For what seems like for centuries people have been frequently changing their social network profile avatars. Why? The reasons given are somewhat illogical, if not concerning.
It appears most people do not realize it, but your personal profile profile is what the world sees of YOU. If you put Nothing in the avatar the worlds see you as Nothing, or a No Body. If you change your profile photo too frequently people will not connect to you..or stay connected to you.
Not Posting a Headshot Works Against You
If you put a photo of your Dog in your avatar the world sees you as someone not taking the world seriously. In reality, anything put in your personal profile avatar that is NOT a headshot photo of yourself is seen today as you showing a total lack of respect to anyone..including yourself.
Nobody wants to connect with, or be associated with, anyone who does not respect themselves and others.
Social Media Has Changed
Social Networking and Social Media has changed. Social Media is no longer a game for people to play. Having a presence online is now a way of life and how you are seen online is how the world will react to you.
So, why do people not post their Headshot Photos.
I and thousands of others have previously written on the need to show the world who you are in order to build trust. Unfortunately, there are still a large number of people who just don’t get it.
Here are just a few reasons people have given me for why they don’t post a headshot photo in their personal profiles.
- Don’t want the Trolls locating me in Real Life
- Seeing who I am is not important
- I’m an Artist and prefer to show my Art instead of me
- Don’t like how I appear in photos
- Don’t want people to know my true identity
- Don’t have a headshot photo I like
- I’m an angry person and I’m only out here to disrupt the internet
There are more, but the reasons given all start blending together into one big cry for Help.
Most Don’t Know
Fortunately, many of the people I know who are not proudly showing their headshot photo do so because for these reasons:
- Do not know what they are doing
- Was told by their business coach to not show who they are and to only focus on promoting their business
- Can’t decide on what photo to post.
Keep It Real
Then, on the other hand, there are those growing number of people who change their headshot photo on nearly a daily basis. It is one thing to freshen up your look from time to time, but a whole other thing when followers lose contact with someone because they keep changing their photos.
As a general rule of thumb, it is good practice to not change your headshot photo more than twice a year…yes a year. I know that breaks the hearts of all the headshot photographers, but give it a break. Pick out a good one and keep it posted. Here is WHY.
As you are aware, most viewers will only see a 16px X 16px of your avatar. That is very small. If you put anything outside a headshot photo it is not recognizable. Viewers will pass by an image that small if it does not contain a Headshot photo.
Over 90% of the views to a person’s avatar is made from the social spaces posts which purposely post a very small version of the avatar.
If you keep changing the avatar photo you appear to your followers as someone New and over 80% of your content or comments will be overlooked because the viewer did not recognize you.
Yes, it is true. Most people are more visual and key on a Photo more than your Name. If you change your photo too frequently the more visual people will sometimes unfollow you due to them mistakenly thinking you are someone they do not know.
The point of all this is…post a quality headshot of yourself in your person profile and keep it there for awhile before changing it with another quality headshot photo. Your viewers will love you for it and your new comers will build trust with you much quicker.
If you don’t have a headshot stop by your local photographer studio, or come on by SyncLab Media, we will fix you up.
Just do it and let me know how I can help.
