, season or to demonstrate support for a social concern not everyone is going to notice and be aware of the change immediately. Perhaps you will make an announcement but this rarely works. Then there are those who will know that you are changing it but are so comfortable with the previous one that they forget. This is not a huge problem if you are extremely interactive. If you are a static or intermittent retweet you will likely go unnoticed. To combat this phenomenon you have to step up your game. You have to increase your engagement factor. The answer to solving this issue is rather simple.

As I had said many times in my stream engagement begins with your retweeters. You need to follow up with the people who retweet and comment on your content. You need to get them to notice your new spiffy avatar first. If you rely on others recognizing your content first you are in for a huge disappointment. I have a fairly busy stream and it honestly took me several days to notice when a friend change her avatar. Now consider someone with a huge stream of over 10,000 followers even though you may interact with them on a regular basis I can assure you the avatar is the key by which they sift you out of the crowd. For these people you must consider a different approach.

A second more direct method is to ping your friends via a direct message. A ping message is a short ‘Hello, how have you been?’ similar to a Facebook poke but is slightly more personal. Truthfully I would recommend that you personalize each ping to the recipient. I honestly feel that if the recipient is a friend of yours then you should be able to include something personable in you note to them that is more than a generic ping. Once again it is about the engagement and the interaction. I guarantee that when your friend responds they will answer your note as well as mention your new avatar.

Obviously the choice to change your avatar is entirely up to you as is what you choose to be your representative on the social web. I am only offering some suggestions on how to improve your impact and hopefully earn you some social capital in the process.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mikel King has been a leader in the Information Technology Services field for over 20 years. He is currently the CEO of Olivent Technologies, a professional creative services partnership in NY. Additionally he is currently serving as the Secretary of the BSD Certification group as well as a Senior Editor for the BSD News Network and JAFDIP.