The Grand Avatar Debate
With the Thanksgiving holiday descending upon us, I wanted to broach a lighter subject than usually found here.
On Friday, we will celebrate the first anniversary of the gray ScottyHendo twitter avatar. It has been a constant presence on Twitter (aside from the brief Dunkin Donut head escapade) for an entire year.
As we celebrate this auspicious occasion, I am opening the Grand Avatar Debate. The debate centers on one simple two-part question:
Which image should I use as my avatar on Twitter and why? Being the mindless follower that I am, I challenge you to convince me why your answer is the best answer.
Choice A: Personal Brand Logo
or
Choice B: Real Photo
UPDATE:
Thanks to everyone’s comments, I’ve decided to use this image as my avatar. Yes, Joe, I’m smiling (like 99% of the time).
NEVER change your avatar.
http://utodd.com/2009/06/25/never-change-your-avatar/
Are your followers mostly peeps or potential clients (now corporate)? Certainly both…With you starting your own company, it becomes a bit more critical as your personal brand IS and WILL BE your company brand…at least at this stage. Love the avatar, but see a disconnect between “Renaissance Man of Action” and your new purpose. To keep the consistency and brand you have been developing (avatar colors and look match Rally logo and site) simply change the banner statement to reflect mission behind Rally the Cause…ie “Cause Agent Extraordinaire”… “Rally Master”….”Empowering Great Causes” etc. May need to change entire profile design background image to reflect the shift you are making. But then again, I am getting some of my design advice from my 13 year old…
I say donut head. Hell, maybe I’ll change my helmet avatar (@mikehollywood) to your donut-head and add a twibbon to rally my own cause.
Remember, with the franken- tar, you can travel around the hot spots of town incognito.
I agree with @tsand. Mostly because he now carries a rifle.
First, don’t take Mike Hollywood’s advice on anything avatar related. Not only does he wear a bike helmet in his Twitter avatar, he has on backwards. Enough said.
Frankly, I don’t like either picture. People shouldn’t have cartoons for avatars, (Nor should they have any kind of animal, in my opinion. To this day I refuse to follow anyone that has a cat as an avatar. Cats eat birds. They don’t tweet.) That being said, the second picture is lacking a distinctly human quality to it.
Any time I’ve met you you’ve had a big smile on your face. But no smile on this picture. What’s up with that? Mitch Maxson got your pants or something?
I think the conclusion is that your wife, who is an excellent photographer and has a great avatar, take another picture of you.
I suggest you use this pose as a model…just add a smile.
http://wetmen.provocateuse.com/images/photos/fabio_01.jpg
Frankly, I’m not sure I even understand what “Mitch Maxson got your pants of something” even means. An older boy said it in a blog comment once, but all it did was confuse me. I know the damage has been done avatar-wise, but I have to agree that real-life photo is the way to go, but that perhaps a different real-life photo is in order. You have more personality than that one exudes.
The Frankenaut really deserves to be more of a tattoo. If Ms Jen isn’t into getting it, I think it’s only right that you get it inked on your own back at about 4x lifesize.