The internet is a social mecca of knowledge. People love to be seen, and that’s where social media comes in.. it’s everywhere, like a Visa card. Having your profile picture on just about everything you do is essential to streamline your content and make your brand recognizable. I mean YOU are your brand right? Your profile image is like your logo or for the internet we call it your Avatar. Scrolling through Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram our eyes are quick to jump to the people’s profile picture we know and when it changes we want to take another look at it to make sure it is our friend or who we think it is.
One way to help streamline your profile picture or online ID on sites outside of social media like blogs, articles, or just about any content you write is to make sure you have a Gravatar. What’s that you ask? Well, instead of having to upload your profile image on every blog you write guest content for all you have to do is change your picture in one place and most sites just pull in your picture. It’s great! It also comes in handy when you take your new picture and want to show it off to the world. You don’t have to go to every site and change it, you just go to the Gravatar website and update it in one place. Then the next time you visit a blog that’s using Gravatar you’ll see your updated image and if you’re lucky, the site has enabled Hovercards and… well that’s just another post I’ll talk about soon.
So here is a step-by-step guide on how to create a Gravatar account and get set up the RIGHT way!To get your Gravatar set up the correct way, perform the following steps:
- Head to Gravatar.com
- Sign in with WordPress or click the Create Your Own Gravatar button.
- Sign in using your WordPress credentials and skip to step 4 or if you are creating a new account skip to sub-step
- Enter your email, a unique user name, and strong password
From there expect to wait a few moments while Gravatar creates your account and then sends you an email to confirm you are a real person and that the email address you are using is in fact active.
- Open your email and click the ‘Activate Account’ button to continue.
- You will be directed to a WordPress.com dashboard where you’ll notice a user icon in the top left corner. Click that icon to be taken to the ‘My Profile’ page.
- Here is where you will enter your all the information in your profile and click the SAVE PROFILE DETAILS button when you’re done.
- Once you’ve completed the top section you’ll want to make sure you enter in a few profile links in section below. These links will be displayed on some sites when people hover over your icon. So it’s a great place to link them to your website or any of your social profiles.
- Click on Account Settings on the left side bar. Make sure the Username, Email Address, and Web Address are all filled out.
- Feel free to edit the Security, Privacy, and Notification Settings to your preference.
Once you’ve completed these you can either head back to the ‘My Profile’ page from the sidebar and click the preview link to see your profile or head back over to Gravatar and add any more email addresses you want to use.
To add more emails click the My Gravatars tab at the top of the page and then choose Add Email Address. You’ll be sent a confirmation link to make sure the email address exists and then you’ll see it become active in your Gravatars.
That’s it. Now when you login to certain sites and enter your email you’ll notice them start to pull in your Gravatar image. Try it out below by leaving a comment with your new fresh Gravatar!