On A Rejection of Niche or How I Learned To Give Up The Algorithm's Gamification of My Content in Pursuit of Creative Freedom

Niches are overrated and creatively stifling. If you've found yourself feeling this way, how about you just stop.

If you’ve tried to build community on social media, then you’ve heard this before: you have to chose a niche. 

Interested in cooking? Well you better drill down into whether your content will focus on cake decorating, edible flowers, or vegan recipes you can make in 30 minutes or less. Interested in fashion? Well you better figure out your angle. Are you a sustainable fashionista? Shabby-chic impresario? Collector of obscure knits and prints? 

But what about those of us who struggle to pick a niche. 

I have, for the last 10 years, been toying around with community building both professionally and personally in this social media space. And I can, from first hand experience, attest to the power of picking a niche. 

When I relaunched Claire Which Project, I decided to focus on my writing, specially my poetry. I spent 5 months only posting poems to my feed, interspersing them with pretty colored travel pictures, and guess what: my follower count grew. Actually, it exploded. With the help of targeted hashtags, I went from 2000 followers to 7500 followers. My content was being shared with people around the world. Seemingly I had cracked the influencer code and was on my way to a book deal and getting sponsored by Topo Chico (okay maybe not either of those last two).  

But somewhere in that time span, I was creatively spinning out. I was struggling to generate writing I was genuinely proud of in a cadence that matched my posting strategy (everyday for growth baby!). And I soon ran out of travel photos to intersperse the writing posts with.  And quite frankly, I was kind of bored. Churning out mediocre poetry to feed the algorithm felt worse than churning out nothing at all. 

During this time, I was in grad school and wanted to post other stories anyway. I wanted to share recipes for cheap ways to fancy up microwave ramen. I wanted to share my tricks for how I was caring for my curls on a student budget. But none of this was in my “niche”. 

So I revamped a second instagram account (fka @theinsatiablelife, but now called @insatiablyclaire) which I originally created for my travel photos, way way back when I thought travel could be my niche.

I made a big announcement on my main IG page and told all my followers to find me on that account for my food and beauty products.  Now with dedicated spaces to share my disparate interests, I tried once again to generate more shareable writing. I explored NYC, taking pictures in my hometown hoping those photos could suffice for my lack of content taken in far flung places. 

At first, this felt like the correct move. But now I had two accounts to maintain and the decision fatigue of what to post where constantly bogged me down. What if I wrote a poem about beauty - shouldn’t that go on my beauty specific page too? And why wouldn’t my followers on my main page occasionally want a $5 easy-to-make at home recipe - isn’t that where my grad school friends were following me? Each post became a mini identify crisis which led to the worst outcome: a lack of enthusiasm about writing or posting or sharing anything at all. 

I had niched myself into writer’s block. I was stuck in a stasis marred by deep confusion and existential despair because every social media post somehow made me question who I was, what I do, why I do it, and who I do it for. 

Truly, that’s way too much mental anguish for a post about how best to use fermented rice water in your DIY beauty products (PS - I never ended up writing that post - cue more despair).  

Which has led me to my announcement today. 

No more niches. I am done. I am a human being with tons of interests, likes, dislikes, hobbies, and passions. I refuse to split myself up any longer. I am tired of catering to multiple audiences on multiple platforms. I am sick of worrying about how the algorithm will categorize and respond if I, heaven forbid, allow my multitudes to coexist in one space. This type of constant long division of the self does not suit me and no longer serves my higher purpose (which by the way, I still don’t know what that is). 

If you can’t take my writing, mixed with an occasional recipe, sandwiched between two spicy memes, and decorated with a rant about celeb skincare lines, then I guess I’m just not the creator for you. 

I am seeking liberation from my work and niches have become a type of prison that prioritizes 1s and 0s and clickbait titles and hashtags and stats and engagement over why I came to these social media platforms in the first place: to explore and share my creative work and interests, ideally with unfettered restrictions. 

So feeling boundless these days, I’ve decided to reject any boundaries on what of my content goes where, when, and for whom. If that means slower follower growth, or even no follower growth, then I will happily take it, come what may. 

And for those who have found clarity, joy, and even success by zeroing in on a niche: Good for you.

Keep hustling,

Claire

Disclaimer: I write these pieces fast, alone, and often times in between meetings and calls. If you find a blaring typo - you can either ignore it or be a doll and **kindly** suggest an edit in the comments. Maybe I’ll take it. Maybe I won’t. Welcome to Myspace 2022, there are no rules here, just a dash of chaos and good vibes only.