How to Create Content Pillars for Your Brand

THE STABLE EXCHANGE PODCAST EPISODE #2 SHOWNOTES

In the second episode of The Stable Exchange, I dive deeper into the brand and content pillars I mentioned in the first episode.

Once you know who you serve and how you serve them in terms of product or service, it’s important to identify how you can give them value outside of your paid products or services to build their perspective on your trust and authority. During the podcast, I explained three of the most common content categories, then gave some examples of how a general brand pillar topic can be broken down into specific pieces of content. 

Category 1: Entertainment

Entertainment is one of the primary ways Instagram became popular with users in the first place. Considering the amount of content that goes viral, it’s clear social media users value entertainment.

But, entertainment doesn’t just have to mean making silly videos or creating memes. Consider thinking about specific ways you can entertain your target audience rather than trying to create viral content with mass appeal. 

So, share some light hearted moments or a funny story that your audience can relate to in your stories or on a caption. Not only will this check the entertainment box, but it will also humanize you and help your audience get to know you better.

Category 2: Education

Personally, this is my favorite category, and the one I use the most, because its a great way to naturally build brand awareness without having to sell. 

When Instagram first came out with Reels they were clapping back at TikTok which started out with dance videos and mostly fell into the entertainment category. But now, I actually see more Reels with quick and easy to implement tips and tricks that revolve around education. 

What are you an expert in, and how can you educate your audience to give them some quick wins? Some helpful tips can turn your followers into raving fans. 

Category 3: Inspiration and Motivation

Motivating and inspiring your followers can also reinforce your brand positioning by emphasizing your mission and values. Some of my top shared posts are motivational quotes.

If you create content that supports and embodies your mission, it will resonate so much more with you audience. It doesn’t even have to be a famous quote, it can be 3 or 4 words if it’s enough to make your audience, think “WOW, they get me”.

Utilizing the 3 Categories

So, how do you take the 3 categories and use them in a practical way to build your brand pillars? I’m going to go through my brand pillars: farmlife, photography, and education, to illustrate how they each fit into at least one of the 3 categories when I’m posting.

Farmlife

Farmlife falls under the entertainment category. Although I don’t often post about farm life on my feed, I love posting photos of horses at the farm on my IG stories as a way for my followers to get to know my personality. It helps my audience get to know me on a personal level, while still keeping all the content on my feed professional.

This helps build trust and reliability with my audience, because they have confidence I can serve equestrian entrepreneurs and rural small business owners because I live that reality with them everyday.

Photography

Photography can actually cover all 3 categories, depending on the type of photograph and the caption I choose. A photo of one of our horses can fall under entertainment or inspiration, while a photo of a client paired with an explanation on the process behind that photo can be education.

For example, when I did my Christmas mini sessions at the farm, I made a Reel and a few different educational posts (along with a blog!) to explain how anyone can set up a black background photo – even without Photoshop experience. This also serves as inspiration, because my audience can base their own Christmas photoshoots off mine.

Education

I cover a variety of educational topics on my feed, from photography to brand design and marketing. Under each topic of education, I can create different types of content, that falls under different categories, depending on where I’m posting the content.

You can think about this in terms of a funnel, by creating one long form piece of content and repurposing it in multiple ways:

Using blog posts, I can give great overview of a foundation my audience needs to have in place in order to utilize a tool such as Canva. Then, that one blog post can be broken down into several smaller Instagram and Facebook posts. That content can also be used to create a TikTok and Reel to show quick snippets of each step, as a video guide.

Creating an Action Plan

1. Write out the 3 different categories : Entertainment, Education, and Inspiration/Motivation. Then, brain dump all of the topics you could create content around in each of those categories
2. Use that to determine your content pillars: what are a few topics that are unique to you and your business that you can consistently create content around.
3. Maximize your time by creating long form content around different subjects within your brand pillars and repurposing that content throughout your digital marketing

If you haven’t yet, check out the podcast on Apple Music or Spotify to learn more!