Category: SociallyWorking

September 11, 2012

By Mike Talon
in Uncategorized
No Comments

Anger might’ve been the answer
What if I’d hung my head
And said that I couldn’t wait?
But now I’m strong enough to know it’s not too late

‘Cause a thousand words
Call out through the ages
They’ll fly to you
Even though I can’t see
I know they’re reaching you
Suspended on silver wings

Oh, a thousand words
One thousand embraces
Will cradle you
Making all of your weary days seem far away
They’ll hold you forever
- "1000 Words" From the video game Final Fantasy X-2

11 years ago, on September 11, 2001; thousands of lives were extinguished in an attack against the World Trade Center in New York City. While I will never forget that event – after all I watched in play out in real-time and was involved in the aftermath at Ground Zero – I don’t think I need to re-hash the events themselves here.

Instead, I want to turn my annual moment of remembrance to something that should have come from that set of events, but didn’t. It’s true, the terrorists did not win. The United States of America is still here, and despite our problems, we continue to be a strong country. However, we could be doing something more.

I’m not talking about what our elected officials should do. I don’t mean to reference what business should do.

What I want to talk about is you.

According to FactCheck.org; in the USA, in the 2008 elections – which recorded the highest voter turnout in decades – only about 62% of eligible voters actually turned out to cast ballots. This means that a huge number of citizens just decided not to vote. The founding virtue of our form of government – representative legislature – was not participated in by over one third of the citizens of that government.

We talk a lot in this country about how our lawmakers have lost touch with their constituents. We rail against the night in rallies to reform government, recall politicians who have lost their way, decry the corruption and wrongness of the system the way it is.

But, one third of us don’t even vote – and that was a Presidential election year, where a much higher percentage of people turn up at the polls than normal.

One third of eligible voters did not cast a ballot.

I think it’s time to remember that the 9-11 attacks were carried out by people who thought our freedoms, our policies, our government, and our nation are wrong. They were misguided, to say the least, and homicidal maniacs to say the truth.

And we need to prove them wrong. Right now. Today.

Go take half an hour and find out how to register to vote in your local, state and federal elections. Head over to RockTheVote.org or any other site that can show you how and where to sign up. Then go get registered. In November, exercise your Constitutional rights, and vote in the general election.

It really is as simple as that. People are fighting and dying around the world for the right to do what one third of our eligible citizens already could do, but don’t. We cannot let that continue to be the norm in this country.

Register. Vote. I cannot imagine a better way to send a message to the world that the terrorists who struck on 9-11-2001 did not win. More importantly, it will send the message that those who believe as they did cannot ever win, because we will not allow it.

This is our country, they are our leaders, and we – and only we – have the right to pick and choose them as we see fit. Send those who seek to destroy us the most powerful message imaginable, show the world that every vote counts.

But, first remember that no vote will count unless you actually cast it.

September 11, 2012

By Mike Talon
in Uncategorized
No Comments

Anger might’ve been the answer
What if I’d hung my head
And said that I couldn’t wait?
But now I’m strong enough to know it’s not too late

‘Cause a thousand words
Call out through the ages
They’ll fly to you
Even though I can’t see
I know they’re reaching you
Suspended on silver wings

Oh, a thousand words
One thousand embraces
Will cradle you
Making all of your weary days seem far away
They’ll hold you forever
- "1000 Words" From the video game Final Fantasy X-2

11 years ago, on September 11, 2001; thousands of lives were extinguished in an attack against the World Trade Center in New York City. While I will never forget that event – after all I watched in play out in real-time and was involved in the aftermath at Ground Zero – I don’t think I need to re-hash the events themselves here.

Instead, I want to turn my annual moment of remembrance to something that should have come from that set of events, but didn’t. It’s true, the terrorists did not win. The United States of America is still here, and despite our problems, we continue to be a strong country. However, we could be doing something more.

I’m not talking about what our elected officials should do. I don’t mean to reference what business should do.

What I want to talk about is you.

According to FactCheck.org; in the USA, in the 2008 elections – which recorded the highest voter turnout in decades – only about 62% of eligible voters actually turned out to cast ballots. This means that a huge number of citizens just decided not to vote. The founding virtue of our form of government – representative legislature – was not participated in by over one third of the citizens of that government.

We talk a lot in this country about how our lawmakers have lost touch with their constituents. We rail against the night in rallies to reform government, recall politicians who have lost their way, decry the corruption and wrongness of the system the way it is.

