🛠️ Heritage Crafts

Content Strategy and Digital Storytelling

I undertook a 40-day placement with Heritage Crafts, a small, non-government-funded charity supporting traditional craft skills across the UK. With a small, mostly part-time team and no dedicated social media role, I initially joined to support the organisation’s social media strategy and digital storytelling. The role quickly became more hands-on, working alongside the team to create, capture and deliver content.

I introduced a more storytelling-led approach to short-form video, particularly through Instagram Reels, helping to bring the people, places and stories behind heritage craft to life. The aim was not simply to promote the organisation, but to give audiences a reason to care about the crafts, makers and communities it exists to support.

 

My work included:

  • Developing and implementing a more storytelling-led social media strategy, particularly through video and short-form content.
  • Promoting upcoming events and then capturing and editing content on location.
  • Filming interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, craft demonstrations, workshops, talks and exhibitions.
  • Supporting live-streaming activities to make events accessible to audiences unable to attend in person.
  • Sourcing video content from creators and collecting new photographs and video assets from members and craft practitioners, building a stronger library of storytelling content for future use.
  • Creating content showcasing endangered crafts, craft practitioners, events, exhibitions and the wider work of the organisation.
  • Creating and delivering Maker Content Lab, a series of social media workshops for Heritage Crafts members, helping craft practitioners develop engaging and more sustainable approaches to content creation alongside their existing practice.

I travelled across the UK to document Heritage Crafts’ work in context, including the members’ meet-up in Wales, London Craft Week, the Living Legacies exhibition and auction, events at the Cutty Sark and Sotheby’s, an AI-focused sector event, the annual Craft Festival in Bovey Tracey, and the Festival of Making in Blackburn.

The work delivered significant growth. During my placement, Heritage Crafts’ Instagram following increased from 45.9k to 80.8k — an increase of more than 34.9k followers. My most successful Reel alone contributed to over 30k new followers, while helping to bring greater attention to the organisation’s Red List of Endangered Crafts and its wider mission.

The placement also gave me the opportunity to work beyond content production. I was invited to participate in trustee board meetings, the team away day and weekly team meetings, giving me insight into governance, leadership, organisational priorities and long-term planning within a cultural organisation. This helped me understand the practical realities of running a small national charity, including the funding, capacity and operational challenges involved.

Heritage Crafts gave me considerable freedom to experiment with new approaches to social media storytelling, trusting my expertise as a content creator while providing valuable context about the heritage craft sector. The team also facilitated introductions to a wide range of people working across the sector, including craft practitioners, community organisers, policymakers, funders and cultural partners. Through attending events and working alongside the organisation, I developed a much broader understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing heritage crafts today.

This experience demonstrates how I can work with organisations not only to make content, but to develop a storytelling approach that connects their work with audiences. I can bring together strategy, creative production, audience development and practical training, helping organisations tell their stories in ways that are engaging, accessible and sustainable.