[slideshare id=9308385&doc=twitterprofilepicturesizea-110918112126-phpapp01]

This presentation offers advice and tips on how to choose a profile picture for your social profiles. The presentation primarily focuses on picking a profile picture for Twitter but there’s no reason why you cannot apply the same guidelines to your other online profiles be it Facebook, Skype, YouTube or the new Google+.

The characteristics of a good profile picture, according to the presentation, are:

• You should be recognizable in an instant (use close up shots).
• Use a smiling shot as people are more likely to connect with you then.
• Illustrations as profile pictures are fine but avoid using cartoon characters as that will make your profile appear less-professional.

All social sites require profile pictures of different sizes and they may resize your picture, thus degrading quality, if you upload one of a different size. It may therefore be a good idea to crop pictures yourself before putting them online and here’s a good tool for doing that.