Choose one profile image, usually the symbol from your logo fitted to a square with space around it, and use it on every account, so customers recognise the business at a glance wherever they meet it.

Four accounts, four faces

The Facebook page shows the logo from before the redesign. Twitter shows a photo of the owner at a trade show. The Google+ page behind the Google listing shows the shopfront, and LinkedIn shows a grey square.

Each was set up in a different year by someone different, using whatever image was to hand.

A customer who finds you on one network and checks you on another has to work out whether it is the same business. Some decide it is not.

Others decide it is, when they are actually looking at a competitor with a similar name.

Where the profile image appears

The fourth is the size that counts. A profile image is mostly seen small, and in a crowded list of notifications it is often the only thing identifying you.

Why they drift apart

Profile images are set once, when an account is opened, and rarely revisited. Nobody looks after them as a set.

When the logo changes, the website and the signs change with it. The profile images change only where somebody remembers, which is usually Facebook.

People also have different instincts. An owner who opened the Twitter account may prefer a face, the designer who set up the Facebook page wanted the logo, and a manager chose the building.

None of those choices was wrong on its own. Together they make one business look like four.

What the image has to survive

Most networks crop the profile image to a square. Google+ then shows it as a circle, and Twitter as a square with rounded corners.

It appears on white backgrounds and dark ones, on cheap phone screens and sharp laptop displays, often no bigger than a thumbnail.

Anything near the corners can be cut off, fine lines vanish, and small lettering becomes a grey smear.

A design that works in a website header can fail completely here, because it was never meant to be seen this small.

The symbol, not the whole logo

A wide logo with the full business name shrinks to illegibility inside a small square. The name is already printed beside the image on every network, so the image does not need to repeat it.

Use the symbol from the logo on its own, or the initials if the logo has no symbol. Centre it with generous space around it, so a circular crop leaves it whole.

Put it on a solid background in one of your brand colours, which keeps it visible on light and dark pages alike.

Save it large and square, several hundred pixels across, so it stays sharp on high-resolution screens. Each network will shrink it as it needs.

A worked example

A bee removal service with two trucks collects swarms in spring and removes established colonies from walls, roofs and sheds through the summer, for homeowners and property managers.

Its Facebook page showed the original logo: a cartoon bee with the full business name curved around it, unreadable at small size.

Twitter had a photo of the owner in a bee suit, and the Google+ page a swarm on a fence. LinkedIn, where property managers look, had a grey square.

One property manager found the business on Google, checked the Facebook page for reviews, and phoned to ask whether the two were the same company. Another bee removal service nearby has a similar name.

The fix was a square version of the logo: the bee alone, simplified, yellow on black, with space around it. It went onto every account in one afternoon, with the same short description and website address.

The owner's photo moved to the about page of the website, where it does its job better.

Faces and buildings

An owner's face works well for a business that is essentially one person, such as a consultant, a tutor or a photographer. Then the face is the brand, and it should be the same photo everywhere.

A shopfront rarely works. At thumbnail size a building becomes a grey rectangle with a smudge where the sign was.

Save the shopfront, the team and the work for cover photos and headers, which are large enough to show them.

Change them all on the same day

Make a list of every account: the network, the address of the profile, who has the login, and when the image last changed.

Then change every image in one sitting. A gradual change, one account a month, leaves the business looking split for longer.

Facebook announces a new profile picture to followers as an update, so expect a few comments, and then leave the image alone for a long time.

Keep the file wherever the business keeps its other brand files, so the next person who opens an account uses it rather than whatever is to hand.

The rest of the profile

The image is the first check customers make. The name, the short description and the website link are the second.

Use the same business name on every network, spelled the same way, with the same website address beside it.

A matching image with a different name next to it starts the same doubt all over again.

The counter-case

Some variety is fine. A seasonal touch for a week, or a different cover photo on each network, does no harm while the profile image itself stays recognisable.

A business with a strong personal brand may reasonably use the owner's face rather than a logo, provided it is the same face everywhere.

And a logo built from fine detail may need more than cropping. Simplifying the mark is a design job, not a resizing one.

The principle stays simple: one image, chosen for small sizes, on every account, and changed everywhere at once when it changes.

One image, every account

  1. List every account the business has opened.
  2. Screenshot each profile image side by side.
  3. Choose the symbol or initials from your logo.
  4. Fit it to a square with space around.
  5. Check it at thumbnail size and in a circle.
  6. Change every account in one sitting.
  7. Match the name and link beside it.

Step five catches the problem before customers do. An image that looks crisp on a large monitor can turn into an unreadable blob at the size people actually see it.

When the mark itself is the problem, the fix is covered in a glossy logo from the Web 2.0 years.

Frequently asked questions

Should every network have the same profile picture?

Yes. Customers checking you on more than one network should recognise the business at a glance. Different images make one business look like several and invite confusion with competitors.

Why not use the whole logo?

A wide logo with the full name shrinks to illegibility in a small square, and the name already appears beside the image on every network.

Will a circular crop cut my logo?

It can. Google+ shows profile images as circles, so centre the symbol with generous space around it and check how it looks inside a circle.

Is a photo of the owner a good choice?

For a business that is essentially one person, yes, provided the same photo is used everywhere. Shopfronts rarely work, since a building becomes a grey rectangle at thumbnail size.

Should I change the images gradually?

No. Change every account in one sitting, so the business never looks split, and keep the file where the business stores its other brand material.

What else should match across profiles?

The business name, spelled the same way, the short description and the website address. A matching image beside a different name raises the same doubt again.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Different faces on different networks?

Send us the links to your accounts. We will prepare one square image that works at every size they use.

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