Caption Writing for Instagram
Social media just seems to keep getting trickier and trickier, right? It isn’t just about the photo or video, you also want to have that attention grabbing caption. If you can grab your audience's attention not just with the image, but the caption, they’re more likely to engage with your content. And engagement is king when it comes to social media.
Pick your audience
First things first, who are you talking to with your post? This may seem like a no-brainer, but sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in capturing a fun image and forgetting who your audience is. Don’t forget what your customer type is and who you’re trying to reach. If the image is something that your core customer won’t be interested in, they scroll right on past. The more they scroll past, the less engaged they’ll be with your content overall.
Interjections!
Try not to make your first caption sentence a long one. A shorter, quick caption, with an exclamation point or question mark will be a quick way to grab someone's attention.
A statement like, “Don’t miss it!,” “SALE!,” “Just announced!,”
Or a question like, “Did you know?,” “Have you heard the news?” “Wanna know a secret?”
These statements are quick and attention grabbing, getting someone to take a second to stop on your post.
Concise
Once you have someone's attention, it’s important to keep it. Captions should be as concise as possible. Don’t try to put an entire blog post in your caption - no one is going to read it. The quicker you can get your point across, the quicker you are to get your audience to do whatever it is you’re asking them to do.
Format
Another easy way to help people consume your caption more quickly and efficiently, is your format. Try to avoid long paragraphs in your caption. Again, people aren’t going to take the time to read a long caption. Instead, hold yourself to 3 or 4 short paragraphs.
For example:
Did you hear the news?
We have a huge sale coming up.
Click the link in our bio to grab your favorite items today!
Breaking up your caption this way helps your audience consume your message more easily.
Hashtags
Finally, you love to hate them, hashtags. While one school of thought may be to include as many captions with as many trending themes as possible, that won’t necessarily garner you a faithful audience. A lot of people may see your post, but maybe won’t interact with it much.
Instead, remember your audience in your captions as well. Create a recognizable hashtag for your company, and then use industry or product popular hashtags. That way, those that come across your content when looking for a specific hashtag, are much more likely to interact with your post, and become one of your faithful, loyal customers.
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