Research shows that of all companies that use social media marketing, less than 50% have a documented social media strategy.
Does your business currently have a specific strategy for social media and social media content creation, in particular? If you do, do you feel like it’s taking up all of your time?
It’s true that social media marketing is an important part of building a brand and getting people interested in buying what you’re selling. Coming up with ideas for content doesn’t have to be a time-consuming practice, though.
One way you can save time on content creation is by using the Pillar Content tactic. Read on to learn this approach and how you can use it to improve your social media content strategy and create more content in less time.
What Is the Pillar Content Strategy?
The Pillar Content strategy is one of the most effective options for those looking to improve social media content creation and also save time. Entrepreneur and social media expert Gary Vaynerchuk (or Gary Vee) swears by this approach, and he does so for good reason: Because it works.
According to Vaynerchuk, this strategy uses a “reverse pyramid” structure. It involves taking your brand’s “pillar content” and then breaking it up into smaller pieces of micro-content.
Pillar content can be any type of long-form branding and marketing content. Examples include marketing videos, behind-the-scenes videos, Q&A videos, blog posts, and podcasts.
Once you’ve broken up the pillar content, you’ll have several pieces of content that you can post on social media on a regular basis. Suddenly, instead of having to spend time putting together a brand new post every single day, you’ll have lots of posts prepped and ready to go.
Benefits of This Approach
The Pillar Content strategy allows you to create tons of content and ensure you’re posting consistently. It also helps you to save time and free yourself up to focus on other things without having to worry about social media marketing falling by the wayside.
Another benefit of the Pillar Content strategy is the fact that it helps to drive attention back to your pillar content.
Some marketers might be a bit hesitant at first about chopping up a blog post or video that they spent a lot of time putting together. Remember, though, that you can still retain the original content after you’ve broken it up for social media.
Use the posts that contain pieces of the long-form content to redirect social media users back to that blog post or video. Invite them to watch or read the whole thing on your website or your business’s YouTube channel, for example.
How to Use the Pillar Content Strategy
At this point, you might be interested in utilizing the Pillar Content strategy. However, you might also still be on the fence about how you can make it work for you. If you’re unsure, here are some tips to help you get started:
Choose Your Pillar Content
This is the first thing to do when putting the strategy to the test. Spend some time looking through existing long-form content and identifying the pieces that will best serve as pillar content for your social media platforms. A 2,000-word blog post might be a good option, or perhaps a 15-minute video.
Keep in mind that video content tends to be the most effective option for those looking to utilize this method. Video gives you more bang for your buck compared to written or audio-only content. This is because you can extract audio and transcribe the video, which allows you to create even more micro-content for your social media pages.
Review Pillar Content and Identify Micro-Content
Once you’ve picked out a few pieces of long-form content to get you started, your next job is to review that content and pick out sections that can stand alone as their own posts.
An example of an effective piece of micro-content could be a quote from a blog post that you turn into a tweet or an image for Instagram. It could also be a one or two-minute clip from a longer video that shares a particularly interesting point or a fun fact that might be appealing to your audience.
Your micro-content could even be a short GIF of a funny reaction someone had during an interview. The possibilities are practically limitless.
Make Micro-Content Contextual
After you’ve identified micro-content, your next job is to make that content contextual.
This involves cleaning it up so that it works for the specific platform on which you want to post it. For example, you might need to edit a video clip down into one-minute chunks so you can share it on Instagram.
When you’re making your content contextual, make sure you keep platform-specific rules in mind. For example, if you’re going to post a quote from a blog post on Twitter, make sure it fits within the 140-character limit.
Be sure to also include captions that provide more information on the content and redirect social media users back to your pillar content.
Bonus Tips to Save Time on Content Creation
The Pillar Content strategy is one of the most effective options for those who are looking to be more efficient with social media content creation. It’s not the only tactic to consider using, though. In addition to this approach, consider some of these other ideas for creating more content in less time:
Batch Content Creation
We’re going to let you in on a little secret: Most brands do not create content in real-time.
It’s true. Entrepreneurs don’t typically wake up in the morning and pull an idea for a new social media post out of thin air. More often than not, brands are creating lots of content in one sitting. This is known as batching.
By creating several pieces of social media content at once, in batches, you can enjoy peace of mind knowing that you have something to post every day for the next several days or even weeks.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t ever deviate from the plan and post something in real-time if inspiration strikes. It just frees up your brain space so that you actually can create a spur-of-the-moment post (or just focus on other aspects of running your business).
Listen to Your Audience
It doesn’t matter if you’re using the Pillar Content strategy or another content creation strategy. Either way, it’s important to listen to what your audience has to say about what you’re putting out.
What kind of micro-content are they best responding to? Do they love video clips? Are lots of people commenting on and sharing your quotes?
Keep this information in mind as you move forward and use it to create more micro-content in the future that is more likely to resonate with your audience. This will help you build more brand awareness and have an easier time redirecting people back to your website or to your pillar content.
Create a Content Collection System
When you first start using the Pillar Content strategy, you might feel overwhelmed at the idea of sifting through all the content you’ve created so far. As you move forward, though, you can avoid these feelings of overwhelm by having a content collection system in place.
Consider using a tool like Evernote to copy links to content that you might want to use in the future. You can also invite other members of your team to add content to the file as well. That way, everything is in one spot and you can easily reference it when you’re sitting down to batch-create content.
Outsource Social Media Management
If you’re still struggling to keep up with social media content creation, it might be time to consider outsourcing it and letting a professional handle it for you.
Working with a social media management service can make it easier for you to have content to post on a regular basis. It also allows you more breathing room to handle the parts of your business that you know best.
Streamline Your Social Media Content Strategy Today
As you can see, there are lots of ways that you can adjust your social media content strategy so that you create more content in less time.
When you utilize these tactics, you can feel confident that you have a strong social media presence that builds your audience and helps you grow your business. At the same time, though, you’ll also be free to focus on other tasks that move the needle forward for your company.
Do you need help creating pillar content or mastering other aspects of social media marketing? If so, Perform Growth is here to help.
We’re a social media management service that connects you with dedicated social media assistants and marketers. Our goal is to save you time while also helping you to unlock the full potential of every social media platform.
Contact us today to learn more about our services or to schedule a consultation.
