I’m not sharing a lot of pictures via Twitter, but I have done it, and I do it every now and then. I do it because pictures are awesome when it comes to telling a story.

Some stories are easier to tell using pictures.

It’s important to understand that Twitter is not only 140 characters of text. It’s easy to share audio, video, and there are several really interesting services available for free when it comes to sharing pictures.

I have only been using Twitpic and Ow.ly. That’s because they’re integrated in the Twitter clients I’m currently using. Twitpic is integrated in the one I’m using for my iPhone (Tweetie) and Ow.ly is integrated in the one I’m using on my Mac (Hootsuite).

I’ve been searching and I’ve found many interesting free tools that will help us share pictures via Twitter.

Here are a few:

Ow.ly
Twitpic
Twitgoo
TweetPhoto
pikchur
yfrog
picktor
TweeTube
TweetCube
TwitWall
Twadl
MobyPicture
Twixxer
Twitxr
SnapTweet
BeenUp2
Skitch
Posterous

Let me ask you this.

What’s your favorite way of sharing your pictures via Twitter?

… and, should I add other services to the list?

Thanks for reading.

Looks are important when it comes to Twitter. Looks are related to your appearance and who you are. I’m not talking about the physical you, I’m referring to your Twitter profile picture. And I’m not actually talking about being attractive, beautiful or sexy, I’m referring to authenticity.

You need authenticity in order for people to follow you, to be inspired by you and to connect with you.

Attention

Sexy women always get attention, even on Twitter. That’s why spammers are using sexy women as their profile pictures. This is not authenticity.

Adding a famous person, a celebrity, as your profile picture will also get attention. I’ve seen a lot of “fake celebrities” on Twitter, I’m talking about their images, not fake accounts. Well, I’ve seen that too. People like Jerry Seinfeld, Bono, Britney Spears, Barrack Obama, South Park, The Simpsons, you name it. It might be funny, but it’s not authenticity.

Personal vs Company

Many companies use their logo as their profile picture, or they use something related to their company. For instance, Southwest Airlines are using their logo, and AJBombers are using burgers. That’s ok, but I would go for personal if possible. Twitter is about being personal, it’s about connecting with people, real people. It might be hard for a huge company, like Ford to be personal, but they should try harder. They are using their logo as their profile picture, while they’re bio explains who are tweeting for Ford. On the other hand, when more than one person are tweeting, how would a small profile picture look?

Using Effects

There are many ways to use a Twitter profile picture. That’s what makes it so interesting. I’ve noticed that a lot of people don’t like to use their own picture, but they understand that they probably should. So, instead of using a plain old picture of themselves, they avatarize or add various effects to their profile picture.

Why being me is important

I enjoy seeing a photo of the person behind the tweets. A real photo, without any effects. It makes it more personal. Personal is important to me. I could have used a logo, or something completely different. I would probably have received a lot more attention that way, but in the long run, it’s about authenticity. It’s communication between real people, therefore, I haven’t found a reason why I shouldn’t be me.

By the way, this is me.

What about you?

It’s easy to change your Twitter profile picture. That’s not the question. The question is, what kind of Twitter profile picture do you like to see?