Guide: How to Start a "Faceless" Instagram Account for Your Small Business
There is a fascinating trend emerging on Instagram lately... the rise of so-called “faceless” accounts - profiles featuring no images of the actual person running the account.
These anonymous Instagram presences amass tens or even hundreds of thousands of followers through consistent stylized content, messaging, inside jokes, and themes.
But before we dive in, let’s be clear: we are talking about the aesthetic and content style of Faceless accounts. We do not recommend the business model of these trending Faceless Accounts and what they sell — which is Master Resell Rights, or MRR.
These accounts just resell Courses You can Resell. Promising that you can make Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars without any experience or Knowledge. This practice in our humble opinion, is a fleeting business and on the verge of giving people pyramid scheme vibes.
Plus it’s a super saturated market these days, and our guess is that it makes it a lot less likely that new Faceless Instagram accounts will grow as rapidly as the first ones.
But let’s talk about the Faceless Content as it comes to aesthetics and format, because they may be on to something… and you can include this style of content, no matter what you sell.
These Faceless Instagram accounts seemingly exploded in popularity thanks largely to Gen Z's desire for more privacy and anonymity online. Unlike constantly manicured "influencer" accounts, faceless profiles remove pressure around physical appearance and offer creators more autonomy over curating an aesthetic and persona completely detached from their real-world identity.
While we love personal branding, and we think people truly buy from people, we can understand the intriguing nature of creating a "faceless" account for your business, your brand, or a supplemental place to create content!
Let's do a deep dive into everything you need to know about starting and maintaining an appealing faceless account. From gaining that vital first follow to keeping your anonymity intact.
Choose An Appealing Aesthetic
With no personal photos or information to introduce followers to “you,” the first step lies in curating an aesthetic vibe for your account. This starts with choosing a distinct username and handle relevant to your account’s interests, perspectives, or general social observations.
Next, design a profile avatar and banner establishing the mood. Use some of our Canva templates to help create something sleek even without images of you. Stick to simple, symbolic graphics, illustrations, patterns, textures, colors, and text overlay conveying your persona.
”Faceless” Canva Templates to start your Instagram Account
Build out a detailed yet cryptic bio alluding to your general posting themes or perspectives. Intriguing one-line account taglines also help summarize the essence of your presence and voice.
Post Share-Worthy Content Consistently
The main focus of Instagram is to post captivating imagery and videos, that stop people from scrolling, and get them to engage with the post. So take a page from viral “faceless” accounts thriving today by sharing:
Niche memes tailored to specific fan communities
Hot takes on trending topics delivered through engaging graphics
POV videos conveying interesting perspectives minus showing you
Photo diaries of places visited or activities done anonymously
A consistent feed aesthetic conveying “your vibe” through color schemes, filters, etc
Some examples include: @workinsocialtheysaid, @sundayscaries, @facelessmethod
Interact With Your Growing Audience
Just like with any other Instagram strategy community and content go hand in hand... even if you aren't showing your face! You will want to respond to any comments or DMs received even if keeping things vague about your personal details. You should also focus on asking questions to spark conversation, and add polls to engage your followers. Humanizing your anonymous presence through regular interactions helps securely devoted long-term followership.
Maintain Your Anonymity
If your aim is to remain FULLY anonymous, ensure you post no identifiable location tags, references to real life relationships, or other personal information liable to connect your Instagram activity to your real-world self.
You can adjust certain settings within the platform too like: turning off any face/people tagging ability or restricting interactions solely to the app itself by not linking out to any other social media accounts either.
Why Followers Can’t Get Enough of Faceless Accounts
So what exactly is driving more and more Instagram users - especially younger demographics - to not only follow but actively champion these anonymous accounts amassing tens or hundreds of thousands of dedicated followers?
The behind-the-scenes mystery and intrigue draws interest
Followers enjoy speculating on the “real” person behind popular accounts
Removing personal images/info reduces pressure creators feel around perfecting content
Spotlight lands more on showcasing interests, art, or commentary rather than appeasing algorithms with flawless selfies
Younger users wary of privacy issues or future career impacts look to anonymize their digital footprints
Basically, people feel more free to just be themselves. The right combination of consistency and anonymity lets personalities shine through.
Should You Create a Faceless Account Too?
Crafting a popular “faceless” presence offers creative opportunities minus the pressure influencers face around physical appearance, life documentation, cancel culture consequences, privacy erosion, and SO much more.
It can give content control back to creators. You get to meticulously curate everything the public sees about your account rather than contend with the messy realities of an overexposed personal profile.
Just know anonymity can limit your earning potential in certain aspects. Monetization options outside of account shoutouts, or selling custom merchandise related to your account aesthetic/interests, is often limited since most people still like to know who the small business owner is behind the brand.
But for creators, hobbyists, bloggers, artists, activists, fandom aficionados, aspiring comedians, critics, niche experts, this type of Instagram account and strategy just might work!
“fACELESS” CONTENT CANVA TEMPLATES
If this is an account style you want to pursue, but you aren't sure how to get started with content, make sure you check out our Canva template membership for a ton of "faceless" content templates!
Manu Muraro is the founder of Your Social Team, an Instagram training membership and content shop to help social media managers and Instagram savvy women entrepreneurs to beat the algorithm and grow their organic engagement (yes, even in 2021).
This year she also launched Your Template Club, a Canva Template subscription to provide social media managers and Instagram savvy business owners with content templates designed for engagement in their inbox.
Born and raised in Brazil, Manu moved to the U.S. in 2000 right out of college to work for Cartoon Network, where she made an award winning career in creative and strategy. In 2017, Manu started Your Social Team with the mission of helping women entrepreneurs and social media managers grow engagement and sales through Instagram without the overwhelm.