Showing up on social media without showing your face.
Now those that follow us on social media in 2025 are probably tired of seeing my face everywhere, but this hasn’t always been the case.
In 2011 it was 2 years after I started Altrincham HQ and I started networking and actually pushing my business (rather than just being a name on social media). At the start of Altrincham HQ, I was anonymous. Partly because I liked the fact of anonymity alongside my events business at the time, but also because I was overweight weighing in at nearly 20 stone.
I did a post about my weight loss on social media recently and all bar 2 comments (out of over 100 interactions) were overwhelmingly positive. They understood that my lived experience of being at that weight was valid and that I’d worked hard to lose weight and improve my health.
Lots of people are insecure about the way they look. It might be weight. It might be their nose. It might be their hair. It might be their age.
In truth nobody else really notices the person’s insecurities apart from the person themselves – they just see a face they recognise and stop or scroll on depending on whether they know the person (and if the words / caption are interesting or not).
But all this brings the question of can you show up regularly on social media without showing your face?
Yes, and here are 5 ways.
Text-Only Posts
People don’t realise that text-only still flies.
If you’re active on LinkedIn and Facebook (and more niche platforms like X / Twitter / Threads) don’t feel the need to put a selfie with every post or use a stock image.
For instance, out of my highest performing LinkedIn posts in the last 365 days
- 6 were text only
- 3 were photos
- 1 was a photo of my face
One of the main reasons I like text-only posts is they’re frictionless.
You have an idea.
You spend 5 minutes maximum writing it.
You double check the opening line has a hook to get people stopping
You post.
No faffing around looking for the right photos.
And importantly it still shows off your personality and character.
Voiceover Videos
We've all seen the popularity of short form video content on social media.TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, YouTube Shorts.
One thing I did this year was to really drill down on video content and it’s taken my monthly reach from around 750,000 people a month to well over 1.2 million people every single month.
Video, if you’re expected to show your face off, can be hard.
It can even be harder if you’re in an office or work from home.
Whilst I do show my face, it’s maybe only 20% of my total video output.
So early on I realised I could use Altrincham (where I live) and Manchester as the backdrop footage to my voiceovers.
It’s a win-win as people stop on the scroll because they see somewhere they recognise, but also the 15-30 seconds videos allow me to communicate a brief but important message.
People love to know what a person sounds like as it draws people closer to you.
Clients / Customers / Staff Photos
You don’t want to be on camera.
No issue.
Feature your customers or staff as possible, because they love being spotlighted and heroed.
For us featuring our customers is added value we offer alongside the social media training and social media management.
We have a big audience and they love being featured as it helps them reach new people.
Now it doesn’t matter whether you have 500 followers or 100,000 like us – you’re helping them get seen by new people.
And if you want to go for the extra bonus – ask them for a video testimonial about how good it is working with you.
Branded Graphics and Quote Cards
If you’ve read our content before you’ll know I’m against Death By Canva.
The same Canva templates and the same old boring quotes.
But when used well they work.
Good copywriting, unique quotes and mind-blowing stats will break through the noise on social media.
2 posts we do every single month are the
- Amount of people we’ve reached that month on social media (every month this year it’s been over 1 million people)
- Number of views of Google Photos (it’s currently over 54 million)
But there are random stories and quotes from every industry.
For example, one of the most serious industries such as Accountancy firms, every year the graphics on what people tried to claim on expenses always stand out. You’re going to stop if you see a graphic with “A business tried to claim their pet hamster on business expenses aren’t you”. Or a graphic that always seems to work “The price of Freddos are now £10”
Photography Without Faces
I’ve got a task for you on this one.
Spend 3 minutes writing down all the photos you could take in your day-to-day life that don’t involve your face
Think about
- Your office space
- Your town / city
- Your tools of the trade
- Objects with your brand colours
- Something you do for hobbies
- Your pet (dogs always for the win)
You’d be surprised at how many things you come up with.
I do a lot of running and I often take photos on my runs of signs / adverts / landscapes because I don’t want every photo of a run to be my sweaty face.
Some of the most well-known photos in the world by the best photographers in the world, don’t feature people or faces.
CONCLUSION
I’ve given you 5 ways above you can show up on social media without showing your face.
All of these will work for you.
But I’d encourage you to show your face.
Remember what I said at the beginning “In truth nobody else really notices the person’s insecurities apart from the person themselves – they just see a face they recognise”.
You don’t have to spend £££s on a personal brand shoot.
You don’t have to post your face every day.
If you’ve never ever shown your face on social media, why don’t you start with a small step. Just set the goal of having a photo of yourself on social media once every 2 weeks. Just a small step to get you used to putting yourself out there. 9/10 times the data will encourage you to do this more often.
NEED HELP WITH SOCIAL MEDIA FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Looking for authentic ways to grow your social media
Chat to us about Social Media Marketing for YOUR organisation , so we can better understand YOU and what will grow your organisation
We can only find out what is unique to your business by chatting with you
Look at our Social Media Training and Social Media Management services
We offer Social Media Training on
* LinkedIn
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* TikTok
* Blogging
We can do this
* 121
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Please call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk
