A powerful social media advertising technique depends on extra than simply constant posting. It requires various content material that captures your viewers’s consideration, and retains it. Among the finest methods to simplify your planning and keep strategic is by constructing social media content material pillars: the core themes that maintain your content material targeted, purposeful and aligned to your targets.
Originality performs a significant position on this. In response to The Sprout Social Index™ 2025, at present’s shoppers say that content material originality is likely one of the high methods a model can stand out—second solely to the standard of their service.
On this article, we clarify what social media content material pillars are, and the way manufacturers are utilizing them to information their technique. Plus, you’ll stroll away with a step-by-step course of to create your personal pillars to refine your social content material output.
What are content material pillars in social media?
Social media content material pillars are the important thing themes or content material sorts you persistently create and share throughout your social media profiles. Every pillar usually aligns to a particular goal, viewers or content material format.
They’re referred to as “pillars” as a result of they act as structural assist on your technique, just like the columns of a Greek temple. They’re used to maintain your content material constant and related throughout every of your accounts.
Each model ought to set up a set of content material pillars. Ideally, these will overlap throughout your whole platforms, although some could also be extra necessary for sure networks based mostly on its viewers and options. For instance, a trendspotting pillar is likely to be used extra usually on TikTok than on LinkedIn. As a basic rule, you need to have a minimum of round 3-5 pillars at anyone time. It is best to keep away from having too many pillars, as this may dilute your model’s message.
For those who’re a meals and beverage model, for instance, your major social media content material pillars is likely to be:
These are just some examples; we discover extra real-world examples under that will help you discover the precise match on your model.
Why are content material pillars necessary for social media?
Social media content material pillars streamline your content material planning course of. They provide you a transparent course on the kind of content material you could be making, and why.
Pillars additionally assist guarantee every put up serves a goal, speaks to a particular viewers and reinforces your model identification. When your content material ladders as much as outlined pillars, your messaging stays aligned throughout all of your social platforms.
Additionally they aid you diversify your content material, so that you’re posting differing types frequently.
Widespread examples of social media content material pillars
Beneath, we’ve collected some examples of social media content material pillars from manufacturers throughout industries, and defined how every can obtain sure targets. Be mindful: content material pillars aren’t one-size-fits-all. Use these examples as inspiration, however tailor your pillars to mirror your model values and the individuality of your viewers.
Model messaging and storytelling content material pillars
Model messaging content material is a pillar that focuses on matters that revolve round your model’s core identification. This is likely to be an Instagram Reel that reveals off your organization’s historical past or narrative, carousels that element your mission assertion or promo movies that visualize your positioning.
Use this pillar to construct consciousness, in addition to belief in your model and its values. This may be helpful for recruitment, and for constructing buyer relationships.
Of all these examples, this pillar is probably the one with essentially the most flexibility, as its success is dependent upon how nicely you align the content material to the model itself. Right here’s a latest instance from the UK chocolate model Resort Chocolat.
They filmed a Reel with their firm founder on location on the firm’s first cacao farm. The video narrates the historical past of their merchandise, in addition to the corporate itself. It succeeds as a result of this content material couldn’t be successfully reproduced by every other model; it depends on the distinct heritage of Resort Chocolat.
Entertaining content material pillars
This content material pillar entails any content material created to attach along with your viewers and brighten their day. It’d take the type of comedic sketches, vibrant podcast conversations or skilled adverts made with leisure in thoughts.
Entertaining content material additionally helps construct model consciousness and may improve the attain of your content material, significantly should you mix it with tendencies.
Creating entertaining social media content material is its personal problem, and is an space of social media that’s continually evolving. It’s value researching how your rivals entertain their audiences, and fascinated with how one can authentically adapt tendencies.
An attention-grabbing instance of any such pillar is the UK grocery store chain Waitrose and its Dish Podcast.
The Dish podcast is entertaining due to its movie star hosts, TV chef Angela Hartnett and Nick Grimshaw, who’s a UK radio movie star. It’s additionally constructed a big following as a result of it’s mixed two favorite pastimes of social media: leisure and meals. They use celebrities and influencers and food-focused interviews to have interaction viewers whereas nonetheless staying related to what the model presents.
Promotional or product-focused content material pillars
This pillar covers content material particularly created to advertise your merchandise. It’d embrace function breakdown carousels for software program instruments, demonstrations of how your service works or a reel of most people making an attempt your product for the primary time. It’s additionally frequent for this pillar to merge with limited-time gross sales or promotional dates like Black Friday.
The aim of promo content material is often to transform followers into gross sales. For instance, UK pharmacy chain Boots promotes a number of merchandise for festival-goers. The replace has a transparent viewers and has been timed to go dwell throughout the peak of the UK pageant season in the summertime. Posts like this usually depend on a social media content material calendar to arrange well-timed promotional content material. You possibly can push your social viewers in the direction of time-sensitive exclusives or offers that may improve conversions.
Consumer-generated content material pillars
Consumer-generated content material (UGC) is a robust content material pillar—particularly for lean advertising groups. These campaigns enable your viewers to create and share content material in your model’s behalf. This is likely to be within the type of product testing, competitions or charity challenges.