But, one third of us don’t even vote – and that was a Presidential election year, where a much higher percentage of people turn up at the polls than normal.

One third of eligible voters did not cast a ballot.

I think it’s time to remember that the 9-11 attacks were carried out by people who thought our freedoms, our policies, our government, and our nation are wrong. They were misguided, to say the least, and homicidal maniacs to say the truth.

And we need to prove them wrong. Right now. Today.

Go take half an hour and find out how to register to vote in your local, state and federal elections. Head over to RockTheVote.org or any other site that can show you how and where to sign up. Then go get registered. In November, exercise your Constitutional rights, and vote in the general election.

It really is as simple as that. People are fighting and dying around the world for the right to do what one third of our eligible citizens already could do, but don’t. We cannot let that continue to be the norm in this country.

Register. Vote. I cannot imagine a better way to send a message to the world that the terrorists who struck on 9-11-2001 did not win. More importantly, it will send the message that those who believe as they did cannot ever win, because we will not allow it.

This is our country, they are our leaders, and we – and only we – have the right to pick and choose them as we see fit. Send those who seek to destroy us the most powerful message imaginable, show the world that every vote counts.

But, first remember that no vote will count unless you actually cast it.

September 11, 2012

By Mike Talon
in Uncategorized
No Comments

Anger might’ve been the answer
What if I’d hung my head
And said that I couldn’t wait?
But now I’m strong enough to know it’s not too late

‘Cause a thousand words
Call out through the ages
They’ll fly to you
Even though I can’t see
I know they’re reaching you
Suspended on silver wings

Oh, a thousand words
One thousand embraces
Will cradle you
Making all of your weary days seem far away
They’ll hold you forever
- "1000 Words" From the video game Final Fantasy X-2

11 years ago, on September 11, 2001; thousands of lives were extinguished in an attack against the World Trade Center in New York City. While I will never forget that event – after all I watched in play out in real-time and was involved in the aftermath at Ground Zero – I don’t think I need to re-hash the events themselves here.

Instead, I want to turn my annual moment of remembrance to something that should have come from that set of events, but didn’t. It’s true, the terrorists did not win. The United States of America is still here, and despite our problems, we continue to be a strong country. However, we could be doing something more.

I’m not talking about what our elected officials should do. I don’t mean to reference what business should do.

What I want to talk about is you.

According to FactCheck.org; in the USA, in the 2008 elections – which recorded the highest voter turnout in decades – only about 62% of eligible voters actually turned out to cast ballots. This means that a huge number of citizens just decided not to vote. The founding virtue of our form of government – representative legislature – was not participated in by over one third of the citizens of that government.

We talk a lot in this country about how our lawmakers have lost touch with their constituents. We rail against the night in rallies to reform government, recall politicians who have lost their way, decry the corruption and wrongness of the system the way it is.

But, one third of us don’t even vote – and that was a Presidential election year, where a much higher percentage of people turn up at the polls than normal.

One third of eligible voters did not cast a ballot.

I think it’s time to remember that the 9-11 attacks were carried out by people who thought our freedoms, our policies, our government, and our nation are wrong. They were misguided, to say the least, and homicidal maniacs to say the truth.

And we need to prove them wrong. Right now. Today.

Go take half an hour and find out how to register to vote in your local, state and federal elections. Head over to RockTheVote.org or any other site that can show you how and where to sign up. Then go get registered. In November, exercise your Constitutional rights, and vote in the general election.

It really is as simple as that. People are fighting and dying around the world for the right to do what one third of our eligible citizens already could do, but don’t. We cannot let that continue to be the norm in this country.

Register. Vote. I cannot imagine a better way to send a message to the world that the terrorists who struck on 9-11-2001 did not win. More importantly, it will send the message that those who believe as they did cannot ever win, because we will not allow it.

This is our country, they are our leaders, and we – and only we – have the right to pick and choose them as we see fit. Send those who seek to destroy us the most powerful message imaginable, show the world that every vote counts.

But, first remember that no vote will count unless you actually cast it.

September 11, 2012

By Mike Talon
in Uncategorized
No Comments

Anger might’ve been the answer
What if I’d hung my head
And said that I couldn’t wait?
But now I’m strong enough to know it’s not too late

‘Cause a thousand words
Call out through the ages
They’ll fly to you
Even though I can’t see
I know they’re reaching you
Suspended on silver wings

Oh, a thousand words
One thousand embraces
Will cradle you
Making all of your weary days seem far away
They’ll hold you forever
- "1000 Words" From the video game Final Fantasy X-2

11 years ago, on September 11, 2001; thousands of lives were extinguished in an attack against the World Trade Center in New York City. While I will never forget that event – after all I watched in play out in real-time and was involved in the aftermath at Ground Zero – I don’t think I need to re-hash the events themselves here.

