Can A Profile Picture Make You More Credible?

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3 years ago

I had this idea as I was looking at comments and who was leaving them. I notice pattern in the profiles, so I thought I would share with everyone here. I noticed that members without profile pictures, for the most part behave different. This behavior was small and may not be notice by everyone. But now that you are reading about it you'll see it everywhere. Members with the basic avatar profile picture act distant and detached. Meaning, they do not engage the same way as people with a real picture of them on their profile.

Well you may say, what does this matter and why even bring this to anyones attention? I guess sometimes I cannot help myself as I am a student of Human Thinking and Behavior Psychology. When I see anomalies in human behavior they stick out like a sore thumb to me. Believe me it isn't always fun to analyze what people are doing. Most times people don't want to be observed in this manner, let alone have someone expose them. It makes us feel vulnerable... Of course the purpose of this article is not to harm or shame, it is to help.

So how can this article help you do better as an author an content creator? Let's See... This site is creating an experience where content creators and content seekers merge. When this union occurs a level of trust is established, which starts a relationship. This is a simple relationship between readers and producer's, but a relationship never-the-less. A handshake if you will. Now during this handshake the content seeker gets to know the author and their content. During this initial introduction the person reading the article wants to trust it. They want to feel that the author knows what he or she is writing about. This is normal...

When I'm reading an article even if it's good I am still apprehensive, if the author doesn't have a profile picture. I almost feel as if the content author is trying to hide from me. My auto response is to trust the author and the article less. My brain begins to give the content author a credibility rating. This is all happening in the back of my mind. If the credibility rating decreases I am less interested in the author's work. If I see a profile picture and not the default avatar image my brain says trust and the credibility rating goes up.

I'm sure this isn't just happening to me. Unconsciously humans are looking for things they trust and distrust in other people. My brain picks up the humans picture as trust and default avatar of distrust. This does not mean that the person who has not yet uploaded a picture of themselves is untrustworthy. But, if this subtlety is there for me it's likely there for others who are reading author's content. So ask yourself do you want people to trust you more or less? I personally want people to trust me and my work as much as possible.

What's my point? My point is that, not having a profile picture of you can be harming your brand. And this in turn could be hurting your chances of a greater ROI. See, each article you produce is an investment by you. It's your product. You are selling this product to the readers of this platform and even people doing a general search. The readers look at your product and wants to trust it, and trust you. But your store sign looks shady and does not match the image you are trying to portray.

Your storefront is your profile image and bio. Your stores products are your articles and other content creations. If you are not making as much money as you would like here, you may want to assess how you are presenting yourself. Are you presenting yourself as a trustworthy brand? Put my idea to the test by placing a picture of you in your profile and writing something interesting in your bio. See if people start paying more attention to you and your work. Track your ROI to see if your income and trust factor increases. Let me know in the comments if this information helped to increase your subscribers rate, etc.


By Michaelson Williams, TSX

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3 years ago
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Comments

To some extent

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3 years ago

I used my photo as my avatar before, but I changed it. I think I have to use my real photos again πŸ˜†. I don't know why but my mind is not that stable when it comes to my avatar I keep changing it, just like how my mood swings changes lol. Thanks for this insight sir it opened up our minds, thanks for sharing your knowledge with us ❀

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3 years ago

@Eybyoung You are of course very welcome! I think many people have issues with looking at their own face in pictures. Sometimes we feel that it's just not good enough for public viewing.lol Most people also don't like to hear the sound of their recorded voice. Your picture is very good so I don't think you have anything to worry about. I think changing one real picture for another is okay for a profile as long as it's not to often. I'm sure I will change my own profile picture at some point as well. I like my profile picture to be up to date. Thanks for reading my articles!

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3 years ago

Yeah, I have some issues looking at my photo πŸ˜† anyway I will let it stay for long so my readers won't be confused with my avatar. Your article is worth reading 😊

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3 years ago

You are right trust is very important. As for me I never used any photos or Avatar. I always used my real photos as my proof that I'm real and what you see is what you get. It's the real me. 😊

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3 years ago

@leejhen That's great! People will love to get to know the real you. Thank you for the comment and for reading this article. Have an awesome day!

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3 years ago

you're welcome have a nice day too.

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3 years ago

I have been using my own photo before but changed it to one of my drawing.. but with the letter R on it which stands for my name Ruby Jane.. but after reading this, i realized that it's better to bring back my old photo as many users know me through that profile photo. 😊

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3 years ago

@Jane It's good to see you are back to using your real photo. Building trust is so important. Please let us know here in the comments if you see a difference in interactions from other members. Ruby Jane is a cool name! Have a great day/night!

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3 years ago

I don't noticed any changes since I've been interacting to different users since before. 😊

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3 years ago

Yeah

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3 years ago

I totally agree with this. When I'm reading an article, I tend to trust it more when the author has his/ger distinct avatar instead of the default one and they seem to be more real and a real friend I can converse here. When I was a newbie in this platform I wanted to remain anonymous and so I never tried to change my default avatar and that made me feel like some mediocre writer who doesn't have any impact to the readers. But when I uploaded my own picture and used it as my avatar, I gained trust from other users and gained more subscribers amd of course I gained friends too.

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3 years ago

@esciisc You bring up a very good point about remaining anonymous. I think people in the beginning of discovering this platform are thinking in the same manner. They want to test out the platform itself to see if they trust it and the website. However, people will not even trust a website where most of the users are perceived as hiding behind default avatars. For ever person on this platform that post a real picture it give read.cash a bit more credibility as well. You made a good point in this comment. Thanks!

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3 years ago

Now a days people make privacy issues with everything. What is there to hide and why.

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3 years ago

@aniruddhasen You are absolutely correct. People do think that they have to protect their privacy. However, there is not such thing as protecting privacy online. The internet and those running social platforms are tracking everything you are doing in full or in part. The only way to secure any type of privacy is not to be online at all. Even VPN's aren't any type of guarantee of protection online. Anyone can be hacked or have their identity stolen. If Governments, banks, social media's, etc. can be compromised so can you. I wish that privacy was something we all could secure, but with more and more technology and AI there will be less and less privacy.

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3 years ago

People fear that their details and photo can be misused, but even that can be tracked. You are right, whatever goes online, stays online and can be tracked online. Both bad way and good way. Otherwise normal details like my real name, in which country I stay and my job, my age, gender, these are normal things, I don't find any reason to hide these things. If someone wants to find these and has the knowledge to do so, can easily do it.

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3 years ago

totally agree my account dose not mesh with this statement. however your right a profile picture makes it easier to trust the creator in general. like any other business appearance matters however it matters more in mediums like this because your selling yourself not a product.

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3 years ago

@Chubbie149 Thanks for the comment! You made me think about something here. I wrote an article about making substantive points in the comment section, which you did here. This made me think about longer substantive comments can help to grow some trust, even if you don't have a real picture in your profile. I cannot say how much it helps but there is a level of trust that is starting to build while leaving engaging comments vs one word comments. Short comments coupled with no real profile picture will definitely diminish the trust level a great deal. I hope to see you soon! Thanks again!

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3 years ago