An Image to Remember
- Wednesday, January 09 2013 @ 10:38 am
- Contributed by: Jet
- Views: 931
Imagine: you’re perusing profiles on an online dating site. You’ve been looking for awhile, and to be honest the faces are all starting to blur together together for you. So the next thumbnail image fairly leaps off the page: a giant, yellow smiley face. Or maybe it’s a close-up of a silly cat. It’s wholly unexpected, and the cheekiness of it makes you smile. You click on the profile to check it out.
We go to such lengths to make sure our default picture is just right, but maybe sometimes an attention-getter is all you need. If you’re uncomfortable with the idea of representing yourself with something that’s not you, consider a picture that is of you - maybe in a giant hot dog costume, or wearing an obviously fake mustache and glasses. You don’t have to go the humor route, either; maybe it’s a picture of you crossing the line of a marathon race, covered in colored corn starch. The point is, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a posed, airbrushed-to-perfection picture to make you memorable. You don’t have to be perfect to get someone to want to know more.
Something to bear in mind, however: you don’t want to sacrifice honesty for the sake of memorability. Neither do you want to sacrifice content for gags. So whatever your eye-catching default pic or headline might be, make sure it’s balanced by genuine content: clear, non-silly pictures of you, a profile into which you’ve put some thought.
Don’t try to explain your attention-grabbing antics. Either they’ll have found the picture amusing or they didn’t; explaining a joke will only suck the comedy right out. The exception to this rule is if there’s an interesting story behind the picture or headline: the reason behind the hot dog costume or the corn starch race. Maybe that’s not a funny cat you found on a search engine, but actually your cat. Just make sure you avoid anything self-satisfied, like “Made you look!”
If you’re stressing out over your default picture - or perhaps if you’re just bored with the one you have and want to experiment - consider something that relies more on getting attention than just being aesthetically pleasing. It’s a bit of a gamble, but you can always change it if you feel inclined. And who knows? It might bring in readers who previously saw you as one of the pack.
We go to such lengths to make sure our default picture is just right, but maybe sometimes an attention-getter is all you need. If you’re uncomfortable with the idea of representing yourself with something that’s not you, consider a picture that is of you - maybe in a giant hot dog costume, or wearing an obviously fake mustache and glasses. You don’t have to go the humor route, either; maybe it’s a picture of you crossing the line of a marathon race, covered in colored corn starch. The point is, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a posed, airbrushed-to-perfection picture to make you memorable. You don’t have to be perfect to get someone to want to know more.
Something to bear in mind, however: you don’t want to sacrifice honesty for the sake of memorability. Neither do you want to sacrifice content for gags. So whatever your eye-catching default pic or headline might be, make sure it’s balanced by genuine content: clear, non-silly pictures of you, a profile into which you’ve put some thought.
Don’t try to explain your attention-grabbing antics. Either they’ll have found the picture amusing or they didn’t; explaining a joke will only suck the comedy right out. The exception to this rule is if there’s an interesting story behind the picture or headline: the reason behind the hot dog costume or the corn starch race. Maybe that’s not a funny cat you found on a search engine, but actually your cat. Just make sure you avoid anything self-satisfied, like “Made you look!”
If you’re stressing out over your default picture - or perhaps if you’re just bored with the one you have and want to experiment - consider something that relies more on getting attention than just being aesthetically pleasing. It’s a bit of a gamble, but you can always change it if you feel inclined. And who knows? It might bring in readers who previously saw you as one of the pack.
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