Content pillars are topics or themes that your brand will consistently amplify, discuss or create contents for on social media. These pillars are what your brand’s online identity is built around. Theses predetermined topics define a brands content strategy. There are several types of content pillars and each can be used for different purposes, channels and types of contents.

Some common content pillars used by brands includes;

• Promotional content
• Educational content
• Inspirational and Motivational content
• Entertaining content

The combination of these four pillars can form the foundational basis of your brand’s social media strategy.

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Promotional Content

These type of content communicates what your brand can offer. The aim of promotional content is to create awareness, leads, campaigns. Keep these types of content free of boasting or bragging and do not overcomplicate them. Promotional content will remind your followers to choose your product or services. You must stay interested and innovative in showcasing what you offer.

Promotional contents should be engaging if not, it won’t hold the attention of the viewers. To avoid them scrolling by, employ tactics to keep audiences hooked; tell stories, use humor and keep it short. Creating tips and tricks blogs or videos acts as valuable content since it will educate your potential audience who might become a customer, thereby maximizing conversions. Because these tips and tricks are something your audience might be interested to learn about and will portray you as a subject matter expert in your niche. You can also utilize this platform to showcase your offers and how you differ from the rest of your competitors.

Ideas for promotional posts could include:

• An electrician – sharing a government grant initiative that will save customers money on LED installation.
• A business coach – creating a reel of them putting the finishing touches on their course with a call to action to join the mailing list to be the first to find out upon launch.
• A dentist – sharing a carousel on a first check-up discount they’re offering with a code to enter online to access the discount.

Educational Content

Educational content are directed towards enlightening your audience on how something in your industry works. As an entrepreneur, driving sales to new customers and maintaining the existing ones will be your goal. To elaborate on these themes, you can create How-To product blogs, carousel posts, videos about the products, and content on key features. This content could be blogs, stills, case studies, or videos. You can also answer FAQs and comments that are asked by your audience on different platforms.

When it comes to content ideas, educational content is in demand. In this pillar, you share content that teaches or educates your followers on a topic related to your business. For example:

• Floristry business – educates customers on how to make their flowers last longer at home.
• Social media marketer – shares a video on how to create a reel in Canva.
• Plumber – creates a reel on what to do if your hot water system leaks and the plumber can’t come straight away.

By sharing tidbits of information that support your product or service, you become a resource that your followers get to know and trust. It gives them the opportunity to get the most out of your product or service and builds your reputation as a brand that knows its stuff.

Now, we’re not talking about giving away all of your secrets. It’s more like snippets of information that allow followers to ‘have a go’ at a new skill or make better use of your product or service.

Inspirational & Motivational Content

A little (well a lot) of the reason that people engage in social media is aspirational. Perhaps they want to throw a child’s birthday party that their friends will be in awe of, or they want similar financial success to a business in their niche. Inspiration can come in many forms. For you this may look like this:

• A motivational quote and story to personalise what that quote means for you or your audience
• Going live to inspire people in your group or course to keep up with the content
• Creating educational content so people can better use your product (for example a cake maker demonstrating how to use a piping nozzle)
• A mental health note that promotes a work-life balance

Utilise inspiration as one of your content pillars for Instagram to share a joke, meme or quote. The options are endless.

Motivation is one of the content pillars for social media that works equally well for service and product-based businesses. Whether you want your audience to commit to turning up online to participate in a challenge or they need a little help to stay committed through the ebbs and flows of life, motivation is the pillar for it.

Similar to inspiration, motivation is a little more personal. It speaks more directly to your audience. It addresses their pain points and motivates them to keep showing up and persevere. Motivational posts could look like this:

• A fitness coach – going live to inspire their mentoring group of a morning
• A business coach – providing a piece of advice and a promise to check in with those who comment during the week
• A freelancer – posting a meme about ‘hanging in there’ on a Monday afternoon

Entertaining Content

You can create posts on what inspired you to create your product or service. You can share your brand stories, such as a throwback picture. This will help you connect to the audience. People love to hear stories. With apps like Instagram, people tend to watch entertaining or informative stories. You can create stories and content pieces, such as behind-the-scenes of your product or service. Content that entertains is often funny, frequently highly shareable, and often is able to quickly transform a “company” into a “group of people just like me.”

This aspect of just like me can be crucial in building trust and separating the true fans from the random visitors. Content which has been created to entertain might not be directly related to your products/services, however in order to do its job, it does need to appeal to your target audience.