What does your profile picture say about you?

Whether it’s a photo of you on a night out or of you cuddling your newborn baby, the image you choose to represent you on social-networking sites says a lot about you

WHAT DO YOU think of you? It's a question most people don't consider outside of dubious self-help books and reruns of Oprah, but it's one we are answering constantly, subconsciously or not, by how we represent ourselves in social media. Since the dawn of Bebo, we've been told to be careful of what photos we put online. Compromising photographs of wild nights out and house parties are pored over by employers to determine whether someone with a photo album called "Jägermeister-related injuries" on their Facebook page would make a reliable trainee accountant.

Although privacy as a concept is constantly being eroded, the message about what’s appropriate to post online and what is not is getting through to most nondigital natives. But what about the image you choose to represent yourself?

Facebook profile pictures are the visual projection to friends, family and sometimes mere acquaintances (“I don’t know him, but I’m friends with him on Facebook”) of who we are and what we are like. On Twitter, profile pictures are often the first and sole visual introduction people have to each other (“We haven’t met, but I follow them on Twitter”). So what does yours say about you?

Twitter avatars or profile pictures tend to last longer than those on Facebook, which change more frequently. The Twitter photo is smaller and perhaps more significant, as it also represents you to strangers, giving the user just millimetres squared to make the right impression.

There are subtle differences between the types of pictures women and men choose to represent themselves online, more evident on Facebook than on Twitter. “Females tend to look at not quite, ‘Does my bum look big in this?’ but, ‘Do I look good in it?’ ” says the communications consultant Terry Prone, “whereas a man will often look for an association, being with somebody or a token – the Sam Maguire, for example – that associates them with something they admire.”

While the genders may approach their profile pictures in different ways, there are 12 categories that capture most types of profile pictures.

The press shot/professionally taken photo

You are using social media for purely business or career purposes. You want people to see you as an “executive” or, as Prone says, “Role first, relationship second.”

Photo with your baby or child

Highlighting a sense of achievement and generally more interested in a response from women than for men.

Photo with a partner

You view your other half as the most important thing in your life, and yourself as one half of a duo. “They want to be seen with them and are visually introducing them,” Prone says.

Photo taken on a night out

Generally younger, carefree, wanting to project an image of being fun and popular.

Holiday photo

Escapist and keen to show a different side to themselves from what they do from day to day. “For some people, their holidays are where they become most real,” Prone says. “Holidays are the times that give them very special memories, especially if they do active holidays, and they very much want to realise the image of, ‘I’m that kind of person.’ ”

Childhood picture

Wasn’t everything better back in the day? Using a childhood photo shows something of a reluctance to grow up and face the future. Heavy on nostalgia and sentiment, it’s also a bit of fun.

Caricature

“It’s kinder to play with one’s own image than someone else’s,” Prone says. Using a caricature is a way of saying that your image isn’t rigid and that you don’t take yourself too seriously. Choosing a caricature can also be perceived as a form of distancing: you’re uploading a representation of yourself instead of an actual picture of yourself.

Photo related to your name, but not actually you (a shop sign, or product label for example)

You want to be identifiable, yet you feel your name more important than your image. A behind-the-scenes type of person who isn’t overly comfortable with being too showy.

Photo related to your political or sporting beliefs

You associate what you’re interested in as intrinsic or even more important than who you are. Your beliefs and interests outweigh your personality. “Be careful of this,” Prone warns, “because who knows what in the future will be regarded as a negative emblematic representation.”

Photo with a celebrity

Associated importance. “I always think that’s kind of pathetic,” Prone says. “It’s referred glory: ‘I’m not important, but look who I met.’ ” Although perhaps it depends on the celebrity: standing next to Katie Price has different connotations from standing next to Hillary Clinton.

Self-portrait taken with webcam/camera phone

Functional. “It says, ‘Look, I don’t do dress up: take me as I am.’ It’s real,” Prone says.

Logo of your business or company

You use social media in a professional capacity, and you believe the importance of your business supersedes that of your personality.

Now, off you go to change your profile pic.