Food for Thought: What makes a good Instagram Caption?
Jul 14, 2017
First and foremost, Instagram is all about compelling imagery. However, with the recent changes to the algorithm (posts now appear in feeds based on the likelihood the audience will be interested), this means an Instagram post needs to be a whole package, which doesn’t just include killer imagery but an effective caption to match.
We’ve put together a few tips that can help put together that all important caption to go with your photos!
BRAND VOICE
Identifying your brand voice; your captions need to give off your brand’s personality. Social media personifies your brand and gives them a voice. If you are having trouble deciphering your brands voice, here are a few things you can ask yourself:
What emotions do your customers feel when they buy into your product or service? Is it curiosity, empowerment or just happiness?
Are you a serious and cooperate or creative and quirky? Are you wanting to be informative and analytical or friendly, showing a more relaxed side to the brand?
These few questions should help find the right direction for the basis of your caption.
LENGTH
Keeping each caption brief is best, however, if there is a compelling story behind the image it should be told (Check out @natgeo Instagram). In that case, keep the exciting and most important keywords at the start of your caption. People scroll through Instagram at such a pace that captions should in generally be kept short and sweet, and don’t be afraid of using Emojis to explain your point! If you are adding any mentions (@name) or hashtags, keep these at the end, so that these get cut off and not the actual key part.
USE #HASHTAGS
When you incorporate at least one hashtag into a caption on Instagram, that post will get on average 12.6% more engagement then not using any hashtags. That being said, you don’t want to over use them and crowd your post with irrelevant hashtags. Although, there are ways you can hide your hashtags:
- Put your hashtags in your comments. Your comment will turn into […] depending on how many you use!
- Separate your caption and your hashtags by putting a few lines between them- this way the hashtags will be cut off.
QUOTES
If you really are in doubt, use a quote! Something relevant to your post, either inspiring or informative is a great caption if you really are stuck for an idea.
Here at The Creation Lab, we offer content writing and SEO packages for companies that want professional assistance in ensuring their social media is kept consistent with creative captions and hashtags for optimization. If that is something you would like to pursue, give us a call on 0800 644 7070.
Add Pingback