OK – Let’s start, appropriately, with a picture: -

- Yes, it’s a rather unflattering picture of me.

- No it’s not meant to be in any way beautiful or attractive…

                – And yes, I do look pissed-off…            Why?

Answer: I am so tired of seeing profiles on social networks without a picture of the owner!

I don’t care that you claim that you’re a sensational marketing guru and seven-figure-income-earner who can turn my life around… Who the fuck are you?

Maybe you make me promises of untold wealth and say that you have the secret to vast riches beyond my wildest dreams. Maybe you tell me that you’ll personally interact with me in one-on-one tutorials to help me gain success…

- Maybe you’re even telling me the truth, despite my massive suspicions.

- But if you can’t even show me your face then why the hell should I be interested in your product – or in you?

I really am not bothered if you’re not particularly photogenic – neither am I – that’s no reason to hide. I don’t care if you think that you’re ugly as sin. I wasn’t asking to fancy you or to go on a date with you…

Look; you’re on a social network, such as twitter for instance, ( @shazzalive ) and you see my online work and, in this instance, you follow me. – Great: I’ve no complaints about that. But you want me to follow you back? Give me a reason to do so… Remember; it’s a social network: so even if I like what you have to say, the way you put across your arguments, even if I like you as a person from the way you communicate, I’m not following a faceless entity.

Now your new-born daughter may be the cutest little tot in the universe – but I don’t have kids, don’t want kids, and didn’t want to follow someone who portrays themself as a 1-month-old baby, whether or not you’re talking total sense and have valuable information that I feel could be of benefit to me. Neither do I want to see a picture of a fistful of dollars: If that’s how you look then seek help! – And the best and most appropriate graphic-design on the planet doesn’t interest me after I’ve seen it once, no matter how much you paid to have it done.

…But a picture of you tells me that I’m communicating with a person, a human-being online who I can interact with.

I appreciate that if you happen to be a big business, like, say, Apple, you’re not going to have a picture of your CEO showing: Instead you’re going to show your company logo. – Fair enough. – I’d be flattered to have any big business follow me on twitter, or anywhere else….

- But if you’re Jill or Joe Bloggs, whether that be Jill or Joe Bloggs’ Computer Parts, Internet Marketers, Wealth-Gaining Tuition, Excrementation Excavators, Vibrator Installation Technicians, whatever, I want to see a picture of you, not a graphic, not your dog, not a sunset, a flower, a cuddly toy, not your sexual organ, nor a blank space.

I know that you’ll find that many other people echo my thoughts on this subject. – What do you think?