UGC builds attain and engagement. It could actually maximise your attain by leveraging model ambassadors to extend your visibility in area of interest areas. It could actually additionally construct and foster buyer loyalty, protecting your model within the forefront.
UGC not solely lightens your content material creation load, it additionally builds deeper engagement. That includes your viewers’s content material can foster belief, strengthen group and spark natural conversations round your model.
One approach to maximise the influence of your UGC content material pillar is to show it into timed, recurring content material drops. UK clothes model Lucy & Yak do that with their content material pillar #YakMirrorSelfieMonday.
They incentivise content material creation by providing winners a £25 “YakToken” which can be utilized to buy their merchandise. These selfies promote Lucy & Yak merchandise, whereas encouraging group engagement.
The right way to create social media content material pillars on your model
Now that you simply’ve seen some profitable social media content material pillar examples, right here’s actionable recommendation on easy methods to construct your personal.
Step 1: Outline your model’s targets and viewers personas
Consider content material pillars as ladders, each serving to you progress nearer to your broader enterprise aims. To successfully create pillars, first take a look at your total model targets. Assessment the targets made by your management workforce, and take into consideration how every of them could possibly be achieved by way of your content material pillars.
Have a look at how your model targets join along with your viewers personas, as this may assist decide the aim of every pillar. Take into consideration what your viewers desires to see out of your content material, and how one can match this along with your core aims.
Some widespread aims embrace elevating model consciousness, producing leads or strengthening your group. The clearer your social media targets and viewers personas are, the simpler it’ll be to develop profitable, long-lasting content material pillars.
Step 2: Audit your present content material for themes and efficiency
Even should you haven’t been utilizing social media content material pillars prior to now, you’ve doubtless nonetheless been posting frequently. Audit every part you’ve posted till now, and observe what’s labored nicely.
Search for patterns amongst your top-performing posts; these can assist you outline your future content material pillars.
Align your social metrics to what you are promoting targets, and observe every of them frequently to assist establish the perfect indicators of what’s working. For those who’re trying to construct a group for instance, observe feedback and shares. If you wish to elevate model consciousness, take a look at attain and likes. This can decide which of your pillars is performing nicely, and which have to be optimized. Assume additionally about how total success on socials is measured by advertising leaders at present, in line with the 2025 Sprout Social Index, like total engagement, viewers progress and social interactions.
When you’ve recognized related patterns in your information, you can begin to formally strategise your pillars.
Step 3: Select 3-5 repeatable content material pillar themes
Outline round three to 5 core themes that may function your major content material pillars. Prioritise any that occurred naturally whereas auditing your present content material first. Additionally, take a look at what’s lacking from these pillars, and create one or two extra pillars to fill these gaps.
Attempt to strike a steadiness between your model’s priorities and what your viewers is all for. To do that, map out the primary targets of every pillar and decide how aligned they’re with each your viewers personas and your core social media aims.
Do not forget that in contrast to Greek temples, your social media content material pillars don’t should be set in stone. You possibly can assessment them once more in a number of months’ time, and may also add new pillars should you discover an rising alternative.
Step 4: Plan your combine throughout channels
When you’ve outlined your pillars, plan easy methods to carry them to life throughout your completely different social channels.
Every of your pillars ought to change barely based mostly on the platform you’re utilizing. For instance, you may flex your product-focused pillar as an Instagram Reel, however then flip this right into a demo breakdown video for TikTok or an interactive webinar for LinkedIn.
For those who’re uncertain easy methods to tweak your social media content material pillars throughout completely different platforms, consult with Sprout’s 2024 Social Media Content material Technique Report. In it, you’ll discover data-driven insights into which content material codecs and kinds needs to be prioritised on every community.
The right way to measure the efficiency of your social media content material pillars
As soon as your content material pillars are in place and also you’re persistently creating content material round them, it’s time to trace how each is performing. Efficiency measuring is far simpler should you use Sprout Tagging.
Create a separate, distinctive Tag for every of your pillars, and tag each piece of content material you add with its respective pillar. You possibly can view tagged content material throughout your calendar to ensure you’re diversifying your output.
Then, use the Tag Efficiency Report to trace how particular person content material is performing throughout every of your pillars. Formalise this course of right into a tagging technique to achieve clearer insights into which pillars work greatest on your model, and which want tweaking or altering.
Construct your social media content material pillars to spice up content material efficiency
With outlined social media content material pillars, you’ll be able to create a simpler social content material calendar and work to raised obtain your wider social media targets. The extra perception you might have into content material efficiency, the simpler it’s to refine your pillars over time.
Mix your pillars with extra insights into social media content material expectations by downloading the 2025 Sprout Social Index™. You’ll discover an outline of consumer expectations, in addition to information that may inform the way you construct your social workforce to organize for the way forward for digital advertising.
Social Media Content material Pillar FAQs
What are some frequent errors groups make with social media content material pillars?
One frequent mistake isn’t fascinated with which pillars will work greatest on which social platforms. Be sure pillars overlap, however take into consideration which networks and audiences work greatest with them. One other mistake isn’t refining or altering your pillars over time as what you are promoting grows and your viewers evolves.
What are the three E’s of social media content material pillars?
The three E’s stand for have interaction, entertain and educate. These needs to be the foundational pillars of your technique. All the things you put up on socials needs to be doing a minimum of one in every of these three.
