Why change something that so many people have seen and associate with you in a good way?
Your avatar is one of the most recognizable aspects of your personal brand online. Building that recognition probably took weeks, months, even years of effort. The last thing you would want to do is throw all of that away and start all over, or is it?
Saving face?
As I mentioned in 50+ Tips to Brand Yourself Online, my father passed away recently. One thing I didn’t mention is that as part of the mourning process, I’m not supposed to cut my hair or shave for the next little while. As a result, I now look like the tired, older, scruffier brother of the grinning guy that currently appears in my avatar. If you bumped into to me on the street or at a networking event, you might recognize me or you might not. Does that mean it’s time for me to change my avatar?
Should I change it back once a barber can trim my head and face again?
Enter Maor Kaplanski
Maor Kaplanski is the creator of Internetishi (which means ‘personal Internet’), arguably the best personal branding blog for Hebrew speakers. He’s also an active participant in comments here on Personal Branding Blog.
When I blogged 11 Rules for Best Personal Branding Results with Avatars, Maor left a suggestion in the comments that people should update their avatar every 6 months. Do you agree?
I’d like to hear what you think
When did you last update your avatar and why? And if you’re not using a personal avatar, why not?
Author:
Jacob Share, a job search expert, is the creator of JobMob, one of the biggest blogs in the world about finding jobs. Follow him on Twitter for job search tips and humor.
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I changed my Avatar about 8 weeks ago simply because I’d never before had a common avatar across my entire web presence. I made a conscious decision to have the same image presented on facebook ,friendfeed, my blog and my commenting in addition to on my IM clients and twitter prescence etc. I do though think that Maor is right, a new image about every six months must help keep your online brand fresh, although I suspect this will work best if it’s similar to the last one rather than a radical difference. People age, change their hair (if they have any!) their facial hair (men only please!) and mature and develop along time.
Jacob, I am sorry to hear that your father passed away.
I think that changing your Avatar can keep things interesting and people who closely follow you will note the change. However, I use Twitter to keep people up-to-date on government contracting topics and events. People know my name and my face so I use my picture as my Avatar.
Your time as a mourner is a fixed period. Not shaving and cutting your hair removes you from the physical and allows you to focus on mourning. I would say don’t change the Avatar to another picture of you because you no longer look like the current one. My question is if you change your avatar now, then are you focusing on the physical? I would say yes, but I can’t make that decision for you. My recommendation is if you do change it, make it something abstract or a picture of something else.
The experts may disagree, but I think the decision to change or keep your Avatar is a personal one that is colored by the why and how you use Twitter or any other social networking applications.
I see your avatar as your personal brand’s logo. I would hesitate to change it with the same concerns a company would give to changing their logo. It is a good quick visual that people use to consistently identify you across the many different mediums you are involved in. Particularly in your case, since this change in appearance is temporary, I would likely not change it (many people would not know or understand why your appearance changed). I am about to completely re-brand my web site, including finally actually getting completed content/portfolio and along with this I will change my avatar to reflect the image change. Twitter is one place in particular that I depend on the avatars (@eflorida). I rarely look at peoples’ names. I can glance over the images and see who I know and like much easier. If you change your avatar, I might skim over your tweets without realizing.
As you grow older, your avatar should be updated to reflect your current appearance. You should also update your avatar to keep things fresh, but you must make sure your avatar is consistent across all social networks.
Jacob, sorry for the passing away of your father.
Except when your look has drastically changed so much that people may not recognize you at any event, I do not see a need for changes even though change is the only permanent thing. The other angle to it is the strategy Brand You has as well as the objective you want to achieve with constant change. If that works for an individual, why not. That is the essence of ‘Personal’ In Personal branding as I want to believe. There should not be a hard and fast rule about it.
Great…
[...] I asked you that question and got some good responses. Combined with some extra insight, here are the reasons why now might be a good time for an avatar update. [...]
[...] I asked you that question and got some good responses. Combined with some extra insight, here are the reasons why now might be a good time for an avatar update. [...]
There’s good info here. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with your blog. Keep up the good work mate!