Name

Content Pillars

1. Content Pillars 🕯️

What the hell do I post?

On X (Or any other platform) volume is never the answer.

Not only that, quality isn’t either.

Wait what?

Sounds weird, but volume OR quality isn’t the core contributor to your growth.

Everything boils down to WHAT you post.

Here’s where our “content pillars” come into play.

In this resource, we will cover everything about content pillars, what to post, and how to structure our content based on outcomes, not ideas.

Let’s dive in!

1. Content Pillars 🕯️

What the hell do I post?

On X (Or any other platform) volume is never the answer.

Not only that, quality isn’t either.

Wait what?

Sounds weird, but volume OR quality isn’t the core contributor to your growth.

Everything boils down to WHAT you post.

Here’s where our “content pillars” come into play.

In this resource, we will cover everything about content pillars, what to post, and how to structure our content based on outcomes, not ideas.

Let’s dive in!

2. Planting our Goals 🌱

Before we build our content pillars, we have to ground our goals behind our brand.

When you’re growing on social media, it needs to grow in the right direction.

A plant always grows toward the sunlight, because it’s goal is to get more.

You cannot sell to companies if all your growth has been focused toward creators.

BEFORE we begin, structure your goals:

  1. What niche will I attract?

  2. What audience will I attract?

  3. What customers will I attract?

  4. What call to action will my page lead to?

Remember, social media is just the top of the funnel.

If we mess it up, the rest of the pipeline gets clogged.

Our main goal here is to just drive curiosity!

Each of these lead into new questions:

  1. What niche will I attract?

    • What topics does my niche talk about?

    • What are the key players & KOLs in my niche?

  2. What audience will I attract?

    • What value do they need?

    • What entertains them?

    • What does their ideal profile look like?

  3. What customers will I attract?

    • What issues do they have?

    • What dreams do they have?

  4. What call to action will my page lead to?

  5. A product?

  6. To book a call?

  7. A community?

You’ll need all of these questions answered to build your content pillars properly.

2. Planting our Goals 🌱

Before we build our content pillars, we have to ground our goals behind our brand.

When you’re growing on social media, it needs to grow in the right direction.

A plant always grows toward the sunlight, because it’s goal is to get more.

You cannot sell to companies if all your growth has been focused toward creators.

BEFORE we begin, structure your goals:

  1. What niche will I attract?

  2. What audience will I attract?

  3. What customers will I attract?

  4. What call to action will my page lead to?

Remember, social media is just the top of the funnel.

If we mess it up, the rest of the pipeline gets clogged.

Our main goal here is to just drive curiosity!

Each of these lead into new questions:

  1. What niche will I attract?

    • What topics does my niche talk about?

    • What are the key players & KOLs in my niche?

  2. What audience will I attract?

    • What value do they need?

    • What entertains them?

    • What does their ideal profile look like?

  3. What customers will I attract?

    • What issues do they have?

    • What dreams do they have?

  4. What call to action will my page lead to?

  5. A product?

  6. To book a call?

  7. A community?

You’ll need all of these questions answered to build your content pillars properly.

3. What Are Content Pillars? 🤔

What are content pillars?

Content pillars are the post types we lay out to grow.

There are multiple types → because each one has a different goal:

What gets me follows?

What gets me reach?

What gets me clients?

What gets me fans?

Social media is a funnel.

Within that, our content is a funnel.

Only focus on the 4 main points above.

3. What Are Content Pillars? 🤔

What are content pillars?

Content pillars are the post types we lay out to grow.

There are multiple types → because each one has a different goal:

What gets me follows?

What gets me reach?

What gets me clients?

What gets me fans?

Social media is a funnel.

Within that, our content is a funnel.

Only focus on the 4 main points above.

4. What gets me reach? 📈

Want to grow?

We need to reach new people.

When you’re conquering it on X, you’re gonna hit platitudes in your growth.

Think of it as steps:

You’ll reach around 250 people, and then it slows down.

You then need a post that performs better than usual to break that level, to reach 500.

Think of the algorithm as a circle.

When you post, all your content is pushed into your circle.

Then you post something that goes “viral” your circle gets expanded on that post.

By following the other content styles correctly, our circle will retain its new size much better.

So what content styles get us MORE reach?

News, Trends, Hot Topics

X pushes news. Anything trending within your niche has a much better chance of reaching new people. This is because keywords will make your tweet show up when people are searching for a hot topic. Ride this hype to reach new people interested in said topic.

