Tammy was shocked when she emailed me today.
She explained that she had been following a business expert on Twitter for years. Then today, he suddenly aged by around 15 years!
15 years older in just 24 hours
Of course, the guy is just a day older today, than he was yesterday. The thing is, he’d been using the same photo on his online profiles for the past decade and, apparently, it was a few years old when he started using it. Yesterday, he decided to update his profile photo and like all of us, he looks very different than he did back in the late 1990’s.
He has told his Twitter followers he needed to change the photo, as he was tired of people not knowing who he was, when he met them face to face for the first time.
[I wrote about ageing online here: To age online or not to age, that is the question!]
The issue this guy now has, is that his brand is strongly associated with an image, which no longer exists. By failing to invest in a professional logo and failing to update his profile photo every year or two, he’s facing a totally unnecessary challenge.
We all get older
However, until recently, business owners were connected to people who either saw them pretty regularly or who were seeing them for the first time.
In the digital age, we are represented online by photographs, which are a snapshot of how we looked when the photo was taken. If these are seldom updated, we risk facing the same problem the business expert now has.
Keep people in the picture
If you do not already, consider updating your profile photos and avatars every year or so.
Even better, invest in a professional logo and use the logo alongside your picture. This allows you to change your photo, with the continuity of your branding intact.
Tip: Here’s a great video about what makes a logo memorable and valuable!