Instead, I want to turn my annual moment of remembrance to something that should have come from that set of events, but didn’t. It’s true, the terrorists did not win. The United States of America is still here, and despite our problems, we continue to be a strong country. However, we could be doing something more.

I’m not talking about what our elected officials should do. I don’t mean to reference what business should do.

What I want to talk about is you.

According to FactCheck.org; in the USA, in the 2008 elections – which recorded the highest voter turnout in decades – only about 62% of eligible voters actually turned out to cast ballots. This means that a huge number of citizens just decided not to vote. The founding virtue of our form of government – representative legislature – was not participated in by over one third of the citizens of that government.

We talk a lot in this country about how our lawmakers have lost touch with their constituents. We rail against the night in rallies to reform government, recall politicians who have lost their way, decry the corruption and wrongness of the system the way it is.

But, one third of us don’t even vote – and that was a Presidential election year, where a much higher percentage of people turn up at the polls than normal.

One third of eligible voters did not cast a ballot.

I think it’s time to remember that the 9-11 attacks were carried out by people who thought our freedoms, our policies, our government, and our nation are wrong. They were misguided, to say the least, and homicidal maniacs to say the truth.

And we need to prove them wrong. Right now. Today.

Go take half an hour and find out how to register to vote in your local, state and federal elections. Head over to RockTheVote.org or any other site that can show you how and where to sign up. Then go get registered. In November, exercise your Constitutional rights, and vote in the general election.

It really is as simple as that. People are fighting and dying around the world for the right to do what one third of our eligible citizens already could do, but don’t. We cannot let that continue to be the norm in this country.

Register. Vote. I cannot imagine a better way to send a message to the world that the terrorists who struck on 9-11-2001 did not win. More importantly, it will send the message that those who believe as they did cannot ever win, because we will not allow it.

This is our country, they are our leaders, and we – and only we – have the right to pick and choose them as we see fit. Send those who seek to destroy us the most powerful message imaginable, show the world that every vote counts.

But, first remember that no vote will count unless you actually cast it.

August 30, 2012

By Mike Talon
in Dos and Don’ts
No Comments

When using Social Media for work, there is a massive temptation to simply dole out information to the masses. While it’s important that you tell folks what’s going on in your business or industry, simply blaring out links to press releases is a sure way to lose followers and influence.

Twitter, Facebook and other networks are designed to be interactive platforms. This means that you need to both speak and listen in order to get the most out of this form of medium, and broadcasting is only half of that equation. Stated another way, if you’re shouting continuously, you can’t hear what people are saying around, about, and to you.

Instead, take a cooperative approach. Definitely tell folks what’s going on, where you’re headed, who you’re seeing, etc. Share customer stories (where appropriate) and successes, as well as lessons learned. But, also ask questions and pose theories about your industry and products. Ask about general ideas, even some that may not be directly related to something you’re selling. This gets people talking with you, and means that more people see the replies and re-posts, increasing your audience dramatically.

For each RT, there’s a chance that someone else will discover your Twitter account and read your non-engagement tweets. Put simply, every time you show up in someone else’s timeline, you get seen by more potential customers. Broadcasting will indeed get some RT’s and re-posts, but frankly nowhere near as many as talking to your customer base and listening to their replies will.

Added to that fact, you will also see your influence rise as you engage. One-way communication is static, services like Klout and Kred tend to discount static accounts. By interacting with customers and potential customers, you can generate more activity overall, and dynamic activity at that. This leads to more strength and influence from ranking systems and analytic services.

Finally, engaging activities can uncover new leads and opportunities for your business. Posting a press release may be ignored by the masses — they see dozens of those every day and have learned to ignore them. Posting questions gets people to answer them, and if the answer is “We have that problem and haven’t figured out how to solve it yet,” then you have an opening to suggest using your products to fill the need. More engagement means more traffic to your website and more interest in your products.

So, by all means, do share white papers, case studies and press releases; but don’t stop there. Pose questions, offer answers to other users’ questions, and make your Social Media activities interactive. Doing so will gain you influence, followers, and probably some new customers to boot.