Steal From Larger Accounts

We see this a lot. Though it can get a lot of impressions, some people try and use this as their only method to grow. We can steal (the attention) from larger accounts, by creating a post about them, encouraging them to RT or share it with their audience. A lot of times, this looks like a story about a creator, for example:

(Creator) has done $10 Million in affiliate sales.

I studied them for 24 hours and uncovered these 3 secrets to their success:

(Long form covering the 3 tips)

When done right, you may catch the attention of that creator and also have them RT, sharing your post with their audience. We will see the same with projects or companies. People will write about a project in a thread & cover everything about it, with the intention for the company to share it to their community.

Engaging Tweets

The third prime example to gain more reach is content that encourages people to engage with you. Giveaways, Engaging questions, and controversial topics are all great ways to do this.

  • Giveaways:

    Exchange value in return for engagement. This is a fool-proof way to drive reach. I share this in two different pillars as well, as it’s a killer way to engage, get followers, and get clients.

    https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1815040533380862086

  • Engaging Or Relatable Content: Creating a question that is engaging and fun to answer in your niche. It doesn’t have to be hard to answer, (better if it isn’t) but something relatable people can laugh at.

    https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1806318802633945567

    https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1817461512698503315

  • Controversial Topics:

    Everyone has their own opinions. If you want to stop someone dead in their scroll, tweet something controversial that might make them disagree, or agree with you. Everyone posts the same things, so it’ll often perform well if it stands out and challenges the social norm. The goal with this content? Piss someone off.

    https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1819648991845667042

    https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1817976666519666962

Use these primary 3 content pillars to get more reach. Another one that isn’t touched on is X spaces. Obviously, this takes more time, setup & planning, and won’t work well if your audience isn’t already engaged. When it is… Feel free to host spaces talking about a common topic from your ICP!

4. What gets me reach? 📈

Want to grow?

We need to reach new people.

When you’re conquering it on X, you’re gonna hit platitudes in your growth.

Think of it as steps:

You’ll reach around 250 people, and then it slows down.

You then need a post that performs better than usual to break that level, to reach 500.

Think of the algorithm as a circle.

When you post, all your content is pushed into your circle.

Then you post something that goes “viral” your circle gets expanded on that post.

By following the other content styles correctly, our circle will retain its new size much better.

So what content styles get us MORE reach?

News, Trends, Hot Topics

X pushes news. Anything trending within your niche has a much better chance of reaching new people. This is because keywords will make your tweet show up when people are searching for a hot topic. Ride this hype to reach new people interested in said topic.

Steal From Larger Accounts

We see this a lot. Though it can get a lot of impressions, some people try and use this as their only method to grow. We can steal (the attention) from larger accounts, by creating a post about them, encouraging them to RT or share it with their audience. A lot of times, this looks like a story about a creator, for example:

(Creator) has done $10 Million in affiliate sales.

I studied them for 24 hours and uncovered these 3 secrets to their success:

(Long form covering the 3 tips)

When done right, you may catch the attention of that creator and also have them RT, sharing your post with their audience. We will see the same with projects or companies. People will write about a project in a thread & cover everything about it, with the intention for the company to share it to their community.

Engaging Tweets

The third prime example to gain more reach is content that encourages people to engage with you. Giveaways, Engaging questions, and controversial topics are all great ways to do this.

  • Giveaways:

    Exchange value in return for engagement. This is a fool-proof way to drive reach. I share this in two different pillars as well, as it’s a killer way to engage, get followers, and get clients.

    https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1815040533380862086

  • Engaging Or Relatable Content: Creating a question that is engaging and fun to answer in your niche. It doesn’t have to be hard to answer, (better if it isn’t) but something relatable people can laugh at.

    https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1806318802633945567

    https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1817461512698503315

  • Controversial Topics:

    Everyone has their own opinions. If you want to stop someone dead in their scroll, tweet something controversial that might make them disagree, or agree with you. Everyone posts the same things, so it’ll often perform well if it stands out and challenges the social norm. The goal with this content? Piss someone off.

    https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1819648991845667042

    https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1817976666519666962

Use these primary 3 content pillars to get more reach. Another one that isn’t touched on is X spaces. Obviously, this takes more time, setup & planning, and won’t work well if your audience isn’t already engaged. When it is… Feel free to host spaces talking about a common topic from your ICP!

