In today's digital age, social media has become a vital tool for businesses to connect with their customers and build brand awareness. However, it can be challenging to create a consistent and engaging social media presence without a solid strategy in place. This is where content pillars come in.

Content pillars are a framework that businesses can use to create a cohesive and consistent social media strategy. Essentially, they are the core themes or topics that your brand revolves around. You can also visualize them as a content bucket – each piece of content should fill at least one of your buckets. By identifying your content pillar or buckets,, you can ensure that your social media content aligns with your brand values, mission, and goals. In this article, we will explore how to use content pillars to succeed on social media as a brand.

The first step to using content pillars is identifying what they are for your brand. This involves taking a step back and looking at your brand's mission, values, and target audience. What are the core themes or topics that your brand revolves around? What topics will resonate with your audience? These could be anything from industry trends to lifestyle topics, depending on your brand and target audience. This is also the step where you would identify your brand’s goals on social media.

When I create content pillars for my clients I will typically break it down into what types of content need to be developed for a successful social media strategy. What do I mean by this? Well, each piece of content across social media accounts can be categorized or labeled. For example, if you are interested in hopping on trends on social media, one of your content pillars/buckets is going to be “trendy” or “viral”. If you’re interested in creating more community with your content, one of your pillars could be “UGC” or “user generated content”. This requires you to repost content from your community using content that they’ve created and tagged you in. 

Now that you have identified your content pillars, it's time to start creating content that aligns with them. Each piece of content that you create should fall into at least one content pillar, and no more than two. This will prevent your content from becoming confusing or overwhelming for your audience. Say two of your content pillars are “funny” and “viral”. You would search for a trending sound on Reels or TikTok that hits both of those content pillars. However, if you choose “funny”, “viral”, and “educational” for one video, you may find your message getting lost. When creating short-form video content, it’s important to keep it clear and concise.

To ensure that your social media content aligns with your content pillars, it's important to plan your content in advance. This will also help you ensure that your content is consistent and cohesive.

Start by creating a content calendar that outlines the types of posts you will create and when they will be posted. This could include a mix of promotional posts, educational posts, and engagement posts. Make sure to align each post with one of your content pillars, and ensure that there is a good mix of content across all your pillars.

As you start to implement your content pillar strategy, it's important to monitor your social media metrics. This will help you understand what content is resonating with your audience and what isn't. Use tools like Google Analytics or social media analytics to track engagement, reach, and conversion rates.

Based on this data, you can adjust your content strategy as needed. For example, if you notice that posts related to one of your content pillars are getting significantly more engagement than others, you may want to focus more on creating content around that topic.

Finally, it's important to remember that your content pillars are not set in stone. As your brand evolves, your content pillars may need to evolve as well. Stay on top of industry trends, listen to customer feedback, and adapt your content pillars as needed.

In conclusion, content pillars are an essential component of a successful social media strategy. By identifying your content pillars, creating content that aligns with them, planning your content in advance, monitoring your social media metrics, and adapting your content pillars as needed, you can create a cohesive and engaging social media presence that helps your brand connect with customers and achieve its goals.

In summary, content pillars are a powerful tool that can help you create a cohesive and engaging social media presence for your brand. By identifying your content pillars, creating content that aligns with them, planning your content in advance, monitoring your social media metrics, and adapting your content pillars as needed, you can build a strong and loyal following on social media and achieve your business goals. Remember to stay true to your brand's values and voice, and embrace experimentation and storytelling to make your content stand out.