You’ve been doing it backwards.
You picked a niche. Built a content strategy around it. Created pillars. Made templates. Color-coded your feed. And somewhere along the way, you accidentally niched yourself into a box so small you can barely breathe in it.
Here’s what nobody tells you about “niching down”: it works brilliantly for business positioning. It’s killing your content.
The fitness coach who can only post workout tips. The marketing consultant who feels obligated to share “5 strategies” every Tuesday. The sustainable fashion brand trapped in a loop of eco-facts and product shots. They’ve all made the same mistake.
They niched their personality when they should have only niched their business.
The Difference Nobody Explains
Your business needs a niche. Crystal clear. Razor sharp. “We help X people solve Y problem.” That focus is how you position yourself, differentiate, attract the right clients.
But your content? Your content needs to feel like a human being created it.
Human beings don’t have content pillars. They have personalities. Opinions. Bad days. Random thoughts. Moments where they’re excited about something that has absolutely nothing to do with their professional expertise.
The brands and creators winning right now understand something fundamental: people don’t follow niches. They follow people they find interesting.
And interesting people aren’t interesting because they stay on topic.
Why Your Niche Content Stopped Working
Look at what’s happening with perfectly crafted niche strategies.
Post “5 Tips for Better Morning Routines.” Gets 47 likes. Post “The Secret to Productivity I Wish I’d Known Earlier.” Gets 63 likes. Post another carousel about your process. Gets lost in the feed.
Then, on a random Tuesday, post something different. A story about your kid saying something unexpectedly wise. A frustrated rant about your internet going out. A photo of your absurdly overpriced coffee with a caption about justifying the expense.
That post? 400 likes. 50 comments. Three DMs from people saying “This is the most I’ve ever related to your content.”
It’s not a fluke. It’s the algorithm saying that personality is more interesting than niche.
Platforms have fundamentally shifted what they reward. They’re not asking “Is this content relevant to this person’s interests?” They’re asking “Will this content make this person stop scrolling?”
Niche content—no matter how valuable—rarely makes anyone stop scrolling. Because it looks like everything else they’ve already scrolled past today.
Personality though? That’s unique. That’s unexpected. That’s the thing that makes someone think “Wait, I want to see what else this person has to say.”
The Strategic Case for Being Human
This isn’t about abandoning strategy. This is about understanding what the actual strategic advantage is.
Competitors can copy content pillars. They can replicate posting schedules. They can create similar carousels about the same topics. They can even do it better with more resources.
But they can’t copy personality. They can’t replicate the specific way someone sees the world. They can’t fake the genuine moments that make people feel like they actually know you.
Personality is the only truly defensible competitive advantage in a world where everyone has access to the same tools, platforms, and AI content generators.
And right now, most brands are hiding it behind “brand consistency” and “staying on message,” terrified that posting something off-niche will confuse their audience.
But here’s the truth: nobody is confused about what you do. They’re just not interested in following someone who only talks about one thing.
The Framework: 80/20
80% of your content should serve your business niche. 20% should serve your humanity.
That 80% is doing the heavy lifting. It’s establishing expertise. It’s demonstrating value. It’s giving people a reason to hire you or buy from you.
But that 20%? That’s where the magic happens.
That’s where you post about the book you’re reading that has nothing to do with your industry. Where you share the terrible advice you got early in your career. Where you document the mundane reality of your actual day—not the highlight reel version.
That 20% is doing something niche content can never do: it’s making people care about you as a person, not just as a service provider.
Notice what’s happening here: the 20% isn’t off-brand. It’s off-topic.
You’re not suddenly becoming a different business. You’re just acknowledging that you’re a business run by actual people who have lives beyond the niche.
Roger Wakefield runs a plumbing business. He’s also one of the most followed plumbers on TikTok. His content isn’t just plumbing tips, he participates in trending dances, does duets with random creators, joins viral moments, posts content that has nothing to do with plumbing. Those posts bring massive visibility. Then, when he posts actual plumbing expertise, that massive audience is already there.
His personality content built the audience. His niche content converted them.
The Algorithm Is On Your Side
Platforms want you to do this.
Instagram isn’t rewarding perfectly curated grids anymore—hashtags don’t even work the way they used to. TikTok doesn’t care if your videos “match your brand aesthetic.” LinkedIn has stopped pretending anyone wants another carousel about leadership.