5. What gets me clients? 🔑

Do impressions make you money?

No, unless you’re getting millions of them.

In this section, we will cover content pillars that help you convert “content → $$.”

In other words, content that will bring you inbound leads.

How do we do this?

Most of the time, content that gets a ton of engagement isn’t the content that pays you. (That’s why we balance our pillars.) Generally, if someone wants to pay you, they aren’t going to engage on your content. They’re going straight to your DMs to learn more about what you have to offer.

There are only two strong content pillars that are guaranteed to bring you a ton of inbound leads, results and pain points. At the end, there’s also a bonus method that links with the “What gets me follows?” pillar.

Results

Potential clients love to see good results. That being said, this method can only come after you get your first clients… Or can it?

If you want results before you have clients, make them for yourself.

Doing social media? Grow your personal brand first, flex those numbers.

Doing lead generation? Generate them for your business first.

Making websites? Build test websites makeovers and flex them.

Another amazing way to do this (Before you have client results) is doing a case study as if you had a company as a client. For example:

”If I was Microsoft’s Brand Designer, here’s what I’d change”

Then, create content pretending that you work for Microsoft. It’s a great way to show off your skills and create “results” for a client. (This can be done for any service)

Pain Points

The second best way to gets leads?

Make pain-driven content that your ICP can relate to.

This is value-based relatable content that resonates with the issues your audience is facing.

What does this look like?

1. Hook them with their issue (or their dream)

Create a hook or opener that perfectly describes the issue they’re facing, or the dream that they want to achieve.

2. Turn the problem into pain

Describe WHY the problem matters, and what pain they might be feeling because of it. Or, describe their situation they’ll be stuck in if they don’t achieve their dream.

3. Describe how they can solve their issue

Provide value by walking them through how they can solve this specific issue.

4. Position your offer as the solution

At the end, position what you offer as the solution to their problems.

What does this look like?

Here’s some examples:

In this one, I start it by acting as if I’m in the user’s shoes: “How do I find leads?”

From here, I frame my video as the ultimate solution to their problems. If I want to sell something, I can include it in the video or message when I reach out to everyone that’s interested.

https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1815040533380862086

To discover pain points, you either need to face them yourself or get them from your ICP. A great way to find more pain points & dreams? Hop on free calls with your audience and ask: “What issues are you facing?” You can then take these answers and make content with it.

5. What gets me clients? 🔑

Do impressions make you money?

No, unless you’re getting millions of them.

In this section, we will cover content pillars that help you convert “content → $$.”

In other words, content that will bring you inbound leads.

How do we do this?

Most of the time, content that gets a ton of engagement isn’t the content that pays you. (That’s why we balance our pillars.) Generally, if someone wants to pay you, they aren’t going to engage on your content. They’re going straight to your DMs to learn more about what you have to offer.

There are only two strong content pillars that are guaranteed to bring you a ton of inbound leads, results and pain points. At the end, there’s also a bonus method that links with the “What gets me follows?” pillar.

Results

Potential clients love to see good results. That being said, this method can only come after you get your first clients… Or can it?

If you want results before you have clients, make them for yourself.

Doing social media? Grow your personal brand first, flex those numbers.

Doing lead generation? Generate them for your business first.

Making websites? Build test websites makeovers and flex them.

Another amazing way to do this (Before you have client results) is doing a case study as if you had a company as a client. For example:

”If I was Microsoft’s Brand Designer, here’s what I’d change”

Then, create content pretending that you work for Microsoft. It’s a great way to show off your skills and create “results” for a client. (This can be done for any service)

Pain Points

The second best way to gets leads?

Make pain-driven content that your ICP can relate to.

This is value-based relatable content that resonates with the issues your audience is facing.

What does this look like?

1. Hook them with their issue (or their dream)

Create a hook or opener that perfectly describes the issue they’re facing, or the dream that they want to achieve.

2. Turn the problem into pain

Describe WHY the problem matters, and what pain they might be feeling because of it. Or, describe their situation they’ll be stuck in if they don’t achieve their dream.

3. Describe how they can solve their issue

Provide value by walking them through how they can solve this specific issue.

4. Position your offer as the solution

At the end, position what you offer as the solution to their problems.

What does this look like?

Here’s some examples:

In this one, I start it by acting as if I’m in the user’s shoes: “How do I find leads?”

