Effectively brand your blog comments with an avatar

In yesterday’s post on blog commenting, I referenced an article by web designer Dawud Miracle. In Do You Brand Yourself in Your Blog Comments? Dawud said,

“I wanted to ‘brand myself’ as Dawud Miracle so that as I was more visible around the blogosphere, the recognition of my name would carry more and more weight…I wanted to be known for who I am and who I am is Dawud Miracle.”

In addition to using your full name in the same form consistently, another way to send a consistent brand message is to have an avatar. An avatar is a representation of yourself in image form. It may be a photo, an icon, your logo or any kind of visual object that stands in for you. I use a cropped version of my professional headshot as my avatar.

Bloggers “enable” the use of avatars on their site as a way to help put a name to a face, essentially. I have avatars enabled on Mediator Tech and you’ll find one next to each comment. If the commenter has an avatar, it shows up. If they don’t, then it defaults to a head and upper torso image instead.

Where to get an avatar

Many, though not all, blogs use Gravatar avatars. To sign up for a free Gravatar, you’ll need to create an account (I’ve had one for years and they’ve never spammed me or misused my email) and have an image file to use for the avatar. Even if it’s not cropped properly yet, once you load it into Gravatar, it’ll help you crop it. That’s it.

Some people create cartoon-ized versions of themselves to use as avatars. Well-done cartoons can still be pretty professional looking. Though I’ve not tried them, I’ve heard people recommend Meez, BeFunky and CartoonMe as good sources for cartoon avatars.

Avatar tips for the mediation marketer

• If you’re commenting and your avatar isn’t showing up, check to make sure the email address you’re using when you comment is the same one you have assigned to your avatar. Not using an email that you’ve associated with your avatar is a common cause of the problem. Be sure to check the case of the email too – luigi@shihtzu.com is not the same in Gravatar as Luigi@ShihTzu.com.
• Check your Gravatar account periodically to make sure email and other information is still accurate. And if you’ve changed your logo, your headshot or the like, it may be time to update your avatar, too.
• Pick an avatar that makes sense from a branding and marketing point of view, if you’re using blog comments as a way to help build your web presence and online brand. I think it’s particularly true of mediation that people by the mediator as much as they buy the service, so a friendly, accessible avatar (like a headshot) may be your best choice.

Go get yourself an avatar, then leave a comment here to show it to us!