The algorithm, across every platform, is hunting for content that generates genuine engagement. And genuine engagement comes from genuine connection. Not from perfect value delivery.
When you post something that’s just human, people engage differently. They don’t just like it and scroll. They comment. They share. They save. They DM you. Because it gave them something to actually respond to beyond “Great tips!”
Platforms are measuring dwell time, saves, shares, meaningful comments—all the signals that indicate someone actually stopped and connected with the content.
Your perfectly polished, on-brand, niche-specific content? It’s optimized for acknowledgment.
Your spontaneous, personal, slightly-off-topic content? That’s optimized for connection.
Guess which one the algorithm rewards in 2025?
The Fear Holding You Back
“But what if people unfollow me when I post off-topic?”
Some will. And those people were never going to become clients anyway. They were passive followers who weren’t invested.
The people who stay—and the new people who find you because you posted something human—those are your actual audience. The ones who will hire you, buy from you, refer you.
You’re not losing audience. You’re filtering it.
“What if I lose my authority?”
Authority doesn’t come from only ever talking about expertise. It comes from demonstrating expertise while also being a credible human being.
Think about the experts you actually trust most. Do they only speak in frameworks? Or do they balance their expertise with honest stories about failures, learning curves, real experiences?
Authority without humanity reads as theory. Authority with humanity reads as wisdom.
How to Start
First, audit your last 20 posts. How many were pure niche content? How many revealed anything about you as a person? If it’s 20/0, you’ve found your problem.
Second, define your personality pillars. What do you care about outside your niche? What makes you laugh? What frustrates you? What parts of your life would your audience find relatable? Those become the topics you have permission to post about even when they don’t directly relate to your business.
Third, redesign your content calendar. Plan your 80% and leave gaps for your 20%. Mark specific days as “spontaneous content windows”—moments when you’re encouraged to post whatever feels true that day.
Fourth, track the data. For 30 days, post your 80/20 mix. Then look at which posts got saved most. Which generated actual conversations. Which brought profile visits or inquiries.
You’ll likely find that personality content amplified engagement—and made your niche content perform better because more people were paying attention overall.
Measure saves, shares, profile visits, and meaningful comments. Not just likes.
What This Means Starting Monday
Stop trying to come up with the next perfectly strategized post about your niche.
Instead, ask: “What’s something true to share today?”
Not useful. Not valuable. Not strategic. True.
Maybe it’s a moment of frustration. An observation. Excitement about something unrelated to work. A story that made you think.
Post that.
Then tomorrow, go back to expertise. Share the framework. Deliver the value.
But let today be the day you remind your audience that you’re a person first and an expert second.
The brands who win aren’t the ones who stay perfectly on-brand. They’re the ones who build brands around their actual personality instead of trying to fit their personality into a pre-determined brand.
Your business needs a niche. Your content needs you.
Stop confusing the two.
If your content feels trapped between “too corporate” and “too random,” and you need help finding the balance that actually drives results, get in touch via our contact page.
FAQs
1: How do I find my niche as a content creator or brand?
Your business niche should be clear: “We help X people solve Y problem.” That’s what goes in your bio and on your website. But don’t confuse that with what you’re allowed to talk about. Your niche defines what problem you solve, not every topic you can discuss. A fitness coach’s niche is fitness. That doesn’t mean they can only post workout tips. They can post about their failed meal prep, their thoughts on productivity, their opinion on whatever show they’re watching. The niche is for your business. Your personality is for your content. Most brands get this backwards.
2: What type of content performs best on social media right now?
Content that feels human. Platforms measure saves, shares, comments, and how long people actually watch. Signals that someone connected with your post, not just scrolled past it. Your polished expert content gets a polite like. Your spontaneous, personal content gets saved and shared. And here’s what matters: when people engage with your personality content, the algorithm shows them your expert content too. The personality posts make people pay attention to everything else.
3: How do algorithms treat personality content vs niche content?
Algorithms don’t care about your niche. They care if your content makes people stop scrolling. Your niche content looks like fifty other posts people already scrolled past today. Your personality content is different because nobody else has your specific take on things. Platforms ask “Will this make someone pause?” not “Is this relevant to their interests?” That’s why a plumber’s dance video outperforms their plumbing tips. The algorithm rewards the unexpected. Your personality is the most unexpected thing you can post.