From here, I frame my video as the ultimate solution to their problems. If I want to sell something, I can include it in the video or message when I reach out to everyone that’s interested.

https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1815040533380862086

To discover pain points, you either need to face them yourself or get them from your ICP. A great way to find more pain points & dreams? Hop on free calls with your audience and ask: “What issues are you facing?” You can then take these answers and make content with it.

6. What gets me follows? 🎯

The burning question a lot of people struggle with:

”How do I get more followers?”

→ Follow 4 follow

→ Begging in DMs

→ Praying you go viral

I’ve seen it all.

None of it can consistently give you organic growth like the content I’ll share below will.

It’s the secret that made me go from ~120 followers → 1.1k+ in 28 DAYS.


People like to flex “100 followers in my first 10 days on X”

But we aren’t like those people.

Growth is EASY, you’ve just been learning from “growth gurus” that flex peasant numbers.

There is one tried & true method for seamlessly growing on X, and that’s giving away value.

The method we use is a value exchange.

  1. You follow me

  2. I give you value

Nothing else is more effective than that on X.

It’s simple, and ties into:

→ What gets me reach?

→ What gets me clients?

The value you give?

Solve an ISSUE or a common problem your audience faces.

They don’t need to be big or take you days to make.

One of my giveaways was simply a 8 minute video (5 people got clients after watching it)

To understand what this looks like, see all my examples:

  1. https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1815040533380862086

  2. https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1816138751720227119

  3. https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1813186724807516464

  4. https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1812770402478993678

  5. https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1810590174302159189

A BONUS example I wanna share as well. It’s not even on X (But could be repurposed for it)

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7215278190133395457/

Reason being - It’s perfectly executed. Exactly what we have chatted about… and has gotten him 1 MILLION impressions and 10,000 followers in 2 WEEKS🤯

Absolutely insane.

Lucky?

A little bit, but he did a spectacular job which increased his chances of it going mega-viral.

Here’s his breakdown:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7221201436494229504/

Back to the topic…

Do you notice something?

EVERYONE gets value.

Not “picking 1 person to win $50.”

This is also what makes people stay. They know next time you drop one they don’t need to pray and hope they win, they know you’ll send it to them.

Grow your following through value exchanges and trust.

Now, how do we convert our followers → fans?

Get started on the final piece of this module below!

6. What gets me follows? 🎯

The burning question a lot of people struggle with:

”How do I get more followers?”

→ Follow 4 follow

→ Begging in DMs

→ Praying you go viral

I’ve seen it all.

None of it can consistently give you organic growth like the content I’ll share below will.

It’s the secret that made me go from ~120 followers → 1.1k+ in 28 DAYS.


People like to flex “100 followers in my first 10 days on X”

But we aren’t like those people.

Growth is EASY, you’ve just been learning from “growth gurus” that flex peasant numbers.

There is one tried & true method for seamlessly growing on X, and that’s giving away value.

The method we use is a value exchange.

  1. You follow me

  2. I give you value

Nothing else is more effective than that on X.

It’s simple, and ties into:

→ What gets me reach?

→ What gets me clients?

The value you give?

Solve an ISSUE or a common problem your audience faces.

They don’t need to be big or take you days to make.

One of my giveaways was simply a 8 minute video (5 people got clients after watching it)

To understand what this looks like, see all my examples:

  1. https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1815040533380862086

  2. https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1816138751720227119

  3. https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1813186724807516464

  4. https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1812770402478993678

  5. https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1810590174302159189

A BONUS example I wanna share as well. It’s not even on X (But could be repurposed for it)

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7215278190133395457/

Reason being - It’s perfectly executed. Exactly what we have chatted about… and has gotten him 1 MILLION impressions and 10,000 followers in 2 WEEKS🤯

Absolutely insane.

Lucky?

A little bit, but he did a spectacular job which increased his chances of it going mega-viral.

Here’s his breakdown:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7221201436494229504/

Back to the topic…

Do you notice something?

EVERYONE gets value.

Not “picking 1 person to win $50.”

This is also what makes people stay. They know next time you drop one they don’t need to pray and hope they win, they know you’ll send it to them.

Grow your following through value exchanges and trust.

Now, how do we convert our followers → fans?

Get started on the final piece of this module below!

7. What gets me fans?🔥

If you couldn’t tell…

Numbers don’t mean sh*t.