August 20, 2012

By Mike Talon
in General Info
No Comments

Twitter has released new guidance regarding their policy toward 3-rd party developers on the Twitter platform. While the technical details are pretty confusing for non-app developers, the impact of the new guidelines is going to be felt by everyday users.

Here’s the basic details you need to know:

1 – Twitter wants to rank you. Systems like Klout got spared from a lot of the new regulations that Twitter is putting forth. That means that Twitter is more interested in how you rank compared to others, regardless of how you get that rank. Due Disclosure: I use Klout as a way to see what I appear to be influential in across my social networks.

2 – You should only be using official Twitter clients to get your feed. This is the one that has pissed off the entire 3-rd party community. The new rules make it difficult (though far from impossible) for non-Twitter client tools to work, or at least continue working the same way they do today. That means apps you use every day like Echofon, TweetBot, Oosfora, and tons of others must either change the way the work — quickly — or risk being cut off from Twitter’s network.

So why is Twitter doing this? Same reason as everything anyone does… money. Twitter makes money by selling advertising. 3rd-party clients traditionally don’t show the advertising at all, or at least not the same way that the official Twitter clients and website do. This means that if you use a 3rd-party client, then you may be missing ad content, and costing Twitter money.

Secondly, Twitter can make more money when they target ads to people who will see them and share them most. That means Twitter needs to rank users, to serve the right ads at the right price to the right people. Since they have very few native tools to do this, Twitter is giving systems like Klout a lot more… well… clout.

I can’t fault Twitter for wanting to make money. It is a business first and foremost, and the goal of any business is to gain revenue and market share. However, by turning their backs on 3-rd party software developers, Twitter is hurting itself. Most of the innovations that Twitter has adopted into its own software were developed by non-Twitter developers. Even Twitter’s own client software on many platforms was actually purchased from 3rd-party developers and re-branded as Twitter’s own.

I believe this is a very bad move on Twitter’s part. As they continue to restrict innovation, they continue to risk becoming stagnant and losing market share. Other services will rise up to fill the gaps soon enough (see App.Net as one example) and eventually one will overtake Twitter if this keeps up.

For now, most of the major app developers have said they think they can re-rig their apps to fit within the new rules. While functionality will be lost, the apps will survive — at least short term. Hang in there, hopefully Twitter will see the error of their raise when they start losing money instead of making more.

August 16, 2012

By Mike Talon
in Dos and Don’ts
No Comments

Social Media is a worldwide phenomenon. Millions of people from hundreds of countries around the world can see and read your tweets, posts, blogs, and other online information. For the most part, this is a good thing. Social media helped to foment positive world change with the Occupy Movement, Arab Sprint, etc. Sometimes, though, not being sensitive to international considerations can lead to mix-ups, gaffs, and even outright offense.

Let’s take the semi-recent introduction of Nokia’s Windows Smartphone line. While the phones are spectacular (I’d recommend the line to anyone looking for a basic smartphone who doesn’t need the tinker-ability of the Android system or the alerts/notifications of iOS), the name caused a bit of a stir in the international community.

Lumia was meant to invoke the feeling of light, bringing clarity to the darkness of the smartphone landscape. The problem is that the word lumia is also a slang term for a person who takes money in exchange for sex. That’s right, folks, Nokia called their Windows Phone line a whore.

Twitter and other social networks ran with the story for weeks. Both with snide references to how Nokia had sold it’s soul (among other things) to Redmond in order to get into the non-Symbian smartphone market, and also queries as to how the marketing team didn’t pick that one up way before it ever became a product name.

Sometimes it’s not product names. A company I’ve had dealings with nearly launched an entire campaign around a Lucha Libre (a form of entertainment wrestling from South America) theme. There was a problem though, the professional wrestler the company hired to act as the spokesman for the campaign used a stage name that translated into a slang term for the perineum. In this case, not knowing the repercussions of a translation nearly led to a PR disaster as everyone would have been comparing their product line to a certain part of the human anatomy.

This type of thing has been going on for as long as broad-spectrum marketing has existed. Though the Chevy Nova didn’t see a sales hit due to its name (the rumor that it was rejected in South America was an urban legend), calling the car “doesn’t go” wasn’t the best idea when marketing to Spanish-speaking markets. With the advent of the age of social media and real-time communications, the problems get worse. Instead of taking months for rumors and jokes to spread, it happens in hours – even faster in some cases.

