You may have seen the term ‘content pillars’ thrown around amongst marketers. If you’re wondering what they are, if they deserve all the hype or how to make your own then you’ve come to the right place.

What are these mystical content pillars? In short, they are guiding themes for your posts. Ideally you want to have three to four pillars, this allows you to give your audience a variety of content and gives you some structure when you are coming up with things to post.

Now when we say themes, we don’t mean romance, beaches, outfit of the day etc. we mean things like education, entertainment, behind the scenes or even inspiration. The theme gives you a place to start but the actual topic of your post will be different each time.

Do they deserve all the hype? Here at Promote Social | Media we sure think so! They are a really great way to ensure you’re offering something of value to your audience and they make coming up with content that little bit easier.

How do you define these pillars? A good starting place is by defining your audience. Then consider what their biggest challenge is. From there consider the following questions:

·         What do they like?

·         What do they want to see?

·         What do they interact with?

·         Why do they follow you?

As you continue to build a following you can even use features like stories to ask your customers what they want to see more of.

Next look at your business, and ask yourself how you can help solve their biggest challenge:

·         Are you an expert in your industry?

·         Do you have helpful information to share?

·         Do you have aspirational products?

·         Can you inspire your customers?

Once you’ve answered these questions you can start to pinpoint what you have to share and the type of content your audience want to see. Ideally your content pillars should be largely driven by what your audience will resonate with or learn from, but they also need to be true to your brand and not too difficult for you to keep producing ideas.

To get you started some example pillars include things like education, inspiration, aspiration, behind the scenes, industry commentary, events, promotion or even local area highlights. Looking at what you’ve got to share will help you find what works for your brand.

With your pillars in order, writing up your posts for the month will be that much easier. You might even be able to reduce a month’s worth of posting into just a few hours with our Social Media Posting Process (link to social media posting process).

Ultimately, having content pillars ensures you have a variety of content that engages your customers and offers them something in return for following you. It’s a chance to show off the personality behind your brand.

If you would like to know how we can help you up your social media game, schedule yourself a free 30-minute chat today.