Post what an architect would want to know before they specify you: who you are, what you have made, how you detail it, which problems you solve and what architects keep asking you. Five kinds of post cover all of that: founder stories, finished projects, technical drawings, solved problems and answers to architects' questions. Write in your own name and your own voice, and keep going every week.
Who are you writing for?
Architects and designers first, with contractors and their clients close behind. They are not scrolling for entertainment. When they read a maker's post, they are quietly asking one question: could I put this person's name on my drawing without regretting it?
Every post should help them answer yes. That rules out most of what manufacturers post: product launches, stock photos, "proud to announce" and sales offers. Architects trust marketing less than any other source of product information. In a Building Boardroom survey of more than 300 architects, only 13% had near or full confidence in it.
What they do trust is evidence and people. The five kinds of post below give them both.
What is a founder story, and why does it work?
A founder story is a true story from your working life, told in your own words: how you started, a job that went wrong, a client you will never forget, a lesson that changed how you work. It shows an architect who you are and what you care about, which no brochure can do.
Here is how one of our clients, a steel door maker in London, opened a founder story:
"The best compliment I ever got in this business took 3 years to reach me."
From one of her posts, written with her, in her voice
The post tells how a client from her first year came back for a much bigger house and told his architect to use her doors and windows, without ever telling her. According to her LinkedIn analytics, that one post reached 17,163 people, got 27,253 impressions and led to 538 profile views. 93% of the people who saw it were outside her network. You can read the whole post on our home page.
Founder stories work because they are memorable. An architect may forget a product, but they remember the maker who drove out to photograph a job and met a familiar face in the hallway.
How should you post a finished project?
Tell the story of the job as well as showing the result. A gallery of photos says "we made this". A short story says "this is how we think", which is what an architect wants to know.
A good project post covers:
- what the brief was, and what made it hard
- one detail you are proud of, and why it mattered
- what the architect or client wanted to achieve, and how you got there
- real photos, ideally including a close-up of the detail
Only name the architect, the client or the address if they are happy for you to. Many private clients are not.
Should you post technical drawings?
Yes. Architects read drawings all day, and a section through a threshold or a detail of a fire seal tells them more about your work than any finished photo. It shows that you understand construction as well as appearance, and gives them something they can picture in their own projects.
Keep it simple: one drawing, one point. Explain what the drawing shows and why you detailed it that way. Do not share anything that belongs to a client or an architect without permission, and leave out anything you would not want a competitor to copy.
Why post about problems you solved?
Because problems are what architects worry about. They want to know what happens when a site measurement is wrong, a performance requirement looks impossible or the obvious product would spoil the design. The messages architects send makers show it:
"Do you make fire rated doors? ...that's where these systems usually let us down."
Director of Architecture, day 12
"...hoping this time we have someone who can provide the solution without compromising the design intent."
Director of Architecture, London practice, day 16
A post about a real problem and how you solved it answers that worry before the architect has to ask. Be honest about what went wrong. Owning a problem builds more trust than pretending nothing ever does.
How do you turn architects' questions into posts?
Write down every question an architect asks you. If one architect asked it, others are wondering the same thing. Each one is a ready-made post.
- "Can you make this fire rated?"
- "What lead time should I allow?"
- "Can you replace old steel windows in a period house?"
- "What finish would you use near the sea?"
Answer the question in plain words, as you would over coffee. On day 10, a RIBA architect wrote to our client about old steel windows in her own home that needed replacing. A post about replacing old steel windows answers that architect, and every architect with a similar job, at the same time.
How often should a maker post?
Every week, without gaps. Architects specify when a project comes up, not when you happen to post, so you need to be visible when that moment arrives. That means a steady rhythm you can keep up for months.
For the steel door maker above, the account had been flat for eight months before we started. After 17 weeks of daily work on her account, she had gained 1,348 new followers, about 340 a month, up from about 36 before. More importantly, architects started writing to her about real projects. See the full case study.
What does a simple weekly mix look like?
You do not need a complicated content plan. Rotate the five kinds of post:
- a founder story
- a finished project
- a technical drawing or detail
- a problem you solved
- an answer to a question an architect asked
Write from real material, in your own name, and never post anything you would not say to an architect's face. If you would rather someone else wrote the posts from your stories and ran the conversations with architects, that is what Forge Lead does. Start with the guide How to get specified by architects, or see how it works.