On day one of this challenge I talked about how our blogs are our virtual face and we must try to make a great first impression with our blogs.  While many of us are very good at doing this on our actual blog we often forget about our blogs presence elsewhere in the virtual world.  The truth is that blogging goes far beyond the actual blog.  Your blog probably has a Facebook page, a Twitter page, a Pinterest account and any number of other social media tools.  Do your social media accounts reflect your blog’s image?  Today’s tips will guide you towards developing a consistent image across the world wide web.

Develop Your Blog’s Image

Get a Blog Button

Blog buttons are great little graphics that help you to develop a consistent image.  Also sometimes referred to as a “logo”, your blog button is a great tool to market your blog.  Blog buttons are typically square and are a combination of text and graphics.

If you are willing to fork over some cash you can hire someone to design a blog button for you.  Depending on what you are looking for, this can cost anywhere from about $50 to several hundred dollars.

Where can you find a designer? If your lucky like  I am you have a brother-in-law that is a graphic designer and is also nice enough to do it all for free!  If not, you have several other options for finding an affordable and talented designer.

1. Ask Fellow Bloggers.  Surely you have visited some blogs that have a great design.  Ask the blog author who they used and you will get some great recommendations. (There are also several bloggers in our group who are very talented!)
2. Online Maketplaces.  There are many sites (such at Etsy.com) that allow users to market their graphic design services.
3. College Art Departments.  Local college students are always looking for projects that they can use to help build a portfolio for their resume.  You should not expect college students to work for free but you will get great work at a really reasonable price.
4. High School Students.  Many high schools now offer graphic classes and have students that would love to design a logo for you.  Additionally, many schools around Arkansas have EAST (Environmental and Spatial Technology) Labs full of students doing all sorts of technology related projects.  When working with high school students always approach the teacher with your project ideas first.  The teacher can recommend a capable student and can organize all the details of the project.
5. Design it yourself.  Many bloggers design their own blog logos using tools such as Photoshop, Photoshop Elements or PicMonkey.  Check out our PicMonkey tutorial to help you get started creating your own logo.

Update (or get) your Gravatar Image

Gravatar stand for Globally Recognized Avatar.  This is the image that is automatically pulled when you leave comments on many sites around the internet.  The image is connected to both your email address and your blog address so it is important to make this image consistent with your blog.

1. Visit Gravatar
2. Enter your email address and click “Get Gravatar”.
3. Open the confirmation email and click the link.
4. Enter a user name and password.
5. Upload your blog logo and link it to your email.
6. Edit your account/profile and be sure to enter your blog information.

If you already have a gravatar account log in and update your image and your account/profile information.

Update your Social Media Profiles

Log in to each of your social media profiles and update your logo.  Profiles to consider include Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Klout.

Do take note that Facebook terms of service prohibit the use of your blog address in your profile picture or in your timeline cover.  Yes, many people do it but it is against the rules and Facebook does have the right to delete your blogs Facebook page if you break their rules.  You should keep this in mind when you design your logo.

In addition to updating your Social Media pictures you may also want to consider updating your bios.  Chances are that you set up each of these sites at different times and were not consistent with your bios.  Write a short bio that you can use across your social media channels.  Don’t forget to make plans to check and update your bio if needed about every 6 months.

Are you participating in Kick-start My Blog? Please enter your blog in the link below so we may keep up with your progress.  You will only need to sign up once throughout the course of the challenge.