Social media marketing is essential for businesses to reach their target audience and build a strong brand presence. Content pillars are the foundation of any successful social media strategy as they provide direction, and focus and help create engaging content tailored to your target audience.
The four pillars of social media marketing – uniqueness, influence, trust and relevance—are key components that enhance brand awareness and drive customers through content. By following these content pillars when developing content for your business’s social media channels, you can create an effective strategy that will benefit your brand in the long term.
Understanding the four pillars of social media marketing.
For small businesses trying to build a presence on social media, it is essential to understand the four pillars of social media marketing. These four pillars–uniqueness, influence, trust, and relevance–are necessary for creating successful social media strategies that will help your business stand out from the competition and make an impact on potential customers.
Uniqueness: Standing out from the crowd.
The first of the four pillars of social media marketing is uniqueness. To truly stand out from the crowd, you must create content that sets your business apart from the competition.
This can be done by creating unique creative visuals or telling a story about your brand interestingly and engagingly. It’s important to note that simply copying what other businesses are doing won’t necessarily help you stand out. You must be creative and think outside the box to really make an impact on social media.
Influence: Connecting with customers at a deeper level.
The second pillar of social media marketing is influence. To build a powerful presence on social media, engaging directly with your followers and creating meaningful connections is important. This means responding to comments, creating helpful and relevant content to your audience, and fostering an environment of trust.
When done effectively, these strategies can help you build a strong influence among your followers, making them more likely to engage with and buy from your brand.
Trust: Establishing credibility in the digital space.
Trust is the third pillar of social media marketing, and businesses must establish credibility in the digital space. This means providing accurate information about your products or services, responding quickly and thoughtfully to customer inquiries, and being honest with your followers.
The more credible you are on social media, the more likely customers will trust your brand and, thus, be more likely to purchase from it.
Relevance: Creating content tailored to your audience.
The fourth and final pillar of social media platforms is relevance. To truly make an impact with your social media strategy, you need to create content that is relevant and interesting to your target audience. This means creating content tailored to their interests and needs and avoiding generic or uninteresting posts.
By creating targeted content tailored to your audience, you can position yourself as an expert in your field, build trust with customers, and drive more engagement with potential buyers.
How to leverage the content pillars to enhance your brand awareness.
As small business owners, we’re all about practical application. So how do you use these four content pillars to create a successful social media strategy? Don’t worry; we’ll help you out.
Define your target audience for your social media strategy.
First, you must define your target audience and tailor your posts to their interests. This includes researching their needs and wants, understanding the type of content they respond to, and engaging with your followers on a deeper level. This will help you create tailored content that is more likely to engage with potential customers and help you reach a wider audience.
For example, if you’re a family practice doctor, you might target parents with content centered around tips for keeping kids healthy.
Create unique visuals for your posts on social media platforms.
You also need to create unique visuals for your posts that are visually appealing and capture the attention of your target audience. You can do this by using innovative visual elements or creating creative graphics that stand out from the competition. This will help you differentiate yourself from other businesses in your industry, as well as make an impact on social media platforms.
Build trust with customers through strategic content.
One of the biggest challenges for businesses on social media is building trust with customers. You can create content that is accurate, honest, and relevant to your target audience.
For example, if you’re a car repair shop, you might create blog posts about common car maintenance tips or share real customer reviews and testimonials on your page. This will show potential customers that you are trustworthy and reliable.
Use the social media content pillars as a guide.
There are no hard and fast rules for creating a successful social media strategy, but the content pillars provide a good starting point. Use them as a guide to create unique and engaging content that is tailored to your target audience and helps you build credibility with potential customers.
When done correctly, these strategies can help you reach more people, generate quality leads, and make an impact on your bottom line. In the end, as long as you’re being candid and forthcoming in your content marketing, you shouldn’t have any trouble driving results on social media.
Strategies for driving customers through content.
