LinkedIn content pillars: angles, not categories

Why most pillars don't help

“Leadership”, “personal brand”, “AI” and “marketing” are categories. Thousands of people file posts under each of them, so a pillar like that tells you nothing about what to write and tells a reader nothing about why to follow you.

A pillar that works is an angle: what you think or have seen about the subject, said in a few words. “Learn it by building it” rather than “AI education”. “The founder is the channel until they aren’t” rather than “founder-led marketing”.

Two to four is enough

Fewer, sharper pillars beat a long list. Four fuzzy pillars spread your posts too thin for anyone to remember what you stand for; two clear ones make you the person people think of for something. On Record caps it at four.

A fifteen-minute exercise

1. List five things you have done that most people in your field haven’t.
2. List three things you believe that some of your peers would disagree with.
3. Find where the two lists meet. Each overlap is a candidate pillar.
4. Name each one as a claim you’d say out loud, not a category. Then write one sentence on what it covers and what it doesn’t.
5. Test it: can you list five posts under it, each from something that actually happened? If not, it isn’t a pillar yet.

Aim each pillar at someone

A pillar should make a specific reader think something specific. If you want work from buyers, it should make a buyer think “they understand my problem”. If you want a job, it should make a hiring manager think “we should talk to them”. Those are often different pillars from the ones that impress your peers. More on that in LinkedIn for job seekers.

How On Record finds yours

After the interview, On Record proposes two to four pillars from your own stories and beliefs, named as angles, each with who it is aimed at and example posts drawn only from what you said. You can edit them, talk them through, or ask for sharper ones, and nothing changes until you choose.