The secret to growing a brand Instagram (without showing your face!)

Have you been wanting to start and grow a brand on Instagram, but decided against it because you don’t want to show your face? There are a lot of reasons someone might not want to show their face on their Instagram - maybe you don’t have the time to take photos of yourself that stay on brand, or maybe you’re just a little shy and lack the confidence - but no matter the reason, it’s 100% possible to grow a brand on Instagram without showing your face - so what are you waiting for? Grab your pen and paper or preferred note-taking device - and keep reading!

Before truly diving into some actionable steps you can take to grow a “no-face” brand on Instagram, let’s talk about the pros and cons of not showing your face.

The PROS of not showing your face are …

You can create templates for most types of post formats

It makes batching easier - since most of what you create would be graphics
Your writing as your brand, not yourself - which is less pressure than people judging you as a person
It gives you a sense of privacy

The CONS of not showing your face are …

Less personal connection to your audience

It’s more challenging to humanize a faceless brand
Both of which can make it difficult to grow your audience

Let’s take my personal brand and the Creatorly Media Instagram for example - these two are the perfect example of a personal brand, where I am present and show my face versus a “faceless” brand, where there is no one person behind the brand - it’s a team. Now, obviously, I have been working on my personal brand for years, which is why the amount of followers is so high, but with Creatorly - We started the Creatorly Instagram back in May of 2021 and had a decent of followers (around 800) due to mentioning this new Instagram page on my existing personal platforms - but after that, I stopped mentioning the Instagram page and we still kept seeing consistent growth. Since late June, we have gained over 1,300 followers and have a reach of 300-1000 impressions per post - with barely showing our faces.

Let’s start talking about different faceless types of feed posts you can create ...

TikTok Reshares: You might have noticed us resharing TikToks on our Creatorly Media Instagram as part of our strategy. Resharing TikToks as a Reel not only helps expand your reach but also is a great way to network with other creators. If you want this to be an effective strategy, there are three things you must do - one, make sure to remove the TikTok watermark. I use a website called SnapTik and it works great. Two, you need to give the original creator credit for their work. We always put “TikTok by” and then their Instagram handle. This brings me to the third step, make sure you take the extra step to find their Instagram handle. It’s possible their Instagram handle is different from their TikTok username, so make sure to take the extra time to make sure you’re tagging the right person. TikTok reshares have helped us share fun, valuable content - without having to show our own faces and helps us build relationships with both our audience and the original creator.

B-Roll Reels: This would just be a Reel where you use stock footage. You can pair this with music, text, or even a voiceover. This is another way to stay on the video train, without having to show your face. You can find stock footage on Canva, Pexels, Storyblocks, etc.

Stock Photos: If you want to humanize your brand, but aren’t wanting to show your face - you could always use copyright-free photos. Need a shot of someone on their phone, search “using phone” in the Canva photos and voilà - you will be met with an abundance of folks posing with a phone. Maybe you want to post a photo of someone climbing a mountain, done. There are a lot of different platforms for stock photos as well, Canva and Pexels both have photos, as well as a website I enjoy using, Social Squares.

Reels/Photos of your surroundings: We said “faceless” brands, not brands that don’t involve you or your surroundings. You could take a picture of your office space, maybe a coffee shop you visited - you can add a splash of your personal life without having to be the star of the show. One great example of this could be an interior designer - you could have a faceless brand - where you inspire others to do projects around their homes, but you share photos of the interior design work you have done in your own home or the homes of others.

Graphics: This one might sound obvious, but there are so many different types of graphics you can create. One Instagram account I want to shout out is @theeverygirl - this is a perfect example of an account that does a mixture of all of the above and graphics - without ever showing the face behind the post. Here is a list of the various different graphic styles you can create.

Carousels
Graphs or Charts
Quote Graphics
Lists or Steps
Memes

If you add a variety of these graphic styles to your strategy, along with some of the other mentioned post types - this will provide you with a well-rounded feed, without 👏🏻ever👏🏻showing👏🏻your👏🏻face.

Now, what about stories? How can you be present in your stories if you’re not showing your face. Well, have you noticed on Creatorly that we post a story everyday … again, without showing the faces behind the brand?

Here are a few different types of stories you can create without showing your face ...

Story Graphics: This is the main one you will see on the Creatory Media stories. We create graphic design stories ahead of time that we schedule through Later (and btw, if you need help on how to create and schedule your stories, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube, channel Creatorly Media, a video on how to do just that is coming Wednesday).

With these types of stories…

You can promote your brand’s other platforms, like a podcast or a blog.

You can do a Q&A, answering your audiences most frequently asked questions.

You can shout-out your community and show your appreciation.

Share Content: Something else you can do on your stories without showing your face is sharing your content and the content of others. Did you see a post from someone else in your niche that supports a post you just made, share it - and while you’re at it, tag the person … This might just help build your network and community. Maybe you saw a powerful reel that spoke to you, share it. Sharing content to your stories is a great way to make sure your audience sees your content, but also is great for networking.

Your Surroundings: Using the same concept as mentioned for your feed, you can take videos or photos of your surroundings to use for your stories as well. Maybe you have a busy day ahead of you, so you share a photo of your laptop and coffee - saying “it’s time to get to work on (insert niche-specific project here).” This helps create a small, personal connection - without sharing too much.

The true secret to growing a brand (without showing your face) is by experimenting - just like you would with any other brand style. You have to find what works for you, your brand, and your audience. I would suggest trying out a mix of the above and finding a strategy that works best for you. You can follow the Creatorly Instagram to watch how we continue adjusting our strategy to grow our brand - I also recommend checking out The Every Girl and Girl Boss on Instagram, both are great examples of faceless brands that are making it work!