Big creators don't have niches. They do this instead.

0:00Okay, take a look at this. This is the strategy that you actually need to grow as a content creator in 2026 if you hate the idea of picking a niche. Growing on YouTube is not as simple as having a niche. In fact, narrowing down to one very specific topic and only ever making videos about that is not only gonna lead to creative burnout for you, but it's also gonna lead to burnout for your audience

0:22because they're gonna get sick of that. Top creators know that having a niche is a lot more complicated than you might think. I created what I'm calling the hierarchy of niche to explain how you can craft a simple yet effective strategy for growth, not only on YouTube, but across social media as well. And thanks to Mini Chat

0:40for sponsoring today's video. Okay, so let's just answer the question that I know you're dying to ask, which is do I need a niche to grow on social media in 2026? The answer is no, but also yes. Look, I know nobody wants a niche anymore. I feel like having a niche has become this dreaded concept among content creators that everybody is fighting against, but I really wanna reframe

1:03the idea of what a niche is. We usually think of picking a niche as choosing something super specific, like interior design or vegan recipes, or even something hyper specific as like planning Disney vacations or board game reviews. And trust me, there are people with entire channels dedicated to those topics that are making a

1:23living creating about that. But people who wanna be lifestyle creators generally hate this idea. But I wanna make content about me and what I like. Well, you can do that too. There are two general approaches to niche and this is what makes up the base of the niche hierarchy. So we're gonna split this in half because we've got subject focused niches

1:45and self focused niches. Okay, so let's start by talking about subject focused niches. This is more so what you typically think of when you hear the word niche. So with this approach, you choose a topic and it needs to be specific enough to be cohesive, but also varied enough to not get boring or repetitive. I think the easiest way to understand these different types of niches

2:05is to tell you some examples. So I've got a selection of creators that I personally love to watch. So one subject focused niche creator that I love is City Nerd. All of his videos are about urbanism and city designs. Cohesive, cause he's always talking about the same topics, but there are so many cities all around the world that he can use as case studies

2:25that it keeps it quite varied. I also love Wendy the food scientist who shares plant-based healthy recipes, Makari Espy who does sports and like self-improvement challenges and by Jacqueline who talks about history and travel. I would categorize all these creators as subject focused. They are of course sharing themselves and their own opinions and perspectives, but it's all focused in on a subject

2:48that is cohesive yet varied. I think Makari is actually a great example to pick out here because her videos are super vlog style, vulnerable. You really feel like you get to know her as a person and yet they still are filtered through a specific subject. On the other hand, we've got self-focused niches. This is what people mean

3:07when they say you are the niche. And when you take this approach, instead of choosing a topic, you're choosing an audience. And when you're thinking about the audience that you wanna create for, you wanna identify whether you're aiming to be relatable or aspirational to them. Those are the two main ways that audiences connect

3:25with self-focused niche creators. Either they love to watch them because they can see themselves in you or they love to watch you because they would like to emulate some part of your life and they are aspiring to be more like you. If you're trying to be relatable, then you're thinking about being encouraging, kind of like a comfort creator. And if you're aspirational, you might provide advice, share inspiration, talk about how you got

3:48to where you are now. And then within that framework, you can talk about a wide variety of topics as long as they connect with the audience that you want to reach and you're doing it in that either aspirational or relatable way. Of course, I've got some examples for you. I love watching Christina Maishez.

4:04I think she is like a YouTube queen. She talks about fitness, personal finance, fashion, minimalism, huge variety of topics, but it all connects to her target audience. Justine's camera role is another great example. Moima Winnie and Lena Norms, who's actually a YouTube friend of mine. I love her channel. I actually think Lena is a really, really great example here because often when we think of like self-focused creators, you might think of like the really big influencers

4:31that seem unattainable. Lena's got a very engaged audience, but it's not like massive by, you know, Emma Chamberlain standards. And if you look at her channel, you might think like, oh, like she doesn't really have a niche. She's talking about everything from climate change to fashion, to literature and politics. She covers a huge variety of topics, but it's all stuff that's interesting

4:51to her target audience. And she does it in a way that's relatable, encouraging, and still feels cohesive to the people that she's speaking to, even though the topics are quite varied. So your niche, whether it's self-focused or subject focus, is really just the base of the entire niche hierarchy, as you can see, and it's just the starting

