Content Pillars: How to Pick Yours in 30 Minutes
Content pillars are the three to five recurring topics that every post on your account belongs to. They sit between your business goals and individual posts: broad enough to fill a year of posting, narrow enough that a new follower can tell what the account is for. Picking yours takes about 30 minutes with the five timed steps below.
You finish with three to five named pillars, five seed posts under each, a pass/fail test and a rule for spotting the pillar that is not pulling its weight. Rather adapt than start from zero? Skip to the ready-made pillar sets for five kinds of business.
Table of Contents
- What are content pillars?
- How many content pillars should you have?
- How to pick your content pillars in 30 minutes
- How do I test a candidate pillar?
- Content pillar examples by business type
- How do I turn content pillars into a posting schedule?
- How do I know when a pillar is not working?
- How does Outfeed AI keep pillars in rotation?
- Frequently asked questions about content pillars
What are content pillars?
A content pillar is a topic you return to again and again because it serves your business and your audience at once. Every post sits under one of them, which turns “what should I post?” into a smaller question: “what is this week’s post for pillar two?”
Social media content pillars are topics, not post types. “Educate, entertain, inspire, promote” describe what a post does. A plumber’s pillar is “Is this an emergency?”, and a teaching post, a funny post and a promotional post can all live inside it. Topic pillars make an account recognisable because they are specific to you.
Not the same as SEO pillar pages. In SEO, a pillar page is a long web page that covers a broad topic and links out to detailed pages on each subtopic. Content pillars for social media borrow the idea of a few core themes, but they describe what an account posts about, not how a website is structured. This guide covers the social media meaning.
How many content pillars should you have?
Three to five, set by how often you post. Fewer than three and the feed repeats itself; more than five and each pillar shows up too rarely for followers to connect it with you.
| You post | Pillars | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 2 to 3 times a week | 3 | Each pillar still comes round at least every other week |
| 4 to 6 times a week | 4 | Room for one sales-led pillar without it dominating |
| Daily or more | 5 | Enough variety that no topic feels on repeat |
The check behind the table is our working rule rather than research: every pillar should appear at least once every two weeks. If your schedule cannot manage that, cut a pillar before you add a post. Posting once a week or less? Run two pillars until you post more often, or accept that each of three comes round every third week.
How to pick your content pillars in 30 minutes
Set a 30-minute timer, open a blank document and answer five prompts in writing, in order. Each step has its own slice of the clock and ends in a written output you carry into the next. Each step also shows an illustrative example: a one-person mobile dog grooming business, invented for this guide.
Step 1 (minutes 0 to 5): Write what the account is for
Write two sentences. The first is a business goal: what should social media produce for the business in the next 90 days? The second is an account goal: what should a stranger know about you after five posts?
Illustrative example: “Fill the Tuesday to Thursday slots and turn one-off clients into regulars.” And: “A calm, careful groomer who comes to your door.”
Step 2 (minutes 5 to 10): List what buyers ask and worry about
Write the five questions you hear most and the two biggest worries people have before they book or buy. If memory fails, open your inbox or DMs and copy them.
Illustrative example: “Will my nervous dog cope?”, “How often does a doodle need grooming?”, “Why do mats matter?”, “What’s included?”, “Can you park outside a flat?” Worries: the dog being stressed, and the cost of a badly matted coat.
Step 3 (minutes 10 to 18): Audit your last 30 posts
Give each of your last 30 posts a one-word topic tag, then star the five with the most saves, shares or comments. New account? Run the same audit on 15 recent posts from each of two accounts your audience follows.
Illustrative example: before-and-after posts hold four of the five stars. Product recommendation posts drew almost nothing.
Step 4 (minutes 18 to 25): Name three to five pillars
Lay the outputs of steps 1 to 3 side by side and look for topics that serve the goal, answer the questions and already perform. Name each pillar in words a customer would use (“Calm grooming”, not “Educational content”). Give each one the quick version of the pass/fail test: can you name five posts for it right now, and does it connect to what you sell?
Illustrative example: four pillars survive: Calm grooming, Coat care at home, Transformations and Inside the van. Product recommendations are dropped.
Step 5 (minutes 25 to 30): Seed five posts per pillar and pick a format
For each pillar, write five one-line post seeds and the format they will mostly take. Stop at five. Here is the groomer’s finished output:
Calm grooming (Reels and carousels)
- What happens in the first two minutes with a nervous dog
- Why dogs get to sniff the clippers before anything starts
- The towel wrap for nail trims
- Signs a dog is stressed on the table
- A first visit, minute by minute
Coat care at home (carousels and pins)
- How often each coat type needs brushing
- The comb test for hidden mats
- Bath-time habits that cause mats
- Winter paw care after salted pavements
- What a de-shed actually removes
Transformations (Reels and TikTok)
- A matted coat before and after, posted with the owner’s permission
- A puppy’s first groom
- One dog, three seasons of cuts
- Ninety minutes of grooming in 30 seconds
- The owner’s reaction at the door, posted with permission
Inside the van (Stories, Facebook and TikTok)
- Van tour: where the water comes from
- The cleaning routine between dogs
- A day’s route on a map
- The kit that gets replaced every month
- How a groom works on a rainy day
How do I test a candidate pillar?
