One of the more interesting areas to watch for Twitter in 2009 is how the microblogging culture changes around the use of profile pictures. With the recent addition of an API method to allow these pictures to be changed remotely, third-party development will find ways to create new value for member icons.
Twitter investor Fred Wilson wrote about profile pictures after noticing the variety of image choices used by his followers. His own icon came from a 2006 blogging gig. Initially, it was just one of several Wilson used, depending on the nature of the online presence:
“For corporate oriented services like LinkedIn, I’d use my Union Square Ventures headshot. For social nets like Facebook, I’d use a regular headshot. I used a photo of me taking a photo on Flickr for a long time.”
Over time, the sketched icon became his main visual identity. Wilson noted the benefits (easy to recognize) and potential downfalls (easy to steal) of unifying all profile pictures. He speculated this is why some people change their profile pictures frequently.
Although Wilson refers to them as such, profile pictures are not avatars. Second Life researcher Mark Bell provided this definition of avatar:
Any digital representation (graphical or textual), beyond a simple label or name, that has agency (an ability to perform actions), presence, and is controlled by a human agent in real time is known as an avatar.
The pictures uploaded to social networking profiles arguably have presence and a form of agency—I’d argue the inherent action is reconnection—but Twitter icons certainly fail on the third criteria of real-time control by the human. Though the role they play is primarily one of identification, there are other more subtle functions that emerge when so many people upload so many different images.
How do we use profile pictures?
Through work with Hanapin Marketing, I released a little web survey into the wild last week. It wasn’t the viral stallion I had hoped to find back in the stable today, but we did get several dozen responses.
The 55 people who completed the survey were mostly from the Midwest (77%) but overall represented a dozen states and three countries. While demographics favored men (56.6%) and thirty-somethings (47.2%), one in five participants were over 40. The majority of participants held advanced college degrees and fell within a family income range of $50-100K per year. Despite the call for participation being posted as a tweet, there was no Twitter bias. Three-fourths considered themselves active with both Twitter and Facebook, our primary systems of interest.
We asked several questions about what went into a person’s decision to change her own profile image and evaluate the pictures others use. Most of the respondents fell into two groupings of interest: one based on how quickly they changed their profile pictures; and the other based on gender.
Do as I do
After creating a new social network profile online, the vast majority (70%) immediately changed the profile picture from the default image to something more meaningful—in fact, all but 5% did so in the first week of use. Leaving the default image up even a little while suggests distinctions in other image-related behaviors. Those who changed the default picture immediately were motivated to later changes by things like how the image fits into the design of the rest of the page, how other community members are using their pictures, and how long it has been since the picture was last changed. The slower group was driven by convenience and their emotional state. Quick changers also looked less favorably on the presence of the default profile picture, particularly with strangers, and were prone to change pictures again.
In general, the age and type of picture were the most important factors for both changing one’s own picture and evaluating those posted by others. The majority of participants valued the entertainment value of other pictures, as well. Other factors the participants mentioned specifically were related to identity, style, authenticity and public perception.
Gender also played a distinguishing role. More women in the study were active only on one social network (21% used Facebook only, compared to 13% of men who exclusively used either Facebook or Twitter). Emotional state and changes in life played larger roles when deciding whether to change the picture again. Men were much more likely (80% to 56%) to change their profile picture immediately and were slightly more critical of default pictures in other profiles.
Reality doesn’t bite
Participants were shown three groups of six pictures—intentionally selected as representative types from a random polling of Twitter members—and asked to evaluate these images based on likelihood of friendship, trust, and self-representation. Each group had a mixture of photos, graphics, genders, and eye contact.
How likely are you to befriend someone based on these pictures?
In the first group, the father-child picture (D) garnered the most positive response (46%). This was somewhat surprising since many of the comments participants made about these images expressed dislike of the use of children or more than one person in a profile image. Emotional response and degree of authenticity were also cited. The least likely to spark friendship was the skull (A, 35%).
Who do you trust the most?
The two women in the second group were deemed the most trustworthy (B led with 55%, followed by F at 21%). The least trustworthy was the picture of the train (E, 42%). Participant comments suggest that issues of authenticity factor heavily into evaluations of trust.
Which is most like you?
For the last group, participants were asked to select the image they would be most or least likely to use as their own profile picture. While this is an artificial exercise—we had a couple comments noting the absurdity of limiting profile pictures to these six—the constraint does reveal something about the way we classify ourselves and what factors into our decisions.
The picture of Heroes star Brea Grant (B) was the most chosen avatar, rated highly even for male participants, with the picture of the child (D) a close second. This, despite several comments ridiculing people’s use of their kids to represent their identities online. The picture least selected was the Ogilvy signature logo (A).
While the size of the sampling (both pictures and participants) isn’t sufficient to draw any firm scientific conclusions, the strongest patterns of response came when examining the differences between real photos and created graphics.
The anime in the first group (friendship) was singled out with a number of negative comments, but in general, cartoons and clip art were frowned upon. As is evident in this comparison of positive and negative reactions to each image, graphics profile pictures suffered across the board:
- Friendship Group:
Photos: B*(9.3%-20.4%), D (46.3%-3.7%), E (27.8%-5.6%)
Graphics: A (3.7%-35.2%), C (11.1%-14.8%), F (1.9%-20.4%) - Trust Group:
Photos: B (54.7%-5.8%), F (20.8%-3.8%), E** (5.7%-42.3%)
Graphics: A (7.5%-21.2%), C (9.4%-11.5%), D (1.9%-15.4%) - Selection Group:
Photos: B (33.3%-15.1%), D (27.8%-17.0%), E (13.0%-7.5%), F (14.8%-7.5%)
Graphics: A (9.3%-32.1%), C (1.9%-20.8%)
* There is a question in this case whether race or authenticity played a larger role in the negative response to this woman’s picture.
** While the train picture is technically a photo, the comments and reaction lumped it in with the graphics as inauthentic and confusing.
Conclusions
This is a design inquiry, not a rigorous bit of social science. Still, our survey does suggest a few things worth of deeper exploration:
- What people do influences how they evaluate what other people do.—If you are willing to change your own profile regularly, you are likely more aware than those who don’t of how other people are using pictures. That adds some importance to evaluative criteria that others ignore.
- Women and men value pictures differently.—Other than the glimpse from the survey of a few clues (more likely to be active in fewer social networking platforms, valuing emotional and situational cues), we can’t say what these differences are. Prior research, however, supports the notion that both use of and reaction to profile pictures is gendered.
- People perceive photos more favorably than graphics—Profile pictures are not the only input people have when choosing to befriend someone in an online social network, but particularly with strangers, it can play a big role in whether a relationship forms and is maintained. The strongest insight from this study may be revealing the bias against non-realistic graphics of people in a community.