Due to ever-changing social media algorithms and the ever-growing listing of platforms that make them, it’s simpler than ever to change into a creator. Nonetheless, as a result of anybody can change into a creator, there’s additionally extra noise than ever on your potential viewers to chop via. So, whereas it’s nice (and best) to construct a platform off your persona, it’s not essentially the most lifelike technique.
What is lifelike, is niching down – that’s, choose a subject (or set of subjects) and construct your content material round them. And how will you do that? With content material pillars.
I’ve written about content material pillars earlier than and wished to carry my programs and ideas to the Buffer viewers. On this article, we’ll dive into what content material pillars are, why they’re vital, and methods to develop them for your self.
What’s a content material pillar?
A content material pillar is a key theme or subject you need to concentrate on in your content material and change into identified to your viewers on social media. Most creators have a mix of a number of pillars that kind the inspiration of their content material technique.
Content material pillars guarantee you possibly can management “what you’re identified for” to a sure diploma and assist decide how individuals outline your content material when explaining it to others.
Why are content material pillars vital for social media?
Growing content material pillars achieves a number of targets for creators. One is that many platforms, from Twitter to TikTok, categorize content material of their serps. Should you outline content material pillars and create in accordance with them, you possibly can higher management the way you seem in serps by creating to match sure classes and key phrases related to your content material.
Additionally, regardless of your causes for specializing in social media, you in all probability need to obtain a number of of those 5 issues:
- Promote
- Educate
- Have interaction
- Encourage
- Entertain
With content material pillars, you possibly can construction whichever of those targets matches what you attempt to obtain in your artistic course of.
Content material pillars are additionally a relentless supply of inspiration – when you realize the broad strokes of what you need to say, you possibly can constantly and persistently generate concepts with fewer gaps or blocks in between.
Examples of content material creators with clear content material pillars
Content material pillars are the spine for creators seeking to construct a constant model narrative. This is how some notable content material creators have used this idea to carve out their distinctive id.
Dulma Altan
Content material pillars: Creator economic system, tech, startups, and enterprise capital
Dulma Altan‘s enterprise into podcasting was a pure extension of her TikTok presence, the place she explored subjects revolving across the creator economic system, tech, startups, and enterprise capital. Her method centered round translating short-form content material into longer, extra in-depth discussions on her podcast.
@iamdulma Publish content material individuals would miss
Utilizing her community, she invited varied visitors, enriching her content material and offering completely different views to her viewers. Her key takeaway is to create content material you want existed, including distinctive worth to the viewers.
Dre Fox
Content material pillars: Solopreneurship, content material creation, enterprise teaching
Together with her modern ‘Content material Tree’ technique, Dre Fox takes the standard three-to-five-pillar mannequin and expands it into many sub-topics. This branching out helps her keep away from repetitive content material and permits extra dynamic engagement with the viewers.
Her technique entails an intuitive match between the subject and the visible medium, be it a carousel for step-by-step guides, private pictures for storytelling, or movies for trendier, light-hearted content material.
Pleasure Ofodu
Content material pillars: Comedy, relationship, wellness
Pleasure Ofodu views content material creation like working a TV channel, the place consistency in themes or ‘exhibits’ breeds model recognition. By sticking to pick out content material pillars like therapeutic comedy, wellness, or relationship content material, she’s established a recognizable model narrative.
This method nurtures a loyal viewers and offers a transparent path on content material themes, aiding within the planning and manufacturing of her content material.
9 steps to create content material pillars on your social media
Creating content material pillars on your social media platforms is akin to setting a sturdy basis for a constructing. It is about establishing a transparent, organized framework from which all of your content material will department out.
Right here’s a (non-prescriptive) step-by-step information to comply with:
- Assess your pursuits: Determine subjects you are enthusiastic about and have an inexpensive data of. That is the place a idea I name the “Out → In” and “In → Out” Idea comes into play.
- Out → In: Begin with broader phrases that pique your curiosity, and drill right down to discover a area of interest inside that broader class. For instance, in the event you’re actually into vehicles, you might discover your area of interest in “uncommon vehicles made in Europe.”
- In → Out: In case you have particular concepts, discover the broader class they fall beneath to make sure you have many concepts to attract from sooner or later. For creators that get extraordinarily well-liked off one subject, this technique might help you discover the broader class that your content material belongs to.
- Analysis the niches you have picked: Perceive what your audience is enthusiastic about and the way it aligns together with your recognized subjects others are masking. Have a look at what subjects others are masking in your subject, and establish gaps or distinctive angles you possibly can discover.
