# Deriving Pillars

Pillars aren't brainstormed from a blank page — they're *mined* from the brand profile, tested,
and selected. This is the method.

## The five sources (mine each for candidates)

Read `brand-profile.md` and pull candidate themes from each source. Aim wide first — 8–12
candidates — then cut.

### 1. Positioning + point of view → the signature pillar
The brand's differentiator and its strong beliefs are the richest source. The POV ("most tools
are bloated because they're built for enterprises") becomes the signature theme ("software that
respects small businesses"). This pillar is what the brand wants to be *known* for.

### 2. Audience jobs-to-be-done + pains → audience pillars
Look at what the audience is trying to do and what frustrates them. Their *problems* are
pillars; your *features* are not. "New founders terrified of payroll" → a pillar about making
the scary thing simple. These pillars earn relevance because they're about the audience, not the
brand.

### 3. Proof + expertise → credibility pillars
What can the brand teach authoritatively? Where's the track record, the data, the hard-won
lessons? That expertise is a pillar the brand can own because few others can teach it as
credibly.

### 4. The human / brand story → a connection pillar
The people, the process, the journey, the values. This is what builds loyalty and makes a brand
followable rather than just useful. For personal brands this is often central.

### 5. Offers / product → at most one conversion pillar
The product and offers can anchor *one* pillar, used sparingly. Frame it around the
transformation it delivers, not a feature list. Keep it the minority of the mix.

## From candidates to pillars

1. **Generate** 8–12 candidates across the five sources, phrased as **subjects** ("small-business
   money mistakes"), never as intents or formats.
2. **Test** each with the four-part pillar test (ownable / relevant / strategic / sustainable —
   see `what-makes-a-pillar.md`).
3. **Cluster** overlapping candidates into bigger themes (three narrow topics may be one pillar).
4. **Select 3–5**, ensuring:
   - exactly **one signature pillar**,
   - a spread across **audience problems, credibility, and connection**,
   - at most **one conversion-linked** pillar,
   - a balance across goals (not all-teaching, not all-selling).

## A fast sanity check on the final set

- Could a stranger read the pillars and immediately understand *what this brand is about*?
- Does the set include the brand's differentiator (the signature pillar)?
- Is every pillar about something the **audience** cares about (not just the brand)?
- Could you fill a month's calendar from these without straining? (If not, a pillar is too
  narrow — or you have too few.)
- Is each pillar phrased in language the audience actually **searches**? TikTok, YouTube, and
  Pinterest are search-driven; a pillar named in the audience's own query language (see
  `audience-research`'s search-query evidence) compounds there, while internal jargon doesn't.
- Is promotion the minority?

If the set fails the "what is this brand about?" test, you have intents/formats masquerading as
pillars — go back to the sources and re-derive real themes.


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资料：Frank Heijdenrijk / pavelhov/social-media-skills

原始版本：https://github.com/pavelhov/social-media-skills/blob/1680b37bf0dc32b52da247a8196ef27a6cd47bd4/skills/content-pillars/references/deriving-pillars.md

许可：MIT。目录与内部链接已经整理，未收录图片已省略。

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