When was the last time you cut yourself off from social media for more than a day? Assuming you did, we always come back to it. I mean, we have to right? That’s because Social Media has become so intertwined with our daily lives, and business. 

If you’re anything like me, you’re finding it increasingly more difficult to find time to grow and promote your business on social media. From squeezing in a post while stuck in traffic, to finding the most Instagrammable locations for your family outing, it seems we’ve all taken up the role of becoming our own social media managers and it’s eating up our personal time with loved ones.

Now, you want to spend less time on social media and more time on your business and family. 

You start planning ahead, but you’ve run into a few issues.

• You don’t have much time. Making it hard for you to remain consistently online. 
• Too much time planning your content takes time away from creating it.  
• You lack a social strategy that helps you understand the content your audience wants to see.
• You’re quickly running out of ideas on what to post. 
• You’re not targeting the right audience
• You’re exhausted from creating content for multiple platforms.

I can see why you want to cut back on the time you’re spending posting and creating content for your feed. From research, ideation, & copywriting, to planning and taking content shoots for both photo and video, let’s face it, creating content is a never ending process. 

And although we try to plan ahead to save ourselves time, we still run into a lack of ideas, disorganization, and not targeting all of our audiences.

You wish there was some way to plan ahead that doesn’t involve downing 3 cups of coffee, wasting hours pinning ideas on Pinterest, and stress eating an entire bag of popcorn, then giving up and then trying again the next day.

If you’re running into these issues as well, hold onto your blue light lenses, ‘cause I’ve got great news for you. Did you know planning ahead could be easier and more strategic? That’s where Content Pillars come in.

WHAT IS A CONTENT PILLAR?

Content pillars are a set of topics or themes that help create the foundation for your overall content strategy. They represent relevant topics that your target audience would be interested in. Each of your pillars could be composed of different types of content such as blog posts, long or short-form videos, or images.

Okay, let’s break that down really quick;

Content Pillars = Topics or Themes that are relevant to your audience, which are used to create content.
(Design note: Make this large, like a graphic)

To give you a better picture, here are some of Made Happy Studios content pillars

1. Online Business Strategy
2. Social Media Strategy
3. Content Creation Tips
4. Branding Tips
5. Design Tips
6. Brand Photography
7. Website Design
8. Lifestyle & beauty
9. Resources & Freebies
10. Promoting MHS

I would take one of these content pillar topics, one that is relevant to my audience, break the information down and create content. 

For example this blog post!

Content Pillar = Social media strategy
Topic = Content Pillars
Specific Post = How to Use Content Pillars to Crush Your Social Media Planning

BENEFITS OF USING CONTENT PILLARS

Organization

Instead of wasting time and creating content at the last minute, distinct pillars help you create a calendar that covers the necessary topics for your brand. Once you have your topics set, it’s easier to break down the theme to create content that your audience would find entertaining or benefit from. 

Putting these all together and preparing in advance allows you to visually see the who, what, where, when of your content schedule. When you are organized and have a plan, then it’s easier to see the gaps in your content strategy and fill them with valuable information for your audience. It also allows you to see where you can repurpose and reuse the content in different formats and platforms. 

Targeting

Defining your pillars will help you create content for your specific audiences. This way you don’t ignore part of your target audience and lose out on potential leads.

First, you will need to pin down who your audience is.

1. What’s the demographic?
2. What are they looking for?
   1. Information, product, checklist, guides
3. How do they like to receive that information? 
   1. Video, TikTok, captions, emails

From here, you will create content that fills the need for your audience now that you know what they are looking for and the different ways they want to receive them.

Ideation

Coming up with fresh ideas is often cited as a huge pain for brands. Content pillars automatically hone in on relevant topics for you.

1. What is your target audience looking for?
   1. To save money, to be confident, have fun
2. What are their pain points? How can you help?
3. Allows you to see the holes in your targeting and fill in the information. 

(what does your audience needs first to understand concept X)

AND

(After the audience understands concept X what’s their next step?)

Combining organization, targeting and providing your unique expertise, its easier to come up with content ideas to provide valuable information for your audience.

Expertise

Creating content shows your authority in the market, connects you with your audience, brings in new leads, and converts your followers into loyal customers. 

The more valuable and helpful the information, the more you show your expertise in certain topics. Your audience will thank you in the end for impactful content that helps them solve their problems.

So focus on your expertise. Have fun, let your audience in on your personality and the fun side of your biz. 

Here are some examples of pillars I currently use for my business.

For creating social media content faster, use content pillars. If you’d like to make the processes even easier, try using my Content Pillar Outline Freebie!