5:10point for your content strategy. A lot of times, creators only focus on this part of the strategy and forget the rest, which is arguably more important and more significant when it comes to your growth. Really, your idea of what your niche is, is just the beginning. The next tier on the niche hierarchy is format. You can think of format as the box

5:32that your content goes into. It's packaging, basically. Your idea is what the video is about, and the format is gonna be like your style of video. The crucial thing that you need to know is that keeping an audience engaged online is all about the balance between familiarity and novelty. The most effective way that I've seen to balance this is to make your format repeatable, something that becomes familiar to your audience, and then the subject matter or the idea or the concept behind your content can change

6:04and be fresh each time. Your format is the way that you film and edit your videos, and this applies to long-form YouTube content, but also short-form vertical content as well. So let's talk about some examples. Some common formats include voiceover vlogs, get ready with me, video essays, or podcast interviews. These are all ways of

6:23making content, right? They're not about anything in particular. They're more like the style of shooting or editing the video. And these are very general, broad formats. Your own format is gonna have more specifics and nuances to it, and you might have a couple different formats as well, though I personally wouldn't recommend having more than two or three, because then I think it kind of defeats the purpose of having a format at all, because it's basically gonna feel like every single one of

6:51your videos is different. So try to narrow down to just two or three different formats that are specific to you. For example, one of my favorite Instagram creators is Sabina from Girl Vs. Globe. Through being kind of a massive fan girl for content, I have noticed that she has three main formats. The first one is what I'm gonna call

7:11a mini documentary reel. This is something unique that Sabina does that I have not seen from any other creator, at least in short form content. Her travel videos include interviews with local experts, her own narration or A-roll clips, and B-roll that she's shot of the location. These are layered and high production value, in-depth, nuanced pieces. And I just find that so impressive, especially that she's tackling that

7:39in the vertical short form format. This is one of her formats. It includes those unique elements every time, even if the subject matter, or like in her case, the location is changing. So you can see everything that I listed there is about the packaging of the video, not necessarily what the video is about.

7:56That's the part that shifts each time. But all those various formatting elements are part of her own signature approach that makes her videos feel like hers. Okay, her other two formats, I noticed that she also does what I would say is like a video essay or like talking head style reel. She'll use some B-roll or graphics to make her point, but it's mostly just

8:14her talking to the camera. And then her third format that she does is a carousel. It's usually educational or myth busting, and it always starts with girls. And I just think that is like such a great way to tie into her brand of Girl Vs. Globe and also solidify who her target audience is. Hopefully you can see just like the level of specificity of each format and how consistent Sabina is with it,

8:35which is what I find so impressive. And I think what has also helped to contribute to her growth and just giving her a really clear sort of artistic angle. What format really comes down to is making sure that your audience knows what to expect from you. That is the key to viewer retention, which is the most important signal

8:52to the algorithms right now. Whether we're talking about YouTube or Instagram or TikTok, all of these apps are looking for your viewers to watch longer. And so if your viewer knows what to expect from your video before they start even watching it, if the format feels familiar and they know the value that they're going to get out of it,

9:09they're more likely to keep watching. It's not impossible to have somebody watch to the end of a piece of content that is totally fresh and new to them, but it is just gonna be a bit more challenging. When you have the familiarity of a format that someone's seen before, you build up that trust. The viewer knows that they're gonna get something out of it, which is gonna make

9:26them watch to the end. Having consistently good viewership as a creator, which let's be honest is the most important metric at this point. Followers, subscribers, it doesn't really matter. It's much more about getting consistent views from video to video and having your viewers actually watch to the end and engage with your content. And the best way to do that is to set expectations

9:48and fulfill them every time. And you can do that every step along the way from your title connecting to your thumbnail and then having your intro come through on the promise of that title and thumbnail and having the format of the video feel familiar. All of these things contribute to building trust with your viewer, which ultimately helps with your viewer retention

10:08and your reach more broadly. If you wanna build a loyal audience, you've got to set expectations and keep those expectations again and again, and people will keep watching you. So all of this strategizing is for the ultimate goal of getting more followers, right? But if you really wanna grow a sustainable business as a content creator, you can't rely on these social media platforms to connect your audience

10:26to your offer. That's where Manychat comes in. Manychat makes sure that your followers can get your free download, sign up for your email list or purchase your digital product without having to leave their DM inbox. I've personally been using Manychat for years now. It's so simple. You can set up an automation like this to automatically DM a link to someone

