Your logo + Social Media = friends?

by Matt Riopelle  |  June 3rd, 2010
Design, Marketing, Social Media


 

 
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We’ve talked about the nuances of social media communication and building communities, particularly in Facebook. While I focused mainly on content in those posts, there is an important visual piece of social media that can’t be ignored. If you want your visual identity to be remembered on the social web, this is for you.


Starting with forums over a decade ago, there emerged those darling little chiclets of identity called avatars. Stamp sized squares of fun (or annoying animated GIFs), they have become ubiquitous in Social Media use. With restrictive size and aspect ratio, individual and businesses can have difficulty picking the just the right crop or perspective to communicate to the world who they are.



You’ve probably given this some thought. I have too. It represents a significant shift in how you communicate your brand.  Chris Brogan’s recent post announcing his new logo tied together some of those thoughts for me. One of his objectives, according to the post, was a mark that could be used across a variety of channels. In his words, it should be “functionally-minded.” You see, there was social strategy behind it. Does that describe yours? Or does that even matter?


Absolutely.


Your logo should have the same effect in Social Media as anywhere else. At the very least, I should recognize it as it flashes by in my tweet stream. Better yet, like any good logo design, it should tell me something about you – confidently distinguished from every other identity out there. Oh, and while your at, have it evoke some really good feelings about your company. Just fit it in 100 x 100 pixels. Deal?


So am I saying you should just drop a grand or more on a new logo? Not at all. If it’s is already doing it’s job (see previous paragraph), sometimes just a well placed crop will do. But consider this: the form isn’t going away. Beyond the explosion of social media, took at the burgeoning app stores of iPhone, iPad, and Android. They are filled with icons proportionally the same to avatars. So whether or not an app is in the plans, some thought towards your brand’s digital future should be a part of any logo consideration.


Have more questions about logo design for social media? Leave a comment or contact one of the design folks found on Matchbook or Madison Ave. Collective. You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook.


Matt Riopelle

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Reader comments (13)

 

Devil’s advocate here: Is a logo/icon more effective for building relationships than using a person’s photograph (e.g. face of the business owner)?

Maybe it’s different for FB vs. Twitter … but don’t you think people would rather have a relationship/conversation with a real human being than a business?


Jeff Jimerson | June 03, 2010

I think it depends on your strategy and platform. There are many cases where I would agree with your Devil. But I don’t think you can avoid it altogether nor should you avoid planning for it.


Matt Riopelle | June 03, 2010

Humans, since birth, are trained to make faces out of information. This is a survival thing. See your mom, get milk.

It’s wired into us. We want to see/make faces.

Faces win. : )


Chris Brogan… | June 04, 2010

Thanks for your imput Chris. So can I assume your iPad app icon will feature your face? ;)

But I agree. Attached to a conversation, faces do win.


Matt Riopelle | June 04, 2010

I’m with Brogan and Jimmers on this one. Important to pick the right photo though for maximum impact.
Kawasaki touches on this in an early Entrepreneur Magazine post on Twitter. See #3:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2009/march/200084.html


Chris Nordyke | June 04, 2010

I wish I had a link for you. I have seen a study showing that humans naturally direct their attention first to faces and then to where that face is looking.

That study influenced my current profile pick. I often recommend the use of smiling-happy-faces for web/marketing visuals.

PS: Chris Brogan commented here!


Loyan | June 05, 2010

The brands I enjoy following as well as the ones I work for are for the most part symbolized by icons/logos. In developing app icons say for the Intel AppUp or iTunes stores, you need to tell a story with just a few pixels. Going one level further and each of those brands have many people that work for them and I enjoy seeing and identifying their faces. Intel who has fully embraced social media, is one example . Once you know who they are you begin to identify all the face behind the brand.

Take these comments for example. Just seeing these faces, all of people I know and trust, evokes a feeling of community. I identify each one with a strong brand association as well.

As far as the death of avatar use , I do not morn it’s demise at all. It was a place for people to hide in anonymity.


John | June 05, 2010

Great topic here. Thanks John for bringing it to my attention. Hands down, I want to see the person. The personality. The human. Young or old. Male or female.

I know personally, I buy from people I know like and trust as opposed to “just” a logo. What about you?


David Siteman Garland | June 05, 2010

I think using faces creates more brand loyalty. With the exception of some really iconic brands (e.g., Apple), we connect and follow people. No one seeks a relationship with an institution.

I have tons of people tell me that they never cared about my company until they started following me or one of my colleagues and connected to us personally.

I think a photo subliminally communicates, “We’re real people here. We are not hiding behind a wall. We are transparent and accessible.”


Michael Hyatt | June 05, 2010

This conversation reminds me of some Facebook ads we ran for the MAC last year. I experimented with three different ads using three different images.

Ad #1: Just our logo. 5,383 impressions, zero (0) clicks. 0.00% click rate.

Ad #2: Photo of our empty office interior, no people in the shot. 95,785 impressions with only 91 clicks. 0.10% click rate.

Ad #3: Photo of a group of smiling faces taken at a MAC workshop. 59,165 impressions, 122 clicks. 0.21% click rate.

Granted, the message shifted a little between the three ads, and the number of impressions varied. By no means a scientific study, but probably confirms the obvious: Photos of people get more clicks than logos do… at least with Facebook advertising.


Jeff Jimerson | June 05, 2010

Yea, I’d say I prefer photos of people over logos. Hmm, maybe its time to change the ProWorks avatar… :)

Anyways, I think I found the original post Loyan was talking about. Its a study about what you are doing in your profile pic and how it affects people’s perceptions of you (smiling, looking away, etc):

“The 4 Big Myths of Profile Pictures”
(http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/2010/01/20/the-4-big-myths-of-profile-pictures/)

Also, this is probably obvious and its not clear how logos fit into this but:

“Twitter Accounts with a Profile Picture Have 10 Times More Followers Than Those Without”

(http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/5811/Twitter-Accounts-with-a-Profile-Picture-Have-10-Times-More-Followers-Than-Those-Without.aspx)


Jason Prothero | June 05, 2010

Michael makes a great point: Photos add an intrinsic transparent quality to the conversation. I tend to trust those I can “see.” But doesn’t branding and identity still need to account for the bounding box that social media has created?


Matt Riopelle | June 07, 2010

@Loyan — It’s awesome that you are looking at your comments. I see what you mean and why you picked the profile you did.


Ron Sparks | June 25, 2010
 


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