We’ve all experienced those dreadful days when your mind seems to be on a creativity diet. You start doom-scrolling through your feed for nearly an hour trying to find something that sparks inspiration, but the influence just isn’t influencing today. The one-off, day-by-day approach to managing socials may work in a pinch, but it’s hardly sustainable. You’ll find yourself wasting time trying to reinvent the wheel every day, instead of focusing on other important areas of your brand or business. If that sounds all too familiar, it’s time to introduce content buckets into your social strategy. 

Content buckets are themes or topics used to guide your overall social strategy and help create consistent content for your social channels. In this post, we’ll walk you through the basics of content bucket-ing and the following key learnings:

• Understanding the strategy and value behind content buckets

• Aligning brand goals with corresponding content buckets 

• Creating content buckets directly on PLANOLY

Good Content Starts with Purpose and #Goals

Before diving straight into the bucket, it’s important to take a step back and ground yourself in your brand’s overall purpose (check out Ali Kriegsman’s blog on brand identity for tips!) and the challenge at hand. This assessment is key to establishing your goals, and the content buckets that help you achieve them. 

Let’s play out a few scenarios. Maybe you’re a new clean makeup brand focused on building brand awareness and want to grow your Instagram following. Or perhaps you’re an established brand looking to increase web traffic and want to leverage Pinterest as a lead. No matter your industry or audience, it’s important to remember that goals will look different for every brand or content creator. So, don’t get stuck comparing your goals to similar brands or creators, and focus on doing what you do best – you! 

Why Is Goal Setting Important Before Creating Content? 

Being laser-focused on your specific social media goals will help you determine the type of content buckets (and subsequent content) that will best fit your brand and resonate with your audiences – all before you even upload. While it may be fun (and tempting!) to start creating a bunch of content after a solid brainstorm, remember that the best content aligns with your strategy and goals, and helps tell a cohesive brand story. 

Buckets on Buckets on Buckets

Now that we’ve covered goal-setting, it’s time to make a splash (see what we did there?) into developing your content buckets. Whether you think of them as ‘content pillars’ or ‘content clusters,’ content buckets are essentially the overarching themes or topics used to help create and curate consistent content for your channels. Let’s get into it. 

Creating Content Buckets

Focus your content bucket themes around your brand goals. For example: If you’re a new brand making its first foray into the market, your content buckets should focus on introducing your brand, differentiating yourself from the crowd, and ultimately increasing brand awareness. 

Goal: Increase brand awareness
Content Bucket: Personal, promotional content
Content Examples:

• ‘Get to Know Me’ series

• Q&A, bi-weekly introductions & assumptions video

• Product unboxing videos

PLANOLY Pro-Tip: To discover examples of content that best resonates with your niche audience, use PLANOLY’s Analyze feature to discover which content performs best.

For an established brand looking to flex its muscles and bolster industry credibility, focus your content around establishing authority in the space and showcasing thought leadership. 

Goal: Enhance brand credibility
Content Bucket: Educational, industry-focused content
Content Examples:

• How-to videos

• Branded infographics and infotainment

• Pro-tips & tricks 

• Trend-styling videos

Once you lay out your content buckets, filling each bucket with original ideas, user-generated content, and new concepts comes together much easier and provides focus and cohesion for your channel. If you worry that planning content in advance may make your feed feel inauthentic, PLANOLY users and business owners Girl Gang Craft shared a sage pro-tip.

"Here's the thing, this batching and planning is not set in stone. Leave room for commentary on political events or anything else you want to speak on. At that moment when you're creating, your content is authentic. So It will come across as authentic even when it is live two weeks later."

Creating Content Buckets in PLANOLY

Now that you’ve nailed down your content bucket categories, you can start saving your content on PLANOLY using our collections feature. Think of collections as your online filing cabinet for temporarily storing and organizing your content before scheduling.

Check out our help guide to learn more on how to use collections in PLANOLY.

As a busy brand, content creator, or entrepreneur, there’s only so much time in the day, so make your job easier with this game-changing content hack!