I was on an excellent conference call Monday with Bill Boorman. The topic was, “how to get noticed in social media.” When I was asked what causes me to pay attention to someone on Twitter, my response was “the picture.” I’m not certain that answer went over well; perhaps everyone was expecting something a bit more awe-inspiring.
But as simple as it may sound, your picture is everything – especially if you are in sales.
You are in a war for people’s time and attention.
1. If you are using Twitter for business development, you have ½ a second to lure someone away from their other followers (sometimes hundreds or thousands) and read your tweet. Your picture is the primary hook that will generate further interest.
2. When I coach my sales and recruiting clients, we work heavily on developing professional branding. In Twitter, we look at the content of your tweets, but we start with the picture. Why? It graphically represents your quality, personality and professionalism. If your distinction is that you’re funny, your Twitter picture should reflect that. If you are innovative, your picture should reflect that. Remember that on Twitter, your picture is the first encounter new prospects will have with your brand.
People prefer to do business with and communicate with other people, rather than with other businesses.
3. A reason to use a picture of yourself rather than a cat, child, dog or logo is because people want to communicate with people. We are living in a time when the American people do not trust big business. American consumers are looking for people with whom to do business; people they know, like and trust. Leverage that and use a picture of you. Your competitive edge is that you are a person, not that you have an amazing logo. Case in point is something that happened on Twitter last week with Bob Warren of Resume Bear. Bob put out a tweet saying that one of his friends was critically ill and asked everyone to pray for her. Several minutes later, he sent this out on Twitter:
Bob has three times the number of followers in his business accounts as he does in his personal account. Yet there were no responses to his business accounts and hundreds of responses on his personal account. Here are some questions to consider:
- Does your picture draw in the reader and compel them to click?
- How can you make your avatar stand out amongst the others on Twitter, TweetDeck or Seesmic?
So tell us, whose Twitter picture do you like the most?
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Good morning! You picture says that are fun, engaging, and very professional but not too buttoned up. Is that what you were going for? Have a good one!
Thank you Lisa! It was, although this picture was a complete surprise. We had no idea how it would turn out. I’ve always liked your picture. Your smile and green suit make you stand out from the others in my TweetDeck.
My photo is the only one I have that’s actually web-worthy.
Been meaning to get another one up there…
Do it Ben! But be sure you have a can of Mountain Dew in the picture!
Your picture always makes me smile when it comes up in TweetDeck. Then when we talked on the phone and I heard your laugh – I knew how true the whole branding was. I am ready for a new picture.
Thank you Lois! It is about putting our genuine selves out there for everyone to see. I can’t wait to see your new pic!
I never really thought about my picture on twitter. I’m preoccupied with figuring out what encourages someone to follow me in the first place…
Figuring out what encourages someone to follow you is important too. I recommend Chris Brogan as an excellent resource.
Respect your honest and genuine answer to the question about what captures your attention. Its so true! Hope my mountain top picture reflects satisfaction after being challenged.