Is Your Profile Picture a Zombie?
77Not a Zombie.
Your Profile Photo Matters
Nobody should judge a book by its cover. Unfortunately, most people do.
Your avatar, userpic, or profile photo is your book cover for all your content on the web. Unfortunately, many people's avatars are zombies.
What do I mean by zombies? They look like real people, except they're dead. They drive other people away.
Examples of Zombie Avatars:
- A photo taken with your computer's built-in camera. It's blurry, bad lighting, poor color, out of focus. Would you put that on a book cover?
- No focus or visual interest. Full-body shots shrink too small to draw much attention.
- Eyes in shadow or not visible. Eyeballs draw eyeballs. (Look at the baby. Loooook at the baby.)
- Offensive, ugly, or jarring. No, that Joker icon from Batman Returns is not as edgy or original as you think it is.
- Artistic, moody, or "cool" avatars that symbolize something about the author or the author's content. The web doesn't care. Visitors have no idea what your graphic means. Random imagery only works if you're as compelling as the original Old Spice Dude.
- A celebrity or famous cartoon character. Savvy readers will think, "Oh, you're borrowing so-and-so's face to get attention," and take your content less seriously. Also, it's illegal.
- "Cartoon yourself" avatars assembled from generic cartoon eyes, noses, mouths, haircuts like Mr. Potato Head. These are very popular, but they all start looking the same after a while, unless they're exceptionally good ones.
- Thongs, bikinis, buttcheeks, boobs, or grotesquely bulging muscles. Yes, skin draws eyeballs. No, it doesn't convince many readers that you know anything about your topic, unless it's soft porn or gay comics.
- A zombie. Unless you are a zombie. Even then, you should probably pretend to be an adorable baby. Online stock traders know this trick: have you seen those commercials with the babies and creepy adult voiceovers? They're probably zombies.
Made You Look!
How to Make an Attention-Grabbing Avatar
- A good headshot. Eyes are essential. Smiles help but are not required. Practice with a digital camera until a photo turns out right. Eye tracking studies show that faces grab attention.
- Unphotogenic? Try Photoshop filters or effects on free tools such as Picnik to blur details and bring out edges. Be careful. Subtle is best. Did you notice I applied Photoshop's "Accented Edges" filter to highlight the eyes and bubbles of drool on the baby photo? I didn't think so.
- Borrow techniques from movie posters such as strong silhouettes, a simple color palette.
- Close crops can be more powerful than a full headshot. (See baby.)
- Test your avatar at different sizes: 60x60 pixels, 100x100pixels, up to 300x300 or so. The bubbles the baby is blowing are visible at large resolutions; the eyes pack a punch in an icon.
- Camera shy? Borrow the visual appeal of babies, adorable animals with big eyes, or striking-looking photos or artwork. They don't convey the trust and personality of a human portrait, but they're effective in some niches. I said some niches. "Cool" and "Cute" avatars can misfire, depending on your audience; see "You're Not The Old Spice Dude" above.
- BE CAREFUL of using Creative Commons or public domain photos of people. Photographers who upload them often don't ask permission of their subjects. You could be sued for publicity rights violations.
- However, if you're trying to make a living as an online writer, it may be time to dish out the money for a professional portrait.
Your Avatar Is Your Secret Traffic Weapon
Are you trying to support yourself with your online writing? A great avatar photo is more effective than any amount of backlinking, SEO, or social promotion. Why? Because it's everywhere.
Remember, your profile picture is your brand. It shows up on social media sites where you post. It draws eyeballs to your Tweets. It draws attention to your forum posts. Slap the photo plus your URL on cheap business cards printed at Kinko's, then keep them in your wallet to hand out when someone asks what you do.
Your profile photo is almost the first thing people see on your articles. It takes three seconds or less for web users to decide to stay or leave a page. Graphics shape first impressions more than words.
Finally, your profile photo personalizes your content. Web users respond better to people talking to them. Even rudely. With apologies, see Your Landing Page Won't Do S*** for some practical advice.
Now that I have a professional portrait, I find myself using it in places where I never realized I needed one. Social media is dominating the web, and our avatars are showing up in likes, shares, and search results. Make yours stand out.
Get a Professional Portrait
TIP: Gather your family for a Christmas portrait to send to Grandma or all your relatives, and at the same time have a professional portrait taken for web use. When my Mom summoned the clan for a professional portrait a few years ago, I asked for a separate portrait that I could license for "business related public information, resumés, advertising, press release, self-promotion, web use... [and] personal social website postings with short promotional statement favorable to the photographer."
Okay, I didn't ask that, but that's the written release that photographer Jon Williams gave me, and you should go to him for a portrait if you live near Ogden, Utah. (Seriously, I don't usually look this good.)
Find a professional photographer who will license images for use as your web portrait. Since you only need a small, low resolution image (avatars are generally no greater than 300x300 and usually much smaller), not a large-sized print, it should cost less.
Great Article With Great Tips on Profile Photos
- Don't Be Ugly By Accident!
Fantastic article researches how social media site members respond to different kinds of profile photos. Includes tips on what lighting, backgrounds, and even what cameras tend to create profile photos people respond favorably towards.
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Yes, I agree with TJT. This is very informative and comprehensive. And, you cover topics I've been wondering about for a while.
