Social media for carpenters: let the craft do the talking

Start with the grain

Timber has character, and close-ups show it better than wide shots. A tight photo of grain running through a bench top, the edge of a freshly planed board or a tidy mitre in the corner of a frame gives people something to look at twice.

Light matters more than the camera. Stand beside a window or work outside, and let the light skim across the surface so the texture shows. Harsh overhead workshop lights flatten everything.

Name the material in the caption if you like, such as spotted gum, blackbutt or recycled hardwood. People enjoy knowing what a piece is made from, and it gives the post something to search for.

• Grain along a finished surface
• A joint before it is glued up
• An edge or profile after sanding
• Hardware fitted neatly, such as hinges and handles

From rough frame to finished piece

The best carpentry posts are often a short run of photos from the same spot. Take one when the frame is up or the boards are laid out, one part way through, and one when the piece is finished and oiled or painted.

You do not need a long caption. Something like 'Day one on the built-in wardrobe, frame and shelf supports' followed by 'Doors hung, handles on' tells the story, and each stage can be its own post across a week.

If the job takes weeks, that is a gift. A single project can give you several posts without needing new ideas, and people enjoy following something as it takes shape.

Custom work and standard work

Say which kind of job it is. A custom bookcase built to fit a sloping ceiling reads very differently from a standard deck or a door fitted into an existing frame, and both are worth showing.

For custom pieces, show the detail that made it custom: the scribed edge that follows an uneven wall, the shelf spacing chosen to suit a record collection, the cutout that fits around a window. These details explain the work without any talk of price.

For standard jobs, show the neatness. Evenly spaced decking boards, consistent gaps and fixings in a straight line look good and speak for themselves.

Workshop, site and the people

Posts from the workshop show how the work gets made: a bench full of clamps, offcuts stacked by size, a jig you built for repeat cuts. These are interesting to people who have never been inside a workshop.

Site photos show you turning up and getting on with it. A tidy work area, a dust sheet down and tools packed away at the end of the day say a lot about how you treat a home.

If you work with an apprentice or a mate, a photo of the two of you with a finished piece is a good change of pace. Ask first, and keep clients, their family and their belongings out of the frame.

Keep the wording plain

Describe what you built and what it is made from, and stop there. Avoid wording that sounds like an approval or a ruling on the work, such as claims about how a building element should perform. Those statements belong with your regulator and your own paperwork.

If you mention a licence number or a registration, keep it exact and up to date yourself. No tool can check it for you, and a wrong number on a public post is a problem you do not need.

How Ninjaneer Media fits

Ninjaneer Media is an invite-only beta. You upload photos from the job, the workshop and the finished piece and add your business details, and it drafts posts from them. You go through each draft in a swipe feed and choose Schedule, Delete or comment a change.

Nothing is published until you tap Schedule. Approved posts wait in a queue at the times you pick, with a weekly cap. Live posting to Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Google Business switches on after the beta.