Why Avatars are Crucial to Building Your Network
3 Ways an Eye Catching Profile Picture Can Accelerate Your Brand — and Portfolio
A strategy guide for building your online persona and riding the NFT trend, including industry secrets
From Snapchat’s Bitmojis to Facebook’s Avatars, illustrated profile pictures are becoming all the rage. A growing amount of online users are adopting profile pictures that are not their real face. But why?
- Anonymity— Create a unique and influential online persona without revealing your true face.
- Variety — Switch up your profile pic as a statement on current trends and political happenings. Have fun with different looks when the seasons change or during the holidays.
- Aesthetics — An avatar is someone’s first impression of your style, tastes and attitude. And hey, cartoon you looks damn good!
4. Togetherness- Form a bond with a community, increasing your network and prestige. A 2017 study out of Chang Gung University demonstrates that avatar use can enhance and accelerate the growth and success of online communities.
5. Adaptation — At times, it makes sense to flow with the current and demonstrate to followers and friends that you’re at the forefront of the latest trends. Or even better, change up your avatar to a solid new project that you know will be trending in the future.
6. Research — Exposure to avatar related projects and communities can expand your knowledge of digital art, NFTs and social media.
NFTs & Status Symbols
CryptoPunks, created by Larva Labs, is arguably one the most successful NFT project on the Ethereum blockchain to date. Owning one is a status symbol, and many celebrities including Jay-Z have donned the punks, originally distributed for free starting in June of 2017. The punks are viewed by a growing number of the elite as a luxury item and investment.
Many in the NFT community are trying to recreate the success of punks, with new projects being launched on a weekly basis. Many of these projects are instantly profitable, and some fail to maintain the value of the “original mint price,” meaning the cost of purchasing the NFT from the project founders. The end of this article includes tips on identifying trending new projects using simple analytics of auction house and blockchain activity.
Avatars & Telling Your Story
Why are avatars important?
Because a picture is worth 1000 words.
An avatar can tell your friends, fans and followers more about you than a video, article, or blog entry.
Your avatar is ever-present. Every single post you make is accompanied by it!
Make it count.
The best way to build your avatar portfolio is custom avatars. They are unique to your brand, assist you in accurately telling your story, and help you build a relationship with artists you collect from and support. If the artist who takes on your avatar project becomes widely successful, you’ll own one of their exclusive single editions.
Here’s some of my avatars and the story behind them.
Crypto Knight
The debut collaboration between myself and BTC_minimalist, released in October 2020 and features my original photo from April 2020 with Gerson dual cartridge respirator. I asked Amer to use my favorite heavy metal album cover for inspiration, Megadeth’s “Rust in Peace” (1990 — Capitol Records).
Freeze
After purchasing “Etched with Fire” in August of 2020 from artbymitrai, I displayed it on my wall as a physical painting, and fell in love with the golden glow and fiery aura.
I began to notice the subtle white and blue elements she incorporated. Who was she and what was her story?
It reminded me of how my own flames were rekindled after a few cold, solemn years of difficulty. I yearned to capture and memorialize that time in an avatar.
I reached out to Indrani and she agreed to take my somber photo and produce a work that reflected the energy of that time. She nailed it! It’s one of my favorite pieces.
CryptoGoro #14
When I completed the final edit of the CryptoHydrate Artist Collective’s second episode spotlighting Japanese digital artist Goro Ishihata, I reached out to him to get his approval to air the segment. He was thrilled and humbled to be featured, and asked if there was anything he could do in return. I sent him a photo of me wearing كُوفِيَّة and let him know if he ever needed any ideas for a CryptoGoro and made one with a turban, I would buy it immediately.
The next day, I was pleased to find that Goro had minted CryptoGoro #14, complete with turban and vivid background. I made the snag on OpenSea.
Check out my video covering CryptoGoros on YouTube:
The Art of Scouting for Unique Avatars
I recommend diversifying your avatar portfolio into 2 other major categories.
- Local art. Explore your local community and support artists there. Buy a poster or print from a local artist and take a high-res photo of it. Or, preferably, purchase a digital copy. Use their art as your avatar and link to their website or profile page in your bio.
In December 2020, I asked D-Ink to incorporate my photo into his Cicada 7 series. Make sure to check out his Instagram.
2. Mainstream NFT projects. Join a well known online community, or be part of the momentum of a new one. The creators of Fame Lady Squad have created a vibrant community, grabbing the attention of celebrities such as Gary Vaynerchuk and MC Hammer, and has had notable personalities donning the ladies as avatars. The brand loyalty and value being built around these different projects can cause the “floor price” of the NFTs to rise, making the right project a profitable investment. Many projects provide exclusive access to events, merchandise, and even additional works of art.
Blockchain avatar projects are not without controversy. The swarm of copycats that seek to catch the momentum of original projects is becoming a real concern for both artists and NFT auction houses. A DMCA notice was recently served to OpenSea after Larva Labs took action against CryptoPhunks V2, claiming copyright infringement for their flipped image copies of the Crypto Punks project.
Users buying into any NFT project should proceed with caution. Even one feature impacting a minority of NFTs on a project could be cause for a delisting of the project from not only auction websites, but even storage platforms. The directions below are for research purposes only and do not constitute financial advice.
Tips for Finding Trending NFT Projects
- Watch the gas tracker on Etherscan, and find contracts that are unregistered with Etherscan.io, then search on Twitter with the token tracker to uncover what project it is.
2. Search Opensea.io for new NFTs. OpenSea is the most widely used NFT exchange platform. This will expose you to anything minted on the platform. Blockchain is decentralized, and therefore, many auction houses like OpenSea only react to scams based on reports from users.
Scammers are making copies of legit projects on a daily basis. They will look and feel exactly like the correct project, with a slight variation in the name and a different contract. You can usually find the correct contract on the website of the NFT project, or their official Twitter account. If you are not extremely cautious, you will be scammed. Make sure to check thoroughly before buying into any NFTs that appear to be significantly below the average floor price of other NFTs under the same contract.
Sort on Opensea by activity. You can click the general link, or look at the specific activity for any user or project. See a user that is flipping NFTs and making money? Bookmark their profile and keep an eye out for their latest buys. Keep in mind, you could come across someone buying a scam on this feed, so make sure to still verify the contract.
You can also sort on OpenSea and Cargo, another NFT platform with great minting features, for “price low to high” and reveal lower priced & free NFTs. This is how I found hidden gems like the works of Goro Ishihata, as many new NFT artists wisely distribute free offerings to boost their collectors.
Final Thought on Avatars — They’re Here to Stay
Avatar culture will continue to grow, especially as gamers and virtual employees embrace augmented reality and metaverse experiences. My last tip for success with building your avatar portfolio is to follow the artists. Take a chance, reach out to an artist and order a print, do a collaboration, or ask for their recommendations for other artists to follow.
