Social media tip: Did you saw your avatar lately

Your social media activity should help you, not damage your business. You should try to maximize the benefits. The Internet has shifted from a medium based on just browsing to a medium based on interaction. Websites are not business cards or catalogs – we are talking about a new office.

Social media is the new way of marketing. I think that every person or business that tries to benefit from his social media activity should consider some basic things. And one of them is to have a consistent image along all his social media accounts. And another thing is to have a decent image.

I think the avatar is extremely important in social media. The reason is because social media is about people interacting. And people like to talk to people. In real life I don’t see anyone talking to a dollar sign or a chart or some mountains – unless you are crazy.

If you want to brand yourself pick a human face: preferably yours. And please take a proper photo of you. I’m not saying to have a photo like in your passport but try and have a photo that you would like your business to be represented with.

I see many avatars of people on Twitter that are internet marketers or SEOs or business developers – people that claim that they are on Twitter just to build relations (that their actions are not business oriented) and yet they follow 7k people and are followed back by 7k people. Let’s face it: many of us are on Twitter to help our businesses. Otherwise why would you want to follow thousands of people that in many cases post the same links?

But let’s get back to our subject. If you are in a business and your avatar is one of the following then I think you should consider to change it:

1.       Your avatar is your baby

2.       Your avatar is the face of your dog

3.       Your avatar is a picture with a kid on a bike and you offer SEO services or you claim you are some guru, ninja or expert

4.       Your avatar is a business chart that goes up

5.       Your avatar is a dollar sign or a bag filled with money (this goes double for account name and background image)

6.       Your avatar is a hot babe in bathing suit

7.       Your avatar is a picture of yours but it looks like you used a 20 year old camera or the picture has been made 20 years ago

8.       Your avatar is a bird in Twitter style but your product has nothing to do with Twitter

9.       Your avatar is a group photo – I can’t see anything clear

10.   Your avatar is a crazy sign or the face of an animal or a cartoon character

The avatar starts from Twitter. Why? Because, first I believe that you should have the same avatar on all your social media accounts – so that people could easily recognize you. And secondly I think that any business should be on search.twitter.com. And Twitter is a social network so focused on persons and not business – so you need an avatar of yourself.

Here is what I think of all this. Let me know what your opinion is. What avatars you hate or like? Let me know in comments bellow.