I’m all about Instagram. Why? Well, first, it’s got 800 million active users, that’s nothing to scoff at. Secondly, Instagram allows you to make money directly from the platform. Third, is that you can use your photos to customize a brand aesthetic. There is SO much more. I could go on. But in the interest of providing you with the most useful information, this post isn’t about the benefits of Instagram marketing… Although, now that you mention it, that should be a blog too! It’s about creating meaningful, high-engagement content for your Instagram page, using content pillars.
What’s a Content Pillar?
A content pillar is a tool that content marketers use to define their content. In blog writing, a content pillar helps marketers create content that aligns with their brand, is consistent in quality, length and style, and connects with other ideas throughout the rest of their blog content, forming a stack of interlinking concepts that connect website users from one topic to the next.
Due to the limitations of Instagram, a content pillar for Instagram works similar to a blogging content pillar with no links being a key difference. Instead of being a tool that ties your content together through a web of internal backlinks, Instagram pillars tie your photos and captions together with concepts that are repeated throughout your posts.
When you create a content pillar for Instagram, you start with a set of overarching topics that meet the guidelines of your brand. For me, it’s typically something like branding or weddings. You look at each picture and put it into one of the pillar categories. Then you begin to work on your caption.
Four tips for fab captions for your Insta
Here are some practical tips for using content pillars to caption your Instagram photos:
1. Consider your brand focal points
A pillar gets its name from the idea that it is a foundational device that holds up the rest of the content infrastructure that makes up your brand. The pillars you start with should be easy to derive from your brand presence. For instance, if you are a travel agent your pillars might be budget vacation ideas, packing tips and staycations. If those are your pillars, all of the content you use on Instagram should reflect those key concepts
2. Work a batch of photos at a time
We’ve already talked about post scheduling and the best tools to help you do it. Because post scheduling is such a breeze with apps, it’s helpful to do pillars in batches. Building batches of pillar content for Instagram just makes sense with how my brain works. I have three core concepts. I’m going to assign each photo in my batch into one of the three concepts. So let’s say I have 25 photos that I want to put on Instagram with captions. If I work them in batches of 5 or 10 at a time, I can have a few in each pillar category ready to get posted, and as I work on the captions in a batch, I ensure that duplicate or overly similar captions and content are avoided.
3. Be thorough and thoughtful
What I mean to say here is branding takes time, planning, finesse and strategy. That’s especially true on Instagram where you can’t link in posts, natively, and every word of a short caption should be meaningful and authentic. Take your time coming up with captions. If you start captioning on Friday night and don’t finish until Sunday, that’s ok if you’re using that time to be thoughtful, organized and come up with your best work.
4. Break each pillar down
So, I’ve asked you to create conceptual content pillars and now I’m asking you to break them down, what gives? In this context, what you need to do is reduce each pillar to three concepts. One of the three resulting concepts will be used for each photo in the pillar’s batch. So, if we go back to our travel agent example, let’s look at the pillar for staycations. That can be broken down into:
- What are staycations?: These captions might start with the words, “Staycations are….”
- Why do people need staycations?: These captions might say, “Staycations are important because…” or “People take staycations to…”
- What are the benefits of staycations?: These captions say things like, “When you book a staycation with me, you get…”
By breaking the pillar down into three categories that you can use every time a photo is assigned to that pillar you have a smart and easy strategy for creating branded content.
If you think my blogs are helpful, you should try a branding session. Book a consultation with Kristina Maness Photography. Contact me today for details.