A candidate pillar must pass all five checks below. One fail means fix it before you post; two or more means drop it. The quick version fits inside Step 4; run the full version the next day, with fresh eyes.
| Test | It passes if… | If it fails |
|---|---|---|
| Twenty posts | You can list 20 posts for it without looking anything up | Too narrow: widen it or merge it with a neighbour |
| Sales link | You can connect it to something you sell, in one sentence | It is a hobby topic: keep it as an occasional post |
| Save or send | Someone in your audience would save it or send it to a friend | Add a practical angle so each post is worth keeping |
| Proof | You can show it (photos, results, process) rather than just say it | Swap it for a topic where you have evidence |
| Overlap | Fewer than about a third of its posts would fit another pillar | Merge the two pillars into one |
The overlap threshold is our own rule of thumb, not a measured figure. What matters is that a follower could guess which pillar a post belongs to.
Content pillar examples by business type
The five sets below are illustrative starting points written for this guide, not real brands’ strategies. Each gives the pillars, what belongs in them and a suggested share of posts. Swap the nouns for your own and run the tests above before you commit.
Local service: a two-van plumbing company
| Pillar | What it covers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Is this an emergency? | What can wait until Monday and what cannot: leaks, no hot water, odd smells | 30% |
| Behind the wall | Anonymised jobs: what was found, what caused it, what the fix involved | 30% |
| Prevent the next call | Seasonal prevention: frozen pipes, slow drains, water heater checks | 25% |
| Straight answers on price | What drives a quote, call-out fees explained, repair versus replace | 15% |
Ecommerce: an online loose-leaf tea shop
| Pillar | What it covers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Brew it right | Water temperature, steep times, gear, fixing bitter tea | 30% |
| Your tea moment | Routines and occasions: the afternoon cup, cold-brew jugs, gifting | 25% |
| From the garden | Where each tea comes from, harvest seasons, the growers | 20% |
| In the tin | New arrivals, restocks, bundles and offers | 15% |
| Your cups | Customer photos and reviews, shared with permission | 10% |
B2B SaaS: a staff scheduling app for restaurants
| Pillar | What it covers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Rota headaches | Last-minute swaps, no-shows, fair shift splits and how managers handle them | 30% |
| Labour-cost maths | Worked numbers on overtime, overstaffing and forecasting from bookings | 25% |
| The product in 60 seconds | One feature, the problem it solves, shown on screen | 20% |
| Managers who fixed it | Customer stories told with permission: before, after, what changed | 15% |
| Hospitality hiring | Commentary on the job market, pay and staff retention | 10% |
Solo creator: an online Spanish tutor
| Pillar | What it covers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Mistakes English speakers make | One common error per post, with the fix | 35% |
| Spanish as it is spoken | Slang, regional differences, what textbooks leave out | 30% |
| How to actually learn | Study methods, routines, habits that stick | 20% |
| Classes and courses | Openings, course launches, student progress shared with permission | 15% |
Agency: a five-person branding studio
| Pillar | What it covers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Work, explained | Client projects shown with permission: the brief, the rejected routes, the result | 30% |
| Free playbooks | Checklists and frameworks a prospect can use without hiring anyone | 20% |
| How we price and scope | Process, pricing models, what a good brief looks like | 20% |
| Opinions on the craft | Takes on design trends and industry habits | 20% |
| The studio | Hiring, team, tools and the week behind the work | 10% |
Agencies running client accounts can use the 30-minute exercise as a kickoff agenda: do it with each client, then keep the pillar list in the brief so everyone drafting posts works from the same set. For finished post ideas built from assets a business already has, see our post ideas for business owners.
How do I turn content pillars into a posting schedule?
Give each pillar a native format on each platform, then rotate the pillars so no topic runs twice in a row. The matrix below maps common pillar types to the format that usually suits them on each network. Your pillars are topics, so first label each one with the type it mostly is.
| Pillar type | TikTok | YouTube | X, Threads, Bluesky | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teach | Carousel | Hands-on tutorial | Long-form tutorial, or a Short for one tip | Document post | Photo with the steps written out | Step-by-step pin | A tip or a short thread |
| Proof | Before-and-after Reel | Before-and-after video | Short | Text post with the story and numbers | Before-and-after photos with the story | Before-and-after pin | One-line result with a photo |
| Behind the scenes | Stories or a Reel | Day-in-the-work video | Short or vlog | Text post with one photo | Photo or short video | Rarely a fit | Quick update with a photo |
| Opinion | Carousel that makes the argument | Talking-head take | Commentary video | Text post | Text post | Rarely a fit | Short opinion post |
| Offer | Single image or Reel with the offer | Product or service demo | Short demo | Text post naming the offer | Photo with price and link | Product pin | Short post with the link |
Then rotate with three rules:
- Weight by goal, not evenly. Use the share column from the examples above as a starting point.
