Every website, social media platform, and even your XOTV channel must have a defined foundation. That foundation is your content pillars, bins, or buckets, depending on which continent you live. No matter what you call them, your channel strategy is incomplete without them. Content pillars are the 3 – 5 subcategories of a larger body of work. For example, if you write a 100-page report, you can break it down into 3-5 subcategories of content. As you create infographics, tweets, blog articles, video content, and social media posts, they will all stem from your 3-5 focus areas. 

 

 

In this case, content pillars are the 3-5 subcategories for your overall XOTV channel focus. All of your content — XOTV content, social media content, blog content, and speaking engagements that are related to your XOTV channel will use these three pillars.

 

Think of your content pillars in terms of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) keywords and key phrases. On my XOTV channel — WhitewaterTV, our keywords, and key phrases are:

 

We also use these keywords and phrases as channel hashtags for social media.

Hashtags: #adventure sports #extreme sports #outdoorlife #whitewatertv #outdoorsy

 

 

Your XOTV channel and your content pillars will need to meet one to three of these criteria 1) convert channel viewers into customers, 2) educate viewers about your channel's area of focus, 3) inform the viewer of industry trends, provide 4) entertainment, or 5) inspire your viewer to take action in their lives or the lives of others. On my WhitewaterTV, we educate, inform, and inspire viewers to connect or reconnect to nature through an outdoor lifestyle focusing on land and water stewardship. Your channel should have a similar tight focus. And your channel's focus should meet at least three of the above five criteria to create epic content and viewer engagement.

 

You might choose to rotate using your content pillars throughout episodes. Episode one might include pillar one. Episode two could focus on pillar two. Episode three would contain pillar three. And episode four would circle back to center on pillar one. 

 

On WhitewaterTV, we incorporate our three pillars — "The People Places + Products of your adventure sports lifestyle" into every episode and social media post. Our pillars are in the show description, the show episode, and the social media post about the episode. Check out this episode of WhitewaterTV to see how we use our pillars in the show and the show description. 

 

Finally, you'll want to add your content pillars to a carefully curated social media post, and you're on your way to building your brand through epic content.

About the Author:

Antoinette Lee Toscano, MBA, is a former IT executive, blogger at the New Normal Big Life blog, Contributing Writer at Culturs magazine, a public speaker, the Producer of WhitewaterTV, and co-founder of Diversify Whitewater.