We see accounts with 20k+ followers getting 5 likes…

And people with super engaged audiences making 0 $$.

You can go viral, but it doesn’t mean every post will perform well.

To consistently get engagement?

You need to convert your followers into FANS.

Too many people try to copy/paste other people’s content.

Thing is, readers crave authenticity.

Mundane content that they see 5x per day will not make anyone interested in what you have to say.

To get around this, we include 2 content pillars into our strategy to deepen the relationship with our followers:

→ Stories

→ Authoritative posts

Here’s why & what these look like:

Stories

Stories don’t need much of an explanation.

When you’re building a personal brand (or even a company) people want to hear your story.

  1. Your background

  2. Your wins (and losses)

  3. Lessons you’ve learned

  4. Experiences you’ve had.

The goal here is to make our followers understand us better.

We want to build a friendship, because people feel much better buying or listening to someone that they know, not a stranger.

This can be personal or business related. Whatever it is, it must be unique to you.

This is a great way to do long-form posts, here are some examples:

  1. Succes story + lesson https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1817216653907915043

  2. Business story https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1816476555687920082

  3. Business failure + lesson https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1814962025736568892

  4. Personal mistake + lesson https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1811343361535885711

  5. Client loss story https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1811071134017933800

Make them personal, engaging, and relatable.

Followers who resonate with your stories will turn into fans!

Authoritative Posts

As you see, long form content is what filters out our followers from our fans.

People who really want to hear from us will read it all, and build a deeper connection with us.

As much as people love authenticity, they love to follow someone in a position of authority.

This is what makes some people influential.

Not because they have a lot of followers, but because their content makes their community trust them.

We do this by giving valuable content that does two things:

  1. Positions us as someone knowledgeable in our niche (an authority)

  2. Give value to our followers so they stick around to read more.

These are some examples of authoritative long-forms:

  1. Tip on getting clients https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1819738312556610019

  2. How to scale https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1817864199521128551

  3. Building a personal brand https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1815733630507090215

  4. How to stand out https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1815435599010283693

As you can see…

They all give value, but most importantly, it shows your expertise.

Teach & build rapport to convert your followers into fans!

7. What gets me fans?🔥

If you couldn’t tell…

Numbers don’t mean sh*t.

We see accounts with 20k+ followers getting 5 likes…

And people with super engaged audiences making 0 $$.

You can go viral, but it doesn’t mean every post will perform well.

To consistently get engagement?

You need to convert your followers into FANS.

Too many people try to copy/paste other people’s content.

Thing is, readers crave authenticity.

Mundane content that they see 5x per day will not make anyone interested in what you have to say.

To get around this, we include 2 content pillars into our strategy to deepen the relationship with our followers:

→ Stories

→ Authoritative posts

Here’s why & what these look like:

Stories

Stories don’t need much of an explanation.

When you’re building a personal brand (or even a company) people want to hear your story.

  1. Your background

  2. Your wins (and losses)

  3. Lessons you’ve learned

  4. Experiences you’ve had.

The goal here is to make our followers understand us better.

We want to build a friendship, because people feel much better buying or listening to someone that they know, not a stranger.

This can be personal or business related. Whatever it is, it must be unique to you.

This is a great way to do long-form posts, here are some examples:

  1. Succes story + lesson https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1817216653907915043

  2. Business story https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1816476555687920082

  3. Business failure + lesson https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1814962025736568892

  4. Personal mistake + lesson https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1811343361535885711

  5. Client loss story https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1811071134017933800

Make them personal, engaging, and relatable.

Followers who resonate with your stories will turn into fans!

Authoritative Posts

As you see, long form content is what filters out our followers from our fans.

People who really want to hear from us will read it all, and build a deeper connection with us.

As much as people love authenticity, they love to follow someone in a position of authority.

This is what makes some people influential.

Not because they have a lot of followers, but because their content makes their community trust them.

We do this by giving valuable content that does two things:

  1. Positions us as someone knowledgeable in our niche (an authority)

  2. Give value to our followers so they stick around to read more.

These are some examples of authoritative long-forms:

  1. Tip on getting clients https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1819738312556610019

  2. How to scale https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1817864199521128551

  3. Building a personal brand https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1815733630507090215

  4. How to stand out https://x.com/Ares_Sprout/status/1815435599010283693

As you can see…

They all give value, but most importantly, it shows your expertise.

Teach & build rapport to convert your followers into fans!