I do indeed pay attention to Profile images. If they're ugly or disgusting, I don't want to know what that author has to say. There are always exceptions, of course, but by and large . . .
On the other hand, I dislike pictures of pets with clothes on. If I saw this biker pup on a profile, I would not read that author. (On the other hand, yes, I would look again, as you point out.)
I also kind of dislike profile photos of people. I prefer flowers or beautiful scenery. I don't know. It might have to do with my psych problems. Go figure.
I agree with your focus on professional presentation. I've resisted on the Internet. I'm shy. I opted for the blurred effect in the interest of looking like a human being but not being instantly recognizable. I did it myself and it was fun. I'll give it more thought. One site I write for is full of pics of people in over-sized sunglasses and Halloween masks -- not remotely confidence-inspiring. On HP, I can get past someone's weird avatar if they're a strong writer. When I'm surfing in general, I never click on content by unreal names or cartoon images -- it's a major bad sign. This is the only site where I use a nickname instead of a real name -- I picked it before I had a plan.
Great pic -- you're right, for a book jacket, I'd opt for a professional photo.
Oh, I hear you. I resisted it until I switched my online writing from "hobby" to "work," and as you see, I'm still conflicted about the whole Real Name issue. A part of me wants to scream, "Judge me by my content, not by my name and appearance!" I also hate the fact that people seem to be treating social media factors as a measure of quality rather than the content itself.
For a while, my avatar was a distant photo of me on the beach so you couldn't see my face. Then I changed to an artsy-fartsy photo of a Greek statue (my own photo -- I've got to get back to Greece once they sort themselves out; it's an entire country full of out-of-copyright artwork!). I picked the photo because it looked nice and symbolized something about me. But it meant more to me than most of my readers. I still use avatars like that for my more creative and personal work, but for the writing that pays the bills, I use my mug. I hate doing it. I'll hate it even more when photo recognition technology is built into everyone's smartphone so that random strangers can just point their phone at you and instantly pull up all the information posted on the web about you that's attached to your photograph. (Facebook users, get ready.)
Writing online and choosing what we share is always a juggling act between what we we need to do to earn income versus what we feel comfortable doing. The power of a userpic is so great that I've given in and leveraged it as best I can. I still won't sign up for ShareASale or CommissionJunction or most affiliate programs, despite the fact that many of them offer perfectly un-scammy products. We all have our boundaries past which we can't go!
Juggling is right. With clients, I use a clear pic from my clean-shaven days. It was a compromise I could live with because it looks professional and barely resembles how I look now.
I'm with you on the social media influence -- I resisted Twitter and Facebook as long as possible. I finally gave in because many clients expect all of that now. One of my biggest challenges with HP, Squiddoo and other content sites is the sense that "popularity" is such a major measure -- it's all giving me flashbacks to junior high. I've been so tempted to do an experiment with the kind of name and image I suspect would gain a mega following -- because, yes, those are the standards we're judged on. Superficial as can be.
Okay, you've just given me my future shock for the day. Photo recognition phones -- horrible thought. It's beginning to seem almost impossible to maintain reasonable boundaries and privacy. Toffler's book seems prophetic -- and quaint -- given the present.
You've made a strong case for the value of a clear, high-quality user pic. My best bet may be to improve my skills to do just enough image manipulation for my comfort level and still result in a clear photo. Thanks for all the brain food.
I thoroughly agree. People should always use photos of themselves as avatars and never use atistic images *nods seriously and strokes goatee*
Seriously, Flynn is right: there is no hard-and-fast rule. It's like using keyword SEO, or social media, or Facebook, or any of the really powerful and effective tools that drive the web nowadays. You can choose not to make use of some of them for whatever reason -- I absolutely flat-out won't use Facebook due to deep objections with how it presents itself as the mediator of our personal lives and friendship for commercial profit -- and then you find other means to compensate for not using a tool (like a golfer overcoming a golf handicap), or you accept you may lose a little traffic a few conversions, due to avoiding that tool.
Flynn is an artist (with lovely art) whose art is Flynn's brand, and that's more important than what Flynn looks like by far. Also, Flynn (If I may presume to speak for another, and I may be mistaken) kicks at the web's assumptions that who we are matters more than what we say. It's not necessarily the entire planet's business to have our name, photo, and very personal information at its disposal, and we may have various reasons for wanting to post and publish on the web without putting our entire personal lives on display to all and sundry. It's not a requirement in all forms of traditional publishing and art -- a painting is a painting! -- and it's wrong to enforce it as a one-size-fits-all solution on the web. (Ya hear me, Google?)
In which case, an author photo just ain't gonna work. But be aware of the peculiar psychological power of the human face to draw human attention, as one tool in your online arsenal. If you avoid using it, be aware that you are making a choice, just as I make a choice not to use Facebook, because it doesn't meet my particular needs and situation (and I think it's a big pile of...er, la, la la!)
The great joy of arguing with GreekGeek: I wave, you make my argument for me!
*kicks wildly in direction of web*
thejeffriestube Level 4 Commenter 6 months ago
This is one exceptionally good piece of advice. I have noticed, sometimes, my decision on whether to hit "follow" or not sometimes depends on what the picture is. It's not the ONLY thing I look at at, but it's interesting that I do consider it. Great Hub!