Ready to start developing your content strategy? It’s much easier than you think. Here are some simple steps to help get you started:
- Research your target audience and understand their needs. This is so important. Business owners really need to consider who they’re targeting and not just blasting out whatever comes to their minds first.
- Focus on creating unique visuals that stand out from the competition. Boring stock photos don’t attract eyeballs, but flashy and fun visuals that tell a story do. We recommend using the free version of Canva to develop visuals. They have tons of templates. They’ll look great and not cost anything.
- Post reliable content that builds trust with potential customers. You’re already the expert in your field, so become an authority through your social media posts. Become the go-to for information within your industry.
- Engage with followers regularly to create a deeper connection. Always respond to posts. Take time daily to respond to anyone who comments on your page or posts for each social media platform.
By leveraging the power of your social media channels and following the content pillars, you can create a successful social media strategy that reaches more customers and drives results.
With the right planning and execution of your strategy, you’ll be on your way to building brand awareness, driving leads, and growing your business.
Tips for creating engaging, relevant content based on the pillars.
We’ve thrown a lot of information at you, so here are some simple tips to help you make awesome content.
- Always include a visual. Visual content can be either a photo, video, or some other graphic. You should never post anything without some sort of visual content.
- Write content that resonates with your target audience. Consider their needs, wants, and interests when creating content so you can meet them where they’re at.
- Make sure your message is simple and clear. People are busy, so avoid long-winded posts and be succinct in what you want to communicate. Think about when you scroll through Facebook or Twitter. Your social media presence should be brief!
- Post regularly. This helps keep your followers engaged and attentive. Strive for consistency in scheduling posts, as this will help you build momentum and reach more people on social media quickly. The best way to get after this is to create a social media content calendar and adhere to it when you create content pillars.
- Be authentic and transparent in all of your content. People can tell when something isn’t genuine, so be honest and open when developing your social media presence.
By following the content pillars when developing content, you can create a strong, successful social media strategy that will benefit your brand and drive customers to you. Content pillars provide direction and focus, so make sure you use them in your strategy.
One way to ensure you follow them is by posting them near your computer.
Whenever you create posts, take a look at them and validate if you are, in fact, following them. Heck, you can even add some of your own content pillars if your industry is unique enough.
Content pillars examples that companies have used.
While one of the content pillars is uniqueness, it’s always worthwhile to see what others have done that works. Here are some examples of companies that have used content pillars to create successful social media campaigns—
Nike – Nike is a great example of a company that uses content pillars in its strategies. They focus on trust, influence, and relevance when creating engaging visuals and messages for their followers. Their hashtag “Just Do It” is a great example of how they use content pillars to stay relevant and unique. They focus on athletes, sports, and fitness-related content to create a connection with the audience. Their brand’s social media strategy revolves around its target audience.
Apple – Apple is another company that uses the four content pillars to its advantage. They focus on trust, influence, relevance, and uniqueness when creating campaigns. Their “Think Different” campaign is a great example of how they combine these four elements to create impactful messages. For example, they often use celebrities (i.e., influencer marketing) to influence and draw attention to their campaigns. That draws on trust, relevance, and uniqueness.
Get started with your own social media marketing strategy.
By following the content pillars and creating high-quality content, you can create an effective social media strategy and reach more customers.
You don’t have to be a professional social media marketer to make the most of your brand’s social media channels. Still, you do need to think about your content and the four pillars of social media marketing. Use these tips and examples when creating content pillars that will drive customers and grow your business.
Need help with content ideas?
That’s what we’re here for. Reach out to us, and we can discuss how to create unique, engaging content that reflects your brand and draws customers in. We’ll help you develop a successful social media strategy that fits your business goals.
If you don’t have time to post amazing Instagram stories or create meaningful content, we’ve got a team of social media marketers that can help you with. We’re experts at content marketing, and we can get your business going with an effective content pillar strategy.
Get in touch, and let’s discuss how we can create a successful social media strategy for your business.