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9 things I hate about your profile picture

September 16th, 2010 by David Bradley >> 9 Comments

We’ve all got one…a little photo with which we are increasingly identified across the web, whether it’s your Twitter profile image, your Facebook thumbnail, or the comment Gravatar with which you illustrate your remarks on blogs.

I try to make mine recognisable and the same across all sites, although I must confess I was using the same image for far too long until I recently got my first set of reading glasses and thought it was time for an update. But, think about blogging immortality before changing your photo.

Anyway, I am sure you could easily pick fault with my profile pic, so I’m going to do the same with yours. Here are the 9 things that I really don’t like about yours.

  1. It’s blurred – try focusing the camera before snapping your mugshot
  2. It’s a cartoonified version of you – fine if you’re 12 but come on…
  3. It’s lewd – yes we all like to see each others bits, but not in public
  4. It’s a logo – if you want to connect show me your face
  5. It’s hiding your face – see #4
  6. It’s got other people in the photo – which one is you?
  7. It’s a celebrity – that meme is so old, show me who you really are
  8. It’s changed every day – pick a good photo and stick with it
  9. It’s different on other sites – see #8

So, there you have it. I’m not going to disconnect anyone for not having a perfect profile picture, but the social networking experience could be so much richer if we all knew who we were talking to. Of course, you might be thinking my photo would be so much easier on the eye if it were a blurred shot of the cartoonified back of someone else’s head; which would be fair comment.

Actually, I thought of a tenth just now. If it’s a self portrait, do we really have to see the camera? There are easy ways to take a photo of yourself without showing us your Canons (also see #3).


Leave a comment ↓

  • Kim Woodbridge // Sep 16, 2010 at 5:07 pm

    I agree with you on these but I’ve recently broken 2 of the rules. I’m using a caricature on Facebook and it’s the only site that I’m using it on. I couldn’t resist – the Inbound Zombie site had these made for all of the consultants and I like having the swords and thinking I’m a zombie hunter ;-)

  • Ellie Yamane // Sep 16, 2010 at 7:01 pm

    I’d also add – 10) you are frowning. Everybody looks better when you smile. 11) you are wearing dark glasses. See me in the eyes. 12) you are not looking at the camera. see #11.

  • nandoism // Sep 17, 2010 at 5:44 pm

    This is sexy and rude–and that’s why I love it. Personally, I like to change my avatar — I mean, we all evolve, why not our twitter avatars? So I don’t agree with #8:It’s changed every day – pick a good photo and stick with it
    and #9: It’s different on other sites – see #8 because my other social media networking sites have a different vibe so it calls for a different photo! Good grief, I’m not nude–I don’t wanna make people sick–but I do like the fact that I’m considered the Gaga of twitter avatars. Rock it!

  • Scott Fillmer // Sep 18, 2010 at 2:23 am

    Totally agree with all your points, at this point your avatar is basically your brand logo. People will start to recognize your pic. I can’t stand it when people continually change their pic because I can’t do a fast recognition of who the person is and I have actually stopped following people because of their avatar.

  • Jacob Gube // Sep 19, 2010 at 9:32 pm

    I love my Avatar because it is of the sexiest person in the world, me!

  • David Bradley // Sep 20, 2010 at 8:13 am

    Your avatar takes to new heights my first issue, not only is it very, very blurred, but when I open your link it displays with a wholly inappropriate aspect ratio filling my screen with your blurred and distorted head. :-(

  • foebea // Sep 24, 2010 at 5:12 pm

    A certain level of anonymity is desirable for many. If a personal photo is not desired, and a cartoon is verboten, should one go with a random personage from the depths of Google Image?

    I dislike the preformed generic cartoon images, but if you make one yourself it may carry a small bit of personality within. See my twitter avatar for example.

  • John Antonios // Sep 28, 2010 at 5:31 pm

    Great post David – actually we were having this discussion last month and we tried understanding how important your avatar with respect to your personal brand – the back and forth that this post brought about led us to create a survey to better understand the identity versus perception of avatars: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/avatarsurvey I would love your input and that of your readers on this survey – I think the results will give us a better understanding of what we like and “don’t like” about avatars.
    Once again, thank you for this great post – I hope we can understand the science behind it

  • Heidi Cool // Sep 28, 2010 at 11:45 pm

    I agree wholeheartedly. While I can understand people why some may want to hide behind a cartoon for privacy, for those of us who need our avatars to support our branding or networking efforts, it’s important to have a clearly identifiable shot. I often meet new contacts or clients in coffeehouses and other public venues. In doing so I rely on their avatars and vice versa so they we can identify each other. This is much more easily done when they look like their picture. I also like to use the same photo in multiple places for consistency, though I will admit to having a different picture on Facebook.

    I’ve left that one as is because my personal Facebook page doesn’t play the same networking role as my more public profiles, in that many of my FB friends already know me from real life.