How to Write Brilliant Instagram Captions

 

Hello. Is There Anyone Out There?

Is your Instagram feed getting any love? Social media can be a sad place to be if you put in all this effort, and still never get the results you want.

Instagram is a growing social media platform known for its beautiful images and catchy captions. It's the captions we're focusing on today, explaining what exactly they are, the benefits they can provide and how to write brilliant ones.

What Are Instagram Captions?

An Instagram caption is the text which accompanies the image on a post. Like Facebook, Instagram is a highly visual platform and the images you choose to use play a large role in how successful you are on the platform. However, the accompanying text is also important, because that is what your audience responds to next once you've caught their attention.

As well as using the captions as an opportunity to describe the image and add context to it, you can also include hashtags, emojis and tags. There is a limit of 2,200 characters, which is around 330 words per caption.

How Does Using Instagram Captions Help Me?

We read an interesting article which discussed the belief that captions will become a deciding factor as to the success of an Instagram account. They based this upon the fact that the number of likes a post are now hidden, making captions grow in importance. Captions help build relationships and start conversations with followers. They make your audience connect with you in a way an image can't on its own. Captions also specifically lay out to your audience what you want them to do next, which is why including a call to action is so important. Therefore, the benefits of using captions on Instagram for your business are:

  • being able to explain the content of the image you used, helping explain detailed information
  • increasing the visibility of your posts by using hashtags, as people specifically use hashtags to search for content
  • show your brand's personality and grow a loyal following
  • give a human aspect to your business by using emojis
  • give specific calls to action to your audience

What Makes a Great Caption on Instagram?

Let's take a look at what turns a ho-hum Instagram caption into one of the best:

  • attention grabbing first line
  • clear call to action
  • well presented and visually appealing text with white space
  • consistent brand voice
  • regular posting schedule, even to the day and hour
  • sticking to specific topics and themes

How to Write Super Instagram Captions

By reading the criteria listed above, we already know what a great caption needs to contain. But how do you actually write one? These tips will help:
  1. Put the important information first - only the first 125 characters are shown in any caption, so make sure you put the important stuff first.
  2. Storytelling - tell a story about your brand, such as product history or an employee.
  3. Space your text out - paragraphs and new lines are your friends. Just like on a website page, your text needs to be visually appealing and easy to scan.
  4. Clear CTA - make sure that you clearly tell your audience what you want them to do. Often this is something like "Click the link in my bio" as you cannot add clickable links to your captions.
  5. Ask questions - when you ask questions, you increase post engagement because people want to answer you with a comment.
  6. Use hashtags - use hashtags which are relevant to your industry and are being used by other users. Take a read of our article on using Instagram hashtags for more help with this.
  7. Show your brand's personality using emojis - whether you like them or not, emojis play a large role in social media posts. They grab people's interest, personalise your brand and help break large chunks of text up. They can also increase the rate of engagement a post gets!
  8. Use @ mentions - tagging other Instagram users increases active engagement and gets your posts in the feeds of others who aren't necessarily following you.
If you're going to get serious about your Instagram captions, it makes sense to monitor how successful you are by using an Instagram analytical tool. Take a read of our article on Free Instagram Analytics Tools to find the best one for your business.
Tags: social media  

Posted: Friday 14 February 2020


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