10:45when they comment on my reel. This makes the whole experience so seamless because my followers don't have to go digging through the links in my bio to find what they want. You can make them more in depth than this too, like answering FAQs or guiding your followers through a set of prompts to help them

10:59find what they need. Okay, but my favorite Manychat hack, we all know the best way to boost your Instagram story views is by getting a bunch of story replies. So if you want to share a link with your audience, instead of using a link sticker, use a Manychat automation, prompting your followers to reply to your Instagram story

11:14for you to send them the link. Not only does this help you increase your reach, but it's also low key more convenient for your audience because instead of the link disappearing after 24 hours, they've got it saved in their DMs if they wanna go back to it. And you don't have to worry because Manychat is an official meta business partner,

11:31which means it's fully safe and secure. And you don't have to worry about your account being affected in the algorithm because you use it. To take all the strategy we've talked about in today's video and turn it into a real creator business, try out Manychat, it's linked in the description below. And thanks so much to Manychat

11:46for sponsoring today's video. The final tier of the niche hierarchy is a series. Just to quickly review here, your niche is the foundation and you either have a subject or a self-focused niche. This is basically a summary of what you talk about. Your format is the style of video you make, how you package your ideas.

12:08Essentially, this is the how you make it. The final stage, the series is like the cherry on top. This is an optional strategy that you can implement when you have the energy for more high frequency posting for a short period of time. This can supercharge your growth and give your audience a growth spurt. I'm sure you're familiar by now with what a series is, especially in terms of short form video because it's a strategy

12:32that's become so popular. You pretty much see everybody doing it, but there's a good reason and that's because it works. But I wanna show you why it works. The magic of a series and why they work so well is because within a series, your format and your content is consistent. You're matching up the what, you're matching up the how, and you're doing those both the same way

12:54across several videos. In other words, you're picking a format, say like voiceover vlog or video essay, and then you're using that same format to cover similar subject matter across multiple episodes. This means that you're meeting your viewers expectations on both fronts. This is a series greatest strength, but it can also be its biggest weakness. Let me give you an example using my own content strategy

13:17to really show you what I mean. Specifically looking at my like Instagram, I would categorize my niche as self-focused, more so on Instagram than on YouTube, but I would say my audience is really intentional creators who want to grow a business that supports their like dream lifestyle. Cause my content on Instagram ranges from showing my van life and travels, camera reviews, editing

13:38tutorials, all that stuff. So that's why I would categorize it as more self slash audience focused than just one specific subject. In terms of format, I do a lot of talking head opinion videos, gear reviews, and some lifestyle vlogs. Now a series example, again, this is not something I'm doing all the time, but last summer I did a limited run series called Vlogging 101, where I used the same format every time and I was specifically

14:02giving tips for beginner vloggers. And that series alone ended up gaining me about 15,000 new followers, which I think really demonstrates the power of temporarily aligning both your subject matter and your format in a limited series that really helps you get pushed out to new viewers. A series is a double-edged sword. The extreme consistency in both format and subject matter and the frequency of episodes

14:26can be huge for your growth. Just think of all the people that you've seen blow up on TikTok for doing a hundred days of X or 30 days of Y. They're doing the same thing and they're showing it in the same way day after day and it helps them to accumulate a massive audience. However, this is

14:41usually gonna be temporary. Either you're gonna get bored or your audience will get bored because it is such extreme consistency in both format and subject matter. It can be powerful, but it can also become a little bit boring. There is such a delicate balance between meeting your viewers' expectations and yet not doing something that is too expected. We're going back to that balance of

15:05familiarity and novelty. It's difficult to strike, but it's so important. I think this brings us full circle to the reason that most creators are resistant to having a niche in the first place. And that's because as creative people, we like variety. We don't wanna have to create the exact same thing the exact same way over

15:24and over and over again. That's why I think the niche hierarchy can be a helpful framework. You understand either one, what topic you wanna cover or two, what audience you want to appeal to and what parts of yourself you'd like to share. This gives you a lot of latitude. Then you create a few different formats

15:44to structure your creative approach. This also helps to set expectations and build familiarity with your audience. And then you develop a series as a tool for when you have the energy for a short period of high consistency, which will help give your audience a growth spurt. Frankly, I think this approach is way more healthy than having a niche in the traditional sense because it gives you way more creative freedom, but you still have the structure

16:06and strategy in place to grow. Because, and I hate to be the one to say this, but posting whatever you want, whenever you want, is not gonna help you grow.