Instagram for architects: show the decision behind the photograph
A finished room is the outcome of two hundred decisions a prospective client cannot see. Pick one. Why does that window sit high? Why did you keep the original front? Why does the addition turn its back on the neighbour? Describe the problem the way you would at a client’s kitchen table, show the sketch or section that solved it, and say what changed in the plan as a result.
Say the project was a dark middle room in a post-war house. First image, the problem. Second, the section that gets light into it. Third, the finished space. Describe what you designed for and stop there. “Designed to bring daylight into the centre of the house” is a claim you can stand behind. A figure for energy savings you never measured is not.
Give each post enough context to stand alone: the suburb, the project type, the stage and your role. Say whether an image is a photograph, a render or a concept. Credit the photographer and the builder properly, which the Board of Architects of Queensland code requires of Queensland practices in any case. Then point people at the project page instead of answering the same question in the comments.
LinkedIn for architects: make your judgement visible
A referrer does not need another award announcement. They need to know how you think and when it would make sense to introduce you to someone. Write about a coordination decision, how you run an early feasibility conversation, or what a finished project taught you that you would do differently. Enough detail to be useful, no confidential client information, and never a live disagreement.
A narrow site is a good subject. Explain how the brief changed once the constraints were understood, what the team checked, what stayed uncertain and what you decided anyway. Finish with the kind of project conversation the practice welcomes. That is more useful to a referrer than an open invitation to collaborate.
Use the director’s voice when the director has something to say. Have someone draft from a twenty-minute interview and send it back for approval before it goes out. Comment on other people’s work when you have a real observation. A comment written to keep a relationship warm should read like a colleague, not like an advertisement parked under someone else’s project.
A month of posts out of one project
Start with a completed project you have the rights to publish. Put the approved photographs, one drawing worth looking at, the project summary and the correct credits into a single folder, and note anything the client wants kept private. Whoever prepares the posts should never have to ask the director about the same image twice.
Four posts, one project, one month. If the project cannot carry a fourth, publish three. A quiet feed is better than one idea stretched across four captions.
- Week one, the brief. One image and the practical problem the client arrived with, told without their private circumstances. Link to the full project story.
- Week two, the decision. A sketch, section or detail showing your response to orientation, access, an existing wall or a privacy problem. Keep the language usable by someone who is not an architect.
- Week three, the making. An approved site photograph and something about how the build was coordinated. Name the builder, and do not let the caption imply the studio poured the slab.
- Week four, the answer. Turn a question the project raised into a short explanation, then send readers to the guide or service page that covers it properly.
Where the click should land
Social media marketing for architects usually fails at the handover. The post is specific and interesting, the link opens on a full-screen slideshow, and the visitor cannot tell whether you take renovations, where you practise or what happens if they get in touch. Fix the destination before you send anyone to it.
Invilla’s site is a fair model for the far end of the link: twenty-five project pages, a separate page for awards and media, distinct pathways for architectural design, interiors and pre-development work, and a four-step estimator that returns a real fee range. You do not need all of that to start. One clear project story, a service page that explains your role and an enquiry that asks sensible questions will do the job.
Match the link to the post. A caption about early design decisions should point at how your first consultation works. A renovation story should point at your renovation service. Sending everyone to a generic contact page throws away the context you spent a week building. Check the route on a phone after any change to the menu.
What it costs the studio in time
Allow a short interview with whoever ran the project, a two-hour block to write and lay out the posts, and one approval sitting. The real number depends on how much material already exists and how long approvals take in your studio. Record the hours for the first two months so the decision to keep going is made on evidence rather than mood.
Keep a one-line production list: topic, audience, approved images, writer, approver, destination, date. One person makes the final call. Queensland practices work under the BOAQ Code of Practice, which requires truthful attribution and protects confidential client information, so checking credits and permission is part of the job rather than an optional courtesy.
Then review the things that matter: replies from people who could hire you, conversations with referrers, visits to project pages, and enquiries that mention something you posted. Saves and likes tell you a post was liked. If the attention is coming from students and other architects while you want residential clients, change the topic and the invitation before you change the posting frequency.
Frequently asked questions
What should architects post on social media? Post the decisions: a brief, a constraint, a sketch, a detail, the finished response. Say what stage the project reached and what your role was. The best topics are usually the questions a client asked you in a real meeting, because other clients are sitting at home asking the same thing.
Is Instagram or LinkedIn better for architects? Whichever one your next client or referrer is already using. Instagram suits residential storytelling, LinkedIn suits developers, consultants and other professionals. Neither delivers commissions on its own. For a small practice the deciding factor is which one you can keep feeding with good material for six months.
How often should an architecture practice post? Often enough to look alive, rarely enough that every post has something in it. Four a month from one project is a workable rhythm for a studio of two or three. Review it after a couple of cycles and drop the posts you only published to fill a slot.
Where to start this month
Choose a project you would like more of, because the audience you build will be interested in that kind of work.
- Pick one audience and one channel for the first six months.
- Collect the project summary, cleared images, one drawing and the correct credits into one folder.
- Write the four posts, giving each a different question to answer.
- Improve the page you are going to link to before you publish the first post.
- Record the hours it took and any conversation it started, then decide in a month whether to run it again.