5 things you need to know about Twitter, branding and relationships

I never would’ve guessed that when the faceyourmanga fad rippled through Twitter last week that it would lead me on a voyage to redefine my on-line brand. And learn a lot about Twitter in the process:

1. Your avatar is an important part of your on-line brand, choose wisely. Yes, people do care which picture you use!
2. People on Twitter love surveys. I got more responses to this than any other tweet, ever.
3. Twitter has a short attention span. If you want everyone to see your Tweet, you need to keep repeating yourself. And even then, my response rate was only about 10%.
4. Twitter is diverse: a significant number of people loved the same thing other people hated!
5. If you change your avatar, people have trouble recognizing you for awhile.

My Avatar: My brand

When I started Twitter, a year and a half(?) ago, I wasn’t working. I was just doing it for fun. So I didn’t spend a ton of time thinking about what brand I was creating for myself. It was just fun. Then I launched my marketing company last fall and without noticing it, my Twitter use started changing. I quickly grasped that not only was it a fun way to connect with people, it was a great tool to stay on top of all things tech. I even hired an intern through tweeting – a lot faster and with less hassle than going through Craigslist.

I had fun making my manga (the Japanese word for comics) and uploaded it to my profile without much thought. I quickly realized, however, that I didn’t like it. It wasn’t “me.” And worse, it was getting lost in the manga craze. So I switched to a close-up of my iris because a couple of people made a comment about not liking the teeth. Then a couple people commented that they hated the iris. I needed a more thoughtful approach to choosing an avatar. I decided to conduct a survey.

Surveys are Fun

I posted a survey with five avatar choices – including the non-choice, “keep looking.” I announced my poll on Twitter seven times over a 24 hour period. I found that every time I announced it, I’d get 2 or 3 people who’d vote. This was more responses to a tweet I’ve received than for any other, ever.

I was also surprised to find that twice as many visited and looked at my survey, but didn’t vote. All votes were cast within 5 minutes of making my post; then the post was lost in the Twitterstream. In all, about 10% of my followers voted. (Thank you!) But the results were very inconclusive:

• 25% voted for the original teeth. This was the single highest vote receiver. However,
• 40% voted for one of the other of the two manga
• 15% liked the eyeball and
• 20% said keep looking

I decided that I should keep looking for an avatar that met the following criteria:

• I wanted it to be manga-like in that it gives people a view of who I am and what I look like without posting photo of myself on the web. After all, 40% of the people liked one or the other of the mangas.
• It needed to be something I didn’t get tired of and wasn’t trendy. I didn’t want to change it again anytime soon.
• It needed to be unique to me.
• I had to love it. Because, in the end, Twitter is so diverse that I found votes for every choice.

I put together a pile of new avatars for a few of my marketing buddies to look at. Guess what? The vote was unanimous. Here it is -- a snippet of Woman With Red Hair by Modigliani.

It’s classic, manga-like (yes, I have red hair), and unique. Most importantly, it takes my brand from a bit too quirky, to a more business-like, yet still unique, image. I hope you like it. You’ll be seeing it around for quite some time.

Changing your brand costs you

This week I got a response from Robert Scoble. With 38,000 followers, I know that there’s no way he’s going to remember who freerangemom is when my picture changes. And Coach Deb, who follows 3,200 people and regularly responds to me, lost track when I changed my photo. Which leads me back to the first thing I learned: Your avatar is an important part of your on-line brand, choose wisely.

Your Turn

What are you communicating with your on-line brand? Have you thought about it much?