No, you don’t have to post photos of yourself.

When the “faceless account” trend/scam/MLM swept Instagram a few years ago, I had to chuckle whenever I came across it. I’d already been doing this for years (without selling weird courses on it.)

At this point, you have to scroll a few years down my feed to get to a photo of my face (besides my 5 year old profile picture that I don’t look like anymore).

This goes for my website too — there is exactly one photo of me on it, from zero professional photoshoots. 

I have had multiple clients and friends comment on this admirably: “you seem like you have keeping your personal life out of your business figured out.”

Even, “I want my account to be more like yours — I want to show up as a business, not as an internet personality.”

My website and socials look consistent because I keep a consistent visual brand. And a big part of a brand, beyond the colors and logos and typography, is curating the photos you’re using to feel cohesive and “on brand” — aka “photography direction” or “art direction.”

You don’t need a huge professional photoshoot in order to create a fully “branded” website or post. Do professional photoshoots help? Absolutely. Do these methods perfectly replace them? No. But can you keep up a consistent brand aesthetic without fancy photos? Yes.

So, here’s my longer answer...

Of course, both of these tools are obvious and easy for me to implement because I’m a trained designer and art director. I have spent thousands of hours curating stock photos and fucking around in Photoshop, and you can build these skills too.

Because collecting and adjusting on-brand imagery is so important and is a very particular skillset that your average entrepreneur likely hasn't mastered, I include stock photos as a key aspect of all of my brands, at the very least in the form of custom-colored background textures to add some depth to text posts.

Unless you’re a professional photographer with an existing body of work in an extremely consistent style, you can probably benefit from building your stock photography library and coming up with a few filter combos that accentuate your brand colors and vibe.

Lastly, I know this goes against a lot of conventional advice out there, so let me address some of the counterpoints I hear most: 

If you're on Instagram, you're probably thinking: "the algorithm needs face pics or no one will see my stuff!" 

With all due respect (that is, infinite respect due to you, and none due to the algorithm), idgaf about the algorithm. 

Personally, my IG strategy is to pop in regularly in order to stay top of mind with people who already know me, who then remember to refer people to me when their friend needs a designer. That’s how my leads are usually generated, not directly from followers or views.

(This is also why I only post about once a week and don’t participate in reels trends or whatever tf we’re supposed to do to extend reach. Reach isn’t an important metric for me.)

If you rely on IG for leads and have noticed a difference between showing your face vs. not, this may not be the strategy for you.

And even if you're not on socials, there is mega pressure to show up as "having your shit together" and a big piece of this these days seems to be having a full photoshoot of you dancing / on a stool / behind a laptop in full glam. 

And again, this IS a helpful brand tool — but if you're at a budget, or even just at a mental place, where that is just not an investment you can justify, you don't have to do it.

Plus, having a selection of on-brand stock allows you to mix up the imagery on your site enough that you don't have to keep reusing photos. 

Caveat: you probably do want people to know what you look like if want you sell involves booking a call or time in-person with you — hence at least one photo of myself on my site and in my IG profile picture.