Zombie avatar created at PopCap Games Halloween site.

Funny picture right? But this picture exemplifies my brand in a way. It seems that at some point in the last year who Tojosan is, what the Tojosan brand is, has gained a few facet. Hats.

Unintentionally my hats have become part of who I am on the web. It didn’t hit me in the face so much at first, but recently it’s really become noticeable.

Recent events where I’ve shown up have resulted in some of the following comments:

You were sitting there?

Hey wait, I didn’t recognize you without your hat.

Hey, that’s not THE hat.

Didn’t realize it was you without the hat from your profile.

Um, so my face is hard to recognize huh? Or what?

There have been several suggestions that I wear my current avatar hat to all meet ups.

The conclusion is that I’ve created a facet of the Tojosan brand by the frequent updating of the profile avatar. Along with that, I’m on a self portrait project and frequently have a reason to take fresh pictures. The variety of hats just makes it more interesting.

Further emphasizing the hats as part of the Tojosan brand, is the fact that folks have actually sent me hats. A coworker is even bringing in a hat to give me, and one fellow employee already did. Um, yeah, it’s part of the brand.

Some of you might reject this sort of thing. Honestly I have to ask why? Unless you, your brand, etc become associated with something on the dark side, it might just give you that bit of uniqueness you need to stand out.

The hats have become a great way for folks to recognize me in a crowd, a perfectly safe conversation starter, and oddly enough, a way that folks can share about me, aka Tojosan, that spreads.

Even first time meetings at events inevitably lead to questions about the hat in my current avatar. Then it becomes about the why or the where or the WTH.

Now it’s become such a part of my presence, fans and followers get bothered if suddenly my avatars are hatless.

All in all, I’m saying if you have something like this that folks latch onto, consider making it part of your branding. Heck, it really is already.

What’s your stand out or unique thing that folks recognize and talk about? Don’t have one? You could do worse than hats.

Paisano indulges himself with thoughts about the unchanging faces of social networks. Here’s an excerpt:

The way we communicate on social sites like Twitter and Facebook has to evolve at some point when it comes to expressing ourselves beyond just plain text. I don’t mean merely by using video which has already begun with services such as Seesmic, 12secs and Utterli. I’m talking about allowing us to use visual aids similar to the way we can use emoticons when text messaging. You know, those little smiley faces we add at the end of IMs on GTalk?

He challenges the notion that a static icon to represent us should be the standard, and discusses some presently used alternatives on some networks.

What do you think? Smileys? Rotating picture? Mood based pictures?

Drop by Paisano’s blog and leave your thoughts.

Please check out all Tojosan polls.