Feeling overwhelmed by the constant demand for fresh, engaging content on social media? You’re not alone.
Juggling multiple platforms, campaigns, and goals can quickly become chaotic for social media managers. That’s where social media content pillars come in.
Think of content pillars as the foundation of your strategy—a set of core themes that guide everything you post.
Organising your content around these pillars allows you to stay consistent, save time, and ensure your posts resonate with your audience. In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to create and use content pillars to build a focused, scalable social media strategy that delivers results.
Let’s dive in and make social media management simpler—and more impactful.
Social media content pillars are the key themes or topics that form the backbone of your social media strategy.
Think of them as your brand’s content categories, each aligned with your audience’s interests and your business goals. These pillars ensure your content is consistent, relevant, and strategic, helping you avoid posting randomly or running out of ideas.
For example, a fitness brand might have content pillars like workouts, nutrition tips, success stories, and mental health. Each post, story, or video would tie back to one of these pillars, creating a cohesive and engaging brand presence.
The beauty of content pillars is that they provide structure while leaving room for creativity. They help you focus on what matters most, simplify planning, and ensure every piece of content aligns with your brand’s mission and audience needs.
By defining your social media content pillars, you’re laying the groundwork for a strategy that not only saves time but also keeps your audience coming back for more.
Having social media goals is one thing, but when you're in the weeds of creating content for social media, it can be easy to forget why you're actually doing it.
Having specific themes or categories that each post or piece of content should align with can greatly simplify the process of creating valuable content that supports your social media goals.
Instead of guessing and creating purposeless posts, having content pillars allows you to create meaningful content that aligns with your social media KPIs.
Content pillars also bring a sense of organisation to your brand's social media content approach, making it easier to plan your content calendar. With specific content themes to work with, your content ideation process becomes faster and more focused.
Additionally, content pillars help your brand maintain consistency across different social media platforms, giving your brand a strong identity. By creating content that belongs to your brand, your followers will quickly learn what to expect and can follow along as you piece together your brand story.
As we've already mentioned, the content pillars that your brand or business decides on will vary depending on the industry you or your clients are in.
However, there are some concrete ways to start thinking about your approach:
Knowing exactly who you're speaking to is essential for success in social media marketing. That's why it's so important to have a set of well-established marketing personas at your brand's disposal - they act as your north star for generating conversions!
To create effective content pillars for your client's brand social media strategy, you have to ask yourself some key questions:
The answers to these questions will help you to identify the kinds of content that their (or your) potential customer wants to see, and you'll be able to create content pillars from here.
In order to truly understand your client's market, you must be aware of what their direct competitors are doing.
Make a list of the top five competitors in their industry, and head to their social media channels to check out what you're competing against. Note any competitor posts that have performed particularly well, and spot what sort of topics they're posting about and what social content performs well. Identify any gaps in their posting schedule and formulate your content pillars around them.
After this quick qualitative analysis, move on to social listening. Simply start typing in the keywords in the social media platform's search bar to uncover what topics are trending and what your competitors are posting about. This will allow you to track your competitors, stay on top of trending topics, and finally, be one step ahead of the competition.
Conducting competitor research is important, but it's important not to lose sight of your overall goals. Remember not to get too bogged down in comparison—you're only visiting their channels for ideas rather than plagiarising or copying. Social media content that's creative and original will always speak for itself!
Keeping abreast of industry trends on social media can majorly impact your content pillars.
You can craft content that speaks to the audience's current interests by staying informed. This can result in increased engagement and growth for your client's social media channels.
Moreover, being in the know about industry developments can also serve as a catalyst for fresh and engaging content ideas. Including industry trends in your content pillars keeps your social media strategy current, relevant, and impactful.
Here are some effective ways to do that:
By implementing these tips, you can stay ahead of the game and maintain a competitive advantage in your industry. Stay informed, stay ahead.
Staying attuned to dominant social media trends is crucial for building an impactful social media strategy. Here are five trends that are likely to endure:
By incorporating these enduring trends into your social media content pillars, you can build a current and impactful strategy. Staying on top of dominant social media trends is key to creating a social media marketing strategy that connects with your target audience.
