Instagram is based all around imagery and visuals. The quality of your photos will influence the way you gain iInstagram followers and differentiate you from your competitors. You need them to become interested in the brand and what it is all about. Showing off what the business is like in real time, the human side of it all.
The hard work doesn’t end there, once you’ve taken that ‘perfect’ photo and added all those filters the caption of your post is where you can really give some ‘shout’ to that visual content.
This gives you the opportunity to explain what the photo is about, tell your followers to take action (book, buy, order off your website), or you could crack a joke that will make your content that more enjoyable and sharable!
The picture is not everything – if the captions are an afterthought, then you’re losing out on an opportunity to engage with you following. Here are some tops to help you write better Instagram captions!
Draft Your Captions First
How many times have you already published your post and then thought of the perfect caption a little too late..?
Top tip – don’t rush the process,instead write a few ideas for captions down, go over them taking your time and eventually choose which one is best.
Yes, chronology does play a role in the way that you can post on Instagram however the level of engagement your posts receive will soon matter more. Our Instagram feeds