- Brainstorm subjects: Purpose to stay related with out being flighty. Whereas trending subjects can increase engagement quickly, your content material pillars ought to embody your mission and face up to the altering tides of social media traits.
- Crafting your content material pillars: Now, you possibly can create 3 to five broad content material pillars. These ought to act just like the trunk of a tree with the potential for a lot of branches of dialog, questions, and evaluation.
- Construct a content material financial institution: For every pillar, construct a content material financial institution full of publish concepts, articles, movies, and so forth. This can make sure you at all times have a reservoir of content material to drag from.
- Have interaction your viewers and analyze content material efficiency: Have interaction together with your viewers to grasp their responses to your content material pillars and regulate if mandatory. Monitor analytics to see which subjects are resonating and optimize your technique accordingly.
- Diversify your content material: Use your pillars to diversify your content material throughout completely different codecs and platforms. This might embrace blogs, movies, podcasts, and social media posts.
- Proceed to optimize your pillars: As you collect extra information and suggestions, revisit and tweak your content material pillars to make sure they continue to be related and interesting.
By this structured method, you are not simply randomly posting content material however making a coherent narrative that gives worth, engages your viewers, and units your model aside within the crowded social media house.
Apply the steps utilizing the Content material Pillar Ideation system
Creating participating and significant content material persistently is a central side of digital presence, particularly for people and companies seeking to set up a strong private model.
Nonetheless, attaining that consistency will be difficult and not using a well-defined technique. That’s the place the Content material Pillar Ideation system comes into play for growing your content material pillars.
I created the Content material Pillar Ideation system to assist anybody who wants it to outline their content material pillars, develop content material for them, and keep constant – all from one web page.
Should you want inspiration for utilizing the template, right here’s how I make it work.
Figuring out my core themes
Core themes are the principle, normal concepts driving your selection of pillar. They’re the final class you’d inform somebody who requested you, “What do you publish about on social media?”
I might say my “core themes” on social media are “private branding”, “profession development”, and “creator economic system.” These are the themes and subjects I presently really feel snug persistently talking about on-line. I’ve private expertise with each that provides an additional layer of authenticity to something I create.
Conducting analysis and producing concepts
I like utilizing instruments like Glimpse and SparkToro to dive into trending subjects amongst my viewers, friends, and influencers to see what I can lend my voice to. I additionally sustain with related conversations throughout social platforms that naturally encourage my artistic course of.
Understanding my core themes helps me begin my search each time, after which I can comply with the rabbit gap to the particular subjects I can deal with.
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If all else fails, I take advantage of the AI prompts I included within the template to search out new concepts to share.
Defining my pillars
I selected my core themes based mostly on my pursuits, experiences, and area experience. My pillars are then the connections I could make between the themes. For instance, I’d outline a few of my particular pillars as:
- Rising a advertising and marketing profession exterior the US (falls beneath “profession development”)
- Understanding the creator economic system as somebody exterior of it (falls beneath “creator economic system”)
- Constructing a private model with out entry to key bodily areas (falls beneath “private branding”)
In fact, this doesn’t imply that is ALL I speak about on social media. However it’s what I need to be identified for, what I put extra effort into researching, and what will get me essentially the most engagement (that means it probably resonates with my viewers).
Creating sub-topics
Below every pillar, I create an inventory of sub-topics or particular person content material items. This step helps in diversifying my content material whereas sustaining a coherent narrative.
The beauty of constructing out content material pillars like that is you’ll typically discover connection factors you may not have observed in any other case. A few of my subject intersections embrace: “Constructing a Private Model for Profession Development” or “Monetizing Your Private Model within the Creator Financial system.”
Planning my content material calendar
My artistic power is writing, so my predominant distribution channels are Twitter, LinkedIn, and every other text-based social media. After I’m creating content material, I first construct out the long-form model of my content material. Typically, that may go on LinkedIn (and now, with its long-form choice, Twitter).
I might additionally flip some key factors right into a short-form video for TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or Instagram Reels. This method works as a result of I put all the knowledge I’ve gathered whereas creating my content material in a single place – a content material calendar.
Make posting on social media a breeze with content material pillars
Utilizing the guidelines and the Content material Pillar Ideation system on this article, you possibly can develop a structured method to content material creation, making certain a gradual stream of related and interesting content material that reinforces your on-line presence and fosters a loyal viewers for no matter your objective.