- Never run two offer-led posts back to back. Put a teach or proof post between them.
- Every pillar appears at least once every two weeks. If one keeps missing, it is either too hard to make or not a real pillar (see the diagnostic below).
For the groomer posting five times a week, one week could run: Monday a Coat care carousel, Tuesday a Transformations Reel, Wednesday an Inside the van post on Facebook, Thursday a Calm grooming Reel, and Friday a Transformations post that ends with the week’s open slots. The next week shuffles the order.
To lay the rotation out on dates, the free content calendar template colour-codes posts by pillar and shows the mix as you fill it; if pillars are one decision in a wider plan with cadence and KPI targets, use the free social media strategy template. Our method for planning a month of posts covers the batch-writing session and the best time to post on each platform covers timing. When a pillar runs dry, refill it with nine systems for finding content ideas, the free content idea generator or post ideas sorted by goal.
How do I know when a pillar is not working?
Match the symptom to its likely cause before you change anything. Six common patterns:
| Symptom | What it usually means | What to try |
|---|---|---|
| You keep skipping its slot | Too hard to make, or out of material | Give it a lower-effort format, or merge it |
| Good reach, few saves, comments or shares | It attracts scrollers, not buyers | Narrow it to a question your buyers ask |
| Engagement from people who would never buy | It speaks to the wrong audience | Tie each post back to the problem you solve |
| Healthy engagement, no enquiries or clicks | No bridge to the offer | Add a soft next step to every third post in it |
| Every pillar is flat at once | Not a pillar problem | Check hooks, formats and posting times first |
| Ideas dried up within a month | The pillar is too narrow | Widen it, or fold it into a neighbour |
The 30-day check
After 30 days of posting, pick one metric that matches your goal. A sensible default is saves plus shares per account reached; our guide to social media KPIs helps you choose. Then find the median post in each pillar and rank the pillars.
Our working rule, not a benchmark: a pillar that sits in the bottom third for two 30-day cycles in a row gets reworked or retired. With three pillars, the bottom third is simply last place. One bad month is noise; two is a pattern.
The numbers come free from each platform’s own analytics. Instagram Insights, available on professional accounts, show saves and shares for each post. LinkedIn’s post analytics show how far each post reached and who saw it. The Content tab in YouTube Analytics summarises how viewers find and interact with your videos.
How does Outfeed AI keep pillars in rotation?
Pillars are the brief an AI assistant needs to stay on topic. Outfeed AI is a chat-first social media manager: tell it your pillars once in the conversation, then ask for next week’s rotation, such as “two Transformations posts, one Coat care and one Inside the van, for Instagram and Facebook”. It drafts each post, shows it in a per-platform preview, and publishes to Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Threads, YouTube, Pinterest or Bluesky when you approve. Brand Voice AI learns your tone, so every pillar sounds like the same business. See what an AI social media manager does for the wider job, and what Outfeed AI is for the product.
Starter is $29 a month and Pro is $59 a month, both flat rather than per seat; Agency is $149 per seat a month and Enterprise is custom. There is a 3-day trial with 100 AI credits, and a card is required. The full breakdown is in Outfeed AI pricing.
Give Outfeed AI your pillars and plan next week
Frequently asked questions about content pillars
What are the 5 content pillars?
There is no official set of five. The lists that circulate usually name types of post, such as educate, entertain, inspire, promote and community, which describe what a post does rather than what it is about. Your pillars work better as topics specific to your business, such as a plumber’s “Is this an emergency?” or “Straight answers on price”, with each type of post appearing inside them.
How many content pillars should you have?
Three to five for most accounts. If you post two or three times a week, three pillars is enough; if you post daily, four or five. A useful check is that every pillar should appear at least once every two weeks. If your posting schedule cannot manage that, you have more pillars than you can keep up.
What is the difference between content pillars and content buckets?
Mostly the name: the two terms are often used interchangeably. Where a distinction is drawn, buckets tends to mean the kinds of post you publish, such as tips, promotions or behind the scenes, and pillars means the topics the account is known for. Pick one vocabulary and use it consistently with anyone who drafts posts for you.
Are content pillars the same as pillar pages?
No. A pillar page is an SEO term for a long web page that covers a broad topic and links to more detailed pages on each subtopic. Content pillars are the recurring topics of a social media account. Both organise work around a few core themes, but one structures a website and the other structures a feed.
How do I know if a content pillar is working?
After 30 days, pick one metric that matches your goal, such as saves and shares per account reached, and compare the typical post in each pillar. A workable rule is to rework or retire a pillar that stays in the bottom third for two 30-day cycles in a row. Also watch for a pillar you keep skipping, which points to a production problem rather than an audience one.