In a day in time where you’re likely to see Twitter avatars ranging from chin-poses, charity support banners and bikinis, having an avatar that matches throughout your social networks is not a personal branding law but its recommended. But does that mean you need to hire a professional photographer just for a headshot for you to post on your Twitter or Facebook profile? No, but find a few friends from your local flickr photo meetup group or the friend who’s always traveling with their digital camera and ask them to take a quick photo of you. For instance a few of my Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) and my online friends on the West Coast are really great photographers who have helped brand profile avatars or profiles for some of the web who’s who and my personal friends. Here are a few awesome profile photos below.
Bio head-shots for Twitter avatars
Photo taken by Don Hazelwood
Photo taken by Brian Solis
Facebook photos taken by Jeff Cohen
Special Case: Self Portrait with photoshop skills 🙂
Photo taken by Chris Owens
As for the “personal branding” tip; having an awesome, rememberable photo across social networks are easy to identify and can assist in separating you from the rest of the average avatars or profile photos on the web. Therefore making you memorable ref. to 1918’s blog post “Being memorable“.
When was the last time you updated your avatar or profile photo on Facebook or Twitter? Who took your last profile photo?