Blog
Show Yourself! – Get a ‘Gravatar’
Try it! It’s fun.
Sharon’s last post on how to make attending an industry event work harder for you and your business was important and well worth re-reading, but this post’s a little lighter.
In today’s competitive world of garnering all the attention you can get, it’s not just the ‘big’ things you do that make a difference. Little innovations also ‘set you apart’. Here is a fun and easy thing you can do (five minutes) that puts a ‘new media’ bullet in your PR arsenal. You’ll learn more about blogging to build business a bit later on down the road.
What’s a Gravatar?
It a Globally Recognized Avatar. . . . a photo of you (or any graphic you choose) that appears wherever you make a comment or write a post or article on a ‘gravatar enabled’ webblog.
Note: Being an avid web watcher I believe many more major websites are destined to become ‘gravatar-enabled’. I also believe in getting in a game early on. You can always toss loser ideas later, but it’s always tougher playing catch-up. (e.g. Look what happened to Google ratings vis a vis domain names.)
With your own gravatar, you can have your headshot (or a business logo/graphic) accompany any words and thoughts you pen.
Where do you get a gravatar?
Go to www.gravatar.com. It’s easy and only takes 5 minutes to set up. Do it, then come back to this post and add a ‘comment’ on this article with your new gravatar attached. You’ll see how it works. Worst case? . . . You’ll have some fun.
Here is the process.
- Go to www.gravatar.com.
- Click on ‘sign up now’
- Enter your email address.
- You will receive a confirmation email you must respond to and then you will receive a link from them where you enter: Your ‘Nickname’ and Password.
Suggestion: Choose a nickname with thought and understanding of how your nickname might enhance someone’s perception of you.
Consider my own personal prejudice. I tend to lend less professional ‘credibility’ to someone nicknamed “hairfreak23’ or ‘hotnails4ugirl’ than someone who has used a form of their own their own name, or something with a more ‘professional’ ring to it (e.g.; colorlover or caresalot, etc)…but that’s just me.
Even though Gravatar nicknames aren’t being utilized yet, the gravatar folks have something in mind for them for the future (read their website note) and I don’t want to suddenly start seeing all my blog entries accompanied by a nickname like ‘goofyprguy69′. 🙁
- Select your own photo from your hard drive, crop it right there, select it . . . and you’re done!
From then on, whenever you use your email address in a blog entry, there you are!
Note: Don’t forget to write down your password in case you want to change your picture later on. (Duh)
We’ll be spending time down the road talking about blogging and the power of good blogs. Sharon and I are collecting a list of interesting and helpful blogs for those of you interested. Caveat Emptor: There are lots of ‘cosmetics junkie’ blogs with small readership and a great hunger for free samples.
OK. Got your gravatar? Click on the comments link below (or on the headline of this article. Scroll to the bottom of the article to leave a comment. (It doesn’t have to be a brilliant thought, you’re just trying out your new gravatar
Have fun!
Alex
If you found this article useful, get a free subscription to BeautyPRpro. You’ll receive a FREE copy of our ebook, “Life-Changing PR for Salon & Spa Owners” and receive each article post minutes after it hits the blog.
Feel free to click on the ‘Share This’ icon below to send this post to a friend or mark it at your favorite social bookmarking site.
OK, here’s my comment and there’s my gravatar. Now let’s see a couple of yours.
Great work Doug! You handsome devil you ;-). Also, very honored to have your subscription on the blog. Let us know what you would like to hear about. We’re all on the same journey together.
Alex Irving
https://www.beauty-pr.com
alex@beauty-pr.com
Hey Alex,
I am gravatarized and loving it. Thanks for the advice.
Doug Schoon
I hope I got this right. I’m finally among the living again. YAY!
You certainly did Sondra. If you checked the ‘notify me of followup comments via email’ box you will get an email notice of this return post. Now everyone will see that wonderful picture of you two.
Also, we recently added a WordPress plug-in called “CommentLUV” to BeautyPRpro. If you had a blogsite of your own and commented on one of our posts here, a link to your last blog post title would be automatically added under your comment (like a signature). Anyone interested in reading our post would see your comment and if relevant to the subject of our post, would most likely want to scoot over to see your blog too. It’s another way topical bloggers share with each other, and provide extra value to their subscribers.
Alexander Irving’s last blog post..Consistency Counts
Awesome idea..Thanks for letting me know!