Carrying out a social media audit is ideal for spotting trends and taking the pulse of your followers' content habits.
It's important to regularly look inwards at your own channels to identify the types of content that your followers are engaging with, and what's not working.
Once you've done your audit, you can start phasing out any continually unsuccessful content and posts and adjust your brand's content pillars accordingly.
Pro Tip >>> Use our social media audit templates tailored to specific features of each social media network:
Assigning hashtags to each social media content pillar can help you reach a wider audience and increase visibility on the platform.
Hashtags categorise and organise content, making it easier for users to discover relevant posts. When creating your hashtags, ensure they align with your content pillars and are relevant to your target audience.
You can use our niche hashtags for each social media channel to get started with your hashtag strategy:
It's also a good idea to periodically change your hashtags to keep your content fresh and appealing to your audience.
By using hashtags effectively, you can maximise your reach on social media and drive engagement with your content pillars.
Pro tip: You can use Sendible's Content Library feature to save groups of best-performing hashtags for easy access.
Your industry, goals, and audience shape your brand's ideal social media content pillars. Below are tailored suggestions for various industries, outlining common social media goals, the recommended number of content pillars, and specific pillar ideas.
Goals: Maintain brand consistency, engage local communities, and drive traffic to physical locations.
Optimal number of pillars: 4–5
Pillars:
Goals: Showcase products, drive in-store and online sales, and build brand loyalty.
Optimal number of pillars: 4–6
Pillars:
Goals: Generate leads, educate buyers and sellers, and build trust in the market.
Optimal number of pillars: 3–5
Pillars:
Goals: Showcase expertise, drive engagement, and attract new clients.
Optimal number of pillars: 3–4
Pillars:
Goals: Attract clients, showcase creative campaigns, and establish authority.
Optimal number of pillars: 4–5
Pillars:
Goals: Educate patients, build trust, and humanize the brand.
Optimal number of pillars: 4–5
Pillars:
Goals: Increase enrollment, foster alumni engagement, and promote campus life.
Optimal number of pillars: 4–6
Pillars:
Goals: Maintain brand consistency while empowering franchisees to engage locally.
Optimal number of pillars: 4–5
Pillars:
Goals: Build thought leadership, drive engagement, and attract talent.
Optimal number of pillars: 4–5
Pillars:
Goals: Increase brand awareness, drive local traffic, and build community.
Optimal number of pillars: 4–6
Pillars:
Goals: Attract bookings, showcase experiences, and build loyalty.
Optimal number of pillars: 3–5
Pillars:
Goals: Increase sales, highlight products, and engage customers.
Optimal number of pillars: 4–6
Pillars:
Goals: Raise awareness, inspire donations, and engage supporters.
Optimal number of pillars: 4–5
Pillars:
Goals: Attract new clients, build loyalty, and showcase expertise.
Optimal number of pillars: 4–6
Pillars:
Goals: Build authority, drive leads, and showcase innovation.
Optimal number of pillars: 3–5
Pillars:
Goals: Drive sales, highlight products, and inspire customers.
Optimal number of pillars: 4–6
Pillars:
Goals: Build brand trust, inspire purchases, and showcase craftsmanship.
Optimal number of pillars: 3–5
Pillars:
Goals: Increase foot traffic, drive sales, and build loyalty.
Optimal number of pillars: 4–5
Pillars:
Goals: Attract bookings, highlight experiences, and build brand awareness.
Optimal number of pillars: 4–6
Pillars:
Goals: Drive attendance, engage audiences, and build excitement.
Optimal number of pillars: 3–5
Pillars:
Adding content pillars to your brand's social media strategy could level up your content efforts.
Be strategic in your approach by conducting competitor research, auditing your brand's social media channels, and, most importantly, using your brand's marketing personas to guide every piece of social media content you create.
We can't wait to see what you come up with!
Leverage Sendible’s extensive integrations to create, schedule, publish, and engage with your posts seamlessly.
