What to post: photo ideas for trades and local businesses

Start with the finished job

The simplest post is the job you just finished. Stand back, take a wide shot that shows the whole space, then step in and take one detail. Add the suburb and a line on what the job was.

If you only ever post this, you will still have a useful page. Everything else on this list is a bonus.

If a job has several stages, post each one as it happens rather than waiting for the end. Three small posts over a week keep your page active and use the same job three times, which is far less work than starting fresh each time.

Twelve ideas you can use this week

Use these as prompts. You will not need all of them, but having a list means you never face a blank screen.

Some of these suit one trade more than another. A cleaner will lean on the kit and the checklist, a builder on progress shots and a painter on prep. Pick the four or five that fit your trade and rotate through them, rather than trying to cover the whole list.

• A finished job, wide and close
• Work in progress, mid-job
• Before and after of the same spot
• Your tools and kit laid out
• The van, loaded and ready
• The team on site
• A tricky problem and how you solved it
• A supplier or product you rely on
• A short tip you give customers all the time
• A day you are fully booked or have space
• A job in a nice location or setting
• A past job that still looks good

Simple rules for better photos

Clean the lens, because a smudged phone camera is the most common reason a photo looks soft. Use natural light where you can, and hold the phone level so lines run straight.

Take more than one. Shoot three or four and keep the best. It costs nothing and the best one is usually not the first.

Try the grid trick: switch on the grid lines in your camera settings and place the main subject on a crossing line instead of dead centre. It takes no skill, and it makes most photos look more deliberate.

Show people, with permission

Photos with a person in them feel warmer than photos of objects. A team member working, a hand placing a tile or you on site gives viewers a face to remember.

Always ask before you post someone, whether a colleague or a customer. For customers, keep their address, family and valuables out of the frame.

Candid photos beat stiff ones. A shot of you mid-task, laughing with a mate, or holding a finished item gives people a sense of who they are about to call.

What to leave out

Skip street numbers, number plates, documents, screens and anything that identifies a home or a person who has not agreed. Avoid photos that show unsafe habits on site, because your page reflects how you work.

If you work in a regulated trade, do not describe photos with wording that sounds like an approval or a ruling on the work. Keep your licence details and any regulator wording accurate yourself, and let the photos show what you did.

Also skip photos of heavy mess unless the point is a clean-up. Your page is a shop window, and the photo should make a good first impression on a stranger.

How Ninjaneer Media fits

In the Ninjaneer Media invite-only beta, you upload your photos and business details, and it drafts posts from them. You review each one: Schedule, Delete or comment a change. Nothing is published until you approve it.

Live posting to social accounts switches on after the beta, so during the beta approved posts wait in the queue.

You can add photos in batches. Upload what you took this week and the beta turns them into drafts you can swipe through at your own pace.