Twitter Profile Pic Testing

I saw a guy I happen to follow on Twitter do something interesting. He replaced his profile picture with an edited version in which he now had flowing, silky blonde hair framing his square, stubbled face. It was a bad photoshop job, but you can't really tell when you're looking at a 25x25 pixel thumbnail of it.

It will be interesting to see if he gets a lift in clickthroughs to his profile. Of course, once a visitor sees the image a little larger, they may choose not to follow him.

This got me thinking about the importance of how a profile picture is perceived by fellow Twitterers at such a small size. It's the only thing you have to capture someone's attention, so it should be clear, as attractive as possible, and probably accurate if you don't want to just bait people to your page. What your actual page looks like is another matter, but of equal importance.

Perhaps I should do some profile picture testing myself and see what happens. I think I'll skip the photoshop addition of long, blonde hair though, it just isn't me.