These days, it’s best to ask around to see if what you named your product or campaign means what you think it does in other languages. Because if you don’t, then once the product or campaign launches you’re stuck with the whore forever.

August 8, 2012

By Mike Talon
in General Info
No Comments

A funny thing happened earlier this week. NASA blew NBC off the social media map, without even trying.

When the Mars Rover Curiosity made an absolutely flawless landing on the surface of the red planet, Twitter, Facebook and many other social media networks went berserk with the news, blowing the concurrent media frenzy of the London Olympiad out of the spotlight – much to the chagrin of NBC, I’m sure.

There were three distinct phases to the blowout, and we can learn from all of them when talking about how to manage social media messaging:

1 – Time delays should only be caused by actual distance.
Curiosity’s landing was broadcast in near real-time by various parts of NASA, with photos taken by the Rover being transmitted out to the world almost as soon as they were taken (there is a 14-minute delay for the transmissions to reach Earth from Mars). This is a big difference when you compare NBC’s six hour delay for events happening on the same planet. There is no such thing as Prime Time online, and NASA knows how to leverage that always-on mentality to the fullest.

2 – NASA lets the information be free.
While it’s understandable that NBC wants to keep a tight rein on information and news coming out of London, NASA has no commercial reason to restrict information. Therefore, there was simply more available news and imagery from Curiosity than from the Olympics flowing at any given time. More info means more blog posts, tweets, posts and broadcasts. If NBC and the International Olympic Committee had allowed a small portion of the information to be freely available, it would get a better spread and more play.

3 – NASA has a surprising sense of humor, and appreciates it in others too.
Funny stuff gets more play, simple fact of Internet Life these days. NASA was quick to crack jokes, and to encourage others to do the same. Because people felt more free about posting jokes and jibes about NASA, the landing was followed by a slew of sharp comments and posts about things like the NASA Flight Controller with the mohawk haircut, or the fact that they could have very well missed one of the most stunning images (the one at the top of this article) if the timing of the landing was off by just a tiny bit. The result? Everyone started talking about NASA and Curiosity. Satirical twitter accounts sprang up instantly, and got great play. When a video of the event got pulled from Youtube due to an apparent copyright issue, NASA shrugged it off as just one of those SNAFUs that happen. The whole internet erupted in support of NASA, mostly because NASA didn’t make a big deal out of it. By not taking themselves too seriously or chastising others who refused to do so, NASA ended up becoming the darlings of social media.

So, lessons learned.

1 – Move fast. Delaying data only means that someone else who you may not want to talk about it will get the story published first.

2 – Always get your message out there, even if that means losing control of some parts of it. You’ll quickly lose control of all of it in ways you do NOT want if you try to put a stranglehold on things.

3 – You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Poke fun of yourself, or laugh it off when others do. Laugh with the crowd, or they’ll just laugh at you instead.

August 1, 2012

By Mike Talon
in General Info
No Comments

I’m a huge fan of the Olympic Games. There’s two main reasons for this. First, I was in the US Junior Olympic Shooting Program (Indoor/Outdoor Running Game Target, for those interested) and secondly because the Games represent a triumph of the human will over everything that human beings can throw at it.

Social Media is one epic example of that latter idea.

There were two major issues that sprang up out of the 30th Olympiad that center around two immutable Laws of Social Media:

1 – Information always will be free.

2 – In any instance where those who own the information desperately do not want it to be free, see rule 1.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) decreed that – in effect – Social Media was banned from the games. No one was permitted to tweet, post, or blog about what was going on. The presiding factor for this was overall security – something that was proven to be a concern when Olympic Athletes began posting photos (with close-up detail) of their security ID badges online. The decree was fiercely criticized as being more about economics (NBC wanted to time delay the games for US consumption, thereby making tweeting live problematic) than security.

However, even the massively edited footage NBC aired of the Opening Ceremonies showed hundreds of people with mobile phones happily snapping photos and taking videos, so the ban was not quite successful. Athletes and attendees have been tweeting non-stop, even getting themselves into very public battles over negative tweets that had been thrown at them.

In the second example of these rules, NBC ran afoul of most of the world due to an ill-edited time-delayed version of the Opening Ceremonies themselves.

In a widely publicized gaff, NBC chose not to show a tribute portion of the Ceremonies in their US telecast. The tribute was – outwardly – for all those who the Olympic Family lost in the past 4 years, but was widely viewed as a tribute to the victims of the 7/7 attack against the UK the day after London won the right to hold the Games. Instead, NBC chose to show an interview segment between Ryan Seacrest and Michael Phelps.

Immediately, Social Media erupted with tweets and postings about the missing segment. The outcry was swift and vicious, with people from dozens of countries lambasting NBC for insensitivity, misjudgment and – in several cases – outright stupidity. What followed was three days of criticism against NBC for time-delaying key events, clueless commentators, horrible editing of segments, and the overall lackluster coverage of the Games in general.

What can we learn from this? First, no information is safe from Social Media. Try as you might, the info will get out there, and the more you try to restrict it, the further it will spread. Secondly, NBC has attempted to ignore the outcry, issuing semi-meaningless public statements (NOT via Social Media) that did nothing to placate the social mob. Your company needs to be ready to address these outbursts with a solid plan of responses and information to plead your side of the case. The age of the press release is definitely over.

Enjoy the Games, celebrate your country’s victories and cheer with other countries in theirs. Also, always remember that when the eyes of the world are watching, these days those eyes come in the form of cell phone cameras and instant communication.

July 19, 2012

By Mike Talon
in Dos and Don’ts, General Info
No Comments

So you’ve been reading along on this and other blogs, and you’ve begun crafting your image in Social Media. What about your literal *image* in Social Media – your icon, avatar, profile picture, etc.?

One of the very first things people see when they look at your tweets, posts, and pages is your picture. And they can often tell more than you want them to from just that one small icon. So what image will you choose to represent yourself?

First things first, you MUST change this from the default image for Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. Do not go with the default egg, shadow, outline, etc. no matter what. Using the default brands you instantly as someone who’s either fake (a spammer, temp account, etc.) or else someone who just has no clue at all how Social Media works. Neither of those images will help you build your brand or your business, and getting tagged as a probable spammer will actually hurt your cause.

Let’s look at a couple of the ins and outs of the more common methods out there:

Photos:

Photos can work quite well for professional use of Social Media. Your customers can see you for you! Remember to go for something that reflects the industry you’re in, however. I have seem Twitter icons that were supposed to be for very high-end legal partners who were hanging off the back of a “party boat” – probably not the image they want to be most closely associated with for business use. If it is, great, but if it’s not then you need to get a picture of you at work or a headshot of you in a suit.

Caricatures:

This one is very popular, and the method I use myself. Having a drawing or cartoon made from your photos can be a great way to allow you to put your face online without actually putting your real face online. As with photos, you want to ensure that the drawing lines up with the image you’re trying to portray for your business, but with the cartoonish caricatures, you have quite a lot of leeway there.

Images/Artwork:

If you prefer not to use yourself, you can always find a picture or photo of something that works well to represent your business. Maybe a picture of a green meadow if you’re an environmental firm, or a gavel for a legal firm. Maybe just some abstract image if you’re not sure which way you want to go.

Two things to watch out for: First, make sure you have the rights to use that image. It either needs to be something you paid for, or something you can license under Creative Commons or the Public Domain laws for your country. Using an image that’s copyright to someone else can get you in trouble fast, and in debt in some cases. Secondly, ensure that you can get a copy of the image downloaded to your hard drive. You do not want to only have a copy of the image on a web server if you can avoid that, as web servers can change or go offline without warning – especially if they’re not your own web servers.

Logos:

Using a business logo is a pretty straight-forward way to get your brand across before anyone even reads your tweets and posts. The only drawback here is that – unless you own the company – you may not have permission to use that logo for your own icon/picture. Make sure you check with the powers that be, lest you become an employee who was.

If you do get permission, then your can use the logo itself, or better yet you can incorporate your logo into one of the other types of icons/photos mentioned here. For some of my accounts, I use a simple graphics editor to place a small version of the company logo in the lower-right corner of my cartoon-y picture.

Another note specific to logos, not every logo works well here. The preferred logos for use as your picture are square or very nearly so. Wide logos will get cropped by Twitter and other services, making you look much less professional by showing a blob of unidentifiable text/graphics instead of what you’d hope they’d see.

So put your best face – or something other than your face – forward. Remember to make your icon reflect who you are, and who you want people to see you as. Also remember to always get the appropriate permission before using copyright or trademark images, and make sure they’ll fit in the space allotted for your photo/icon.

FYI, if you want a great artist who can make a caricature or image for you, check out Woody at GUComics.com – he’s the guy that did my profile image, and I can recommend him personally without hesitation.