This is my avatar

“Avatars” are those little pictures that appear beside what you write on social networking spaces like Facebook and Twitter. The question of when to change your avatar is a hot topic. People are searching for a “best practices” answer but the truth is no one is really sure. Some say you shouldn’t change too often, because readers “scan” posts by looking at the faces they know. Others say changing your avatar shows you’re active, aware and engaged. There is some sense that it’s “cooler” to change your avatar frequently, but that if branding is your goal, changing is a negative.

Chris Brogan changes his avatar frequently; Robert Scoble does not. So there’s no answer to come from copying the Social Media Gods.

I put the question out on Twitter last week, and got some faces in the crowd to respond to the question: when do you change your avatar? I’ve hyperlinked to their twitter profiles; and the Fort Worthians are asterisked*.

@aranarose  “Sometimes I don’t think people realize just how important those tiny little pictures are. They are US when we are online.  People are visual. They see the avatar before they see the name. We know who is tweeting by the picture, and so when the picture changes too much, it can get confusing. It looks like we’ve suddenly got somebody brand new in the stream.

@vedo* I switch my avatar when I grow tired of looking at it. I do change it every so often, but I make sure it’s easily recognizable as a picture of myself or I take a little bit better picture. Lately more often, since I got new camera!

@shika* I am no friend to the camera so mine only change to toons during certain holidays. xmas, halloween, etc…  I am only in favor of changing your avatar for special things, definitely not changing it regularly…my husband keeps changing his, though … so guess I’m into a cool twitterers lmao…

@msbeeee I hate it when avatars change – I think I “bond” with the picture and then I can’t find my fav tweeps! oh, I think it’s perfectly legal. and probably fun to switch them. If I had a pic I liked better, I might change it… …but it still throws me for a loop at first when others change theirs

@susan_s_smith ME TOO! I thought I had missed some of my fav tweeters and their avatar had just changed!

@Gadget Virtuoso* I change it when the mood strikes but I try not to do it very often some people can their avatars like they breathe.

The answer? You should change your avatar when you feel like it. You’ll know when you know. And yes, that is my final answer. Some links on the topic:

Chris Brogan blogs: What do Avatars mean to us?

Randomly Nicole discusses her use of cartoon avatars

Matty P discovers that yes, there is a scientific method of choosing an avatar … if you trust it.

U Stand Out blogger decides to use a real image of herself, despite discomfort, because of  branding