Social media content pillars

In our previous blogs we’ve talked a lot about how important it is to know who you’re creating content for and why they’ll engage with it. This is our starting point when we’re contacted by clients who don’t know what content to create, and these factors help to define their content pillars. Which are the building blocks for a successful social media strategy.

If you follow social media editors, read a lot about social media strategy, or are a social specialist yourself, you’ll have heard the term content pillars. You may use them instinctively when planning content, but it’s important to define them in order to ensure you’re delivering what your audience loves and needs from you in equal measure.

You may use content pillars instinctively when planning content, but it’s important to define them in order to ensure you’re delivering what your audience loves

What are social media content pillars?

Also known as buckets or categories for your branded content strategy, pillars can be defined as a sub-set of topics or themes. They are used to target different sectors of your audience. Each content pillar will be comprised of different types of content for different channels, such as Reels and feed posts on Instagram, Facebook videos and carousels, Snapchat adverts – the list goes on.

Deciding on content pillars will not only help you define your niche better, but the individual profiles within your audience, too. Having them laid out will also make it easy to ideate your content and to retarget previous content or images.

Deciding on content pillars will not only help you define your niche better, but the individual profiles within your audience, too

How to develop social media content pillars

Once you have decided on your brand’s customer personas and the keywords you will use to define your content strategy – more on this in our content creation blog – this will be much easier than you think.

Think about each type of content as serving different profiles from within your following and then decide which of the formats on the channels you use will work best for it.

Our client Black Tower is aimed at care-free women in their mid twenties with key markets in Ireland, Northern England and London. Therefore content is posted across these four pillars of content:

Wine pairings – For existing customers who want inspiration on how to enjoy their favourite drink in new ways. These are created as stills and Stories.

Recipes – Opening up Black Tower to new customers with a unique take on how to drink it, as well as giving existing customers a new way to enjoy their favourite drink. These are created as step-by-step Stories, Reels and carousels.

Lifestyle images – Showing the aspirational side of the brand and setting the scene for how it may be enjoyed as part of their everyday life. These could take the form of videos, stills and Stories.

Product news – Driving sales to new customers and keeping loyal customers up to date on their favourite brand. This content could be blogs, stills or videos.

While the keywords you've chosen to define your brand shape your brand's look and feel, looking at how other brands and users populate them, will help you to figure out what engages your audience

How social media content pillars should inform your social strategy

Once you’ve started trialling content pillars which you feel will appeal best to your audience it’s important to keep reviewing them to will ensure your pillars are strategic as well as suited to your audience. Use these tools to refine your content pillars and strategy.

User Generated Content: looking at what your audience already posts about your brand will inform you about how they use it, what they love about and probably what they don’t like so much, too! Use your content pillars to solve, entertain and inform them based on these factors, or if it’s stand-out, ask them if you can share the content they’ve already created.

Review your analytics: Looking at your brand’s social metrics and data will show you which formats perform best in terms of copy, style and aesthetics. Use this data to recreate and refine your content and you’ll be in for some big wins!

Look at relevant hashtags: While the keywords you’ve chosen to define your brand shape your brand’s look and feel, looking at how other brands and users populate them, will help you to figure out what engages your audience and what to replicate. Also look at related terms and more niche hashtags for a more granular level of understanding.