When it’s time to post a fantastic photo on Instagram, you hit a roadblock. You get stumped when you have to enter a caption.
What do you write?
Coming up with an interesting and attractive caption is much harder than it seems. However, if you want to be successful on Instagram, make sure that your captions don’t become an afterthought.
Let’s take a look at some key tips on writing a great caption:
1. Go For Several Drafts
Have you ever thought of a witty joke, but it was too late to tell it? Many of us go through a similar feeling with Instagram captions, especially after we publish a post. What you need to do is avoid rushing the process. Write down some ideas for the caption, analyze them, pitch them to a colleague and then take a call on which the best one is.
Just take your time. Keep in mind that you shouldn’t rush into things to get social media likes and followers. The caption needs to engage your followers and motivate them to share it with their friends.
2. Have A Signature Style
It is important to have a consistent voice, and this can be achieved by following some parameters. When it comes to captions, people use a handful of gimmicks like posting song lyrics, adding a timestamp and so on. Give yourself a set of general guidelines. For example, think about whether you want to be an author who posts a paragraph or if you favor a minimalist approach using fewer words.
3. Highlight Important Stuff
Do you know what the maximum character count for an Instagram caption is? It is 2,200 characters, and that is just a formality. However, the caption will cut off in the user’s feed after four or five lines of text. This doesn’t mean that you keep your caption short so that users can see 100% of it without clicking the ‘More’ option. Instead, frontload the caption with significant content and avoid hashtags and extraneous data.
4. Limiting The Usage Of Hashtags
Certain Instagram users will end captions using various strings of searchable hashtags. This is done to attract and engage more followers. However, too many hashtags can be annoying, so try to avoid using more than five per caption. Ideally, go for one or two hashtags in a caption and if you feel they are not required, avoid them altogether.
5. Add A Call-To-Action
One of the best methods to enhance the shareability of an Instagram post and get engagement is to employ a call-to-action in your photo’s caption. Use action verbs to prompt people to do something rather than just scrolling through.
Many experts feel that using verbs leads to more shares on Twitter, compared to adjectives and nouns. This is also true in the case of Instagram. Some call-to-action ideas are, asking questions, inviting people to tag their friends, directing individuals to a link in your bio, and inviting people to take part in your Instagram contests.
6. Using Emojis
To add a bit of flair to your caption, you can use cartoon-like characters called emojis. You can use them in the middle of sentences to highlight a point or place them at the end as a creative form of punctuation.
However, if you end up posting too many, then your followers might assume that a toddler filched your phone.
7. Converge Your Brand Voice With Instagram
Each social media platform has a different tone and your success on the platform depends on how you adapt to it. Using jargon-heavy or serious words might work on LinkedIn, but the same will not work on Instagram.
Your Instagram posts must have a fun tone, be lighthearted, human, authentic and display the personal side of your brand.
8. When Stuck, Go For Puns
No doubt, on social media, cleverness is next to godliness. It is a welcome approach to crack a witty joke or come up with a smart turn of phrase. If you are going through a caption writer’s block, don’t worry. Just have a brainstorming session with a friend or play a word association game.
Final Verdict
Writing an interesting caption might seem easy. But it requires extensive knowledge of your brand and what type of content attracts your audience. By following the tips given in this article, you are bound to come up with some interesting captions and gain Instagram success.
Guest Author Bio:
Sandra Christie, a writer for iDigic, has several published articles about social media that talk about general improvement of your social feed, and get more brand presence using it.
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