What does your Facebook photo say?

You with your kids. You with your dog. You all dressed up. No picture of you at all -- instead the logo of your favorite team.

What does your Facebook profile pic say about you? In a whole new way, we have the opportunity to put ourselves out there, every day. 

But what self do we choose, and why? 

"Yes, we play 'dress-up' with the avatars we choose, profile photos of ourselves we upload, and the way we fill out our Facebook profiles," says Howard Rheingold, a pioneer of social media who helped start the medium in the '80s, and now teaches at Stanford University and The University of California at Berkeley.

Rheingold points out that what you're trying to say with your photo, 

and what you actually say might be different things.

For instance, Rheingold says you might pose in front of something meaningful to you -- he poses in front of a leaflet-splattered wall in his profile pic. This intentionally gives people a message of who you are. But if you're also slouching and wearing sunglasses in the photo, you accidentally reveal that you also

 want to be seen as "cool."

What we reveal mostly is our values, says John McArthur, a Queens University of Charlotte assistant professor of communications, and another expert on social media. 

"The photo represents whatever that person is currently measuring success as," McArthur says. If you pose with your baby, you're sending a clear message about your current priorities. "Someone who is using Facebook as a dating tool will use a very flattering photo." 

So you might be unconsciously sending out romantic signals. (And what

 if your relationship status is "it's complicated"? Different blog topic.)

PR and marketing pro Trey Pennington, of Greenville, S.C., has 4,997 Facebook friends. The cap is 5,000, and he is sometimes "ranked" as No. 5 in the 

world in that category. He says, go professional with your pic -- clients might be watching. "I encourage people to put their best face forward with their profile picture." He quotes a friend as saying, "After all, it is called FACEbook."

The blog All Facebook (not affiliated with the company) recently did a rundown of what it termed the 30 Standard Facebook Profile Photo Styles. Among them: Posing with your kids, pets, or in front of a landmark. (My least favorite: "In A Mirror Shot." Umm, that's not exactly a Spielberg effect.")

I asked your thoughts on Facebook pics, and got swarmed. 

Charlotte author Aleigh Acerni, pictured in olive sweater, believes 

her photo says "No matter what hideous photos my evil friends post to Facebook and tag me with, here is proof that I am not, in fact, hideous. Most days." 

Ace

rni adds a pet peeve: "

I don't like it when people use their kid's (or pet's) picture as their picture. It's ... not them. And when you're trying to figure out if you know someone and want to accept their friend request, a pic of their kid is no help whatsoever."

Jeff Hartlage, an alum of UNC Charlotte, uses a photo of the 49ers football helmet as his profile pic, "to keep 49er Football in front of as many people as 

possible."

Lydia Stern, owner of the Beadlush Shop in Charlotte, uses a cartoon of her as a superhero as her profile pic. Why? "I want to get it all done and save the planet." 

Jocelyn Biggs' photo shows her in a pink T-shirt on a New Orleans' street on a recent vacation. Some experts be

lieve (and I agree) that a casual, face-front portrait like this is open and natural. Maybe the closest to your "real" self. "It shows the true Jocelyn," says Biggs, co-owner of Charlotte

event-planning company Pinkies Up.

Becca Schultz-Burger of Charlotte says of her pic with her dog, "Who doesn't like a black lab kissing them on the lips with the sunset in the background?!"

In the end, there's no right or wrong. There's just us. But which us do we want to be on Facebook today?

Tell me. Or better yet, friend me on

 Facebook, and show me.