What do you see in an avatar?

I was taking a quick look at Tweetdeck today and realised that someone I follow had changed their avatar, so I'd missed some of their tweets when scrolling through that particular list. Nothing unusual in that, I know. But it annoyed me that they'd done it, because it made it harder for me to recognise their tweets.

And that got me thinking. It annoyed ME, but I know I am really particular about recognition and consistency, because that's what I do. But what about others? Maybe some people like the chameleons who are always changing their avatars. Maybe I'm just boring because I haven't changed mine once in 18 months. (Take a look: @JonathanAlder)

Now I'm not talking about the whole - 'your avatar should be your face because it's 'social' media and it's all about people to people' - scenario. I like to see a face, but our business account (@AlderandAlder) is the voice of our business, not any one person in it, and the face of our business is the logo (or at the very least one letter - which starts all three words in the name). Look at my personal account and you get to see me.

But what do you want from an avatar? Do you want to see the same thing, week after week, month after month - like a logo for Twitter? The reassurance of being able to spot someone's tweets the minute you launch Twitter? Or do you like variety? The chameleon approach, changing with the calendar - always something new and interesting?

Let me know what you think - I'm really interested to find out!