Content Pillars: Easy Strategy for Small Business Social Media

Creating Content Pillars for Your Small Business

Many small business owners struggle with creating effective content pillars. Let's break down what content pillars are, explore a simple formula for their creation, and learn how to implement them for a seamless content creation process.

What are Content Pillars?

Content pillars are a marketing term, sometimes referred to as content buckets or content categories. Essentially, they're a way to categorize and systematize content creation for your business. This helps create content consistently and strategically, moving beyond simply posting for the sake of posting. Every piece of content becomes strategically aligned with your business goals.

• They help assign different goals to your content.

• They prevent posting content that is irrelevant or a waste of time.

What Content Pillars Are NOT

A common mistake is defining content pillars as education, inspiration, or promotion. These are actually content goals, not the pillars themselves. Content pillars should be thought of as categories or buckets that your content fits into, aligning your messaging and content accordingly.

My Content Pillars: An Example

Here are my five content pillars, which I use as an example throughout this article:

1. Content Creation Tips
2. Small Business Tips
3. Content Strategy
4. Content Systems
5. Content Goals

Every piece of content I create must fit into one of these categories, ensuring it aligns with my overall strategy. Even personal or potentially controversial content is framed to align with these pillars.

The Secret Formula: Aligning Pillars with Days of the Week

My strategy differs slightly from other marketers. I align each content pillar with a specific day of the week. This creates a "plug and play" system, providing clarity on what to post each day. Strategically aligning content pillars with specific days ensures your content resonates with your audience, business, and goals.

Analyzing Your Audience's Needs

This approach requires analyzing when your audience is most receptive to certain types of content.

• For example, I avoid posting "heavy-hitting" content that requires action towards the end of the week, knowing that small business owners are winding down for the weekend.

• Instead, I post lighter tips. On Mondays, when business owners are starting their week, I focus on content strategy and systems.

Example: Hair Stylist

Let's consider a hair stylist. Their content pillars might be:

1. DIY Hairstyles
2. Hair Education
3. Curly Hair Tips
4. Product Recommendations
5. Client Transformations

Think about when your target audience (e.g., women with curly hair) would be most interested in each pillar. Product reviews might be best suited for a Saturday morning, while curly hair education might be better received on a Monday or Tuesday when they're planning their week. Before-and-after transformations or DIY tutorials could be shared on Thursdays and Fridays.

Example: Social Media Manager

A social media manager's content pillars could include:

1. Social Media Tips
2. Social Media Strategy
3. Client Results & Transformations
4. Content Creation Ideas

Remember that social media managers often target small business owners. Consider when small business owners are most likely to engage with different types of content. Weekends might have lower engagement, so sharing client results and social media strategies on Mondays and Tuesdays could be effective. Fun content creation ideas or trending audio tips could be shared on Fridays when they're seeking easier content to put out for the weekend.

Developing Your Content Pillars: A Step-by-Step Guide

Here's how to develop your own content pillars:

1. Analyze Your Analytics: Review your analytics and insights on each social media platform, and identify what content is performing best. Most platforms offer internal reporting software for business accounts.

2. Identify Top-Performing Content: Filter content by reach, saves, comments, likes, and shares to find patterns in your highest-performing content.

   • For instance, I find educational reels and insightful carousels perform well. If a hair stylist's audience loves seeing before-and-after blonde transformations, that is a good indication.

3. List Content Ideas: Write down the ideas from your top-performing content and compile them into a list (notes app, Google Sheets, or paper).

4. Brainstorm Additional Ideas: Add at least 50 more content ideas related to your profession, career, or business, again continuing the list.

5. Categorize Your Ideas: Group similar content ideas together. If you're a social media manager, tips about posting times, caption formulas, and hashtags can fall under "Social Media Tips."

   • Highlighting different categories using colored highlighters (or different colored text in a digital format) can help visualize the patterns and formulate your content pillars.

Content pillars are essentially a system for categorizing your content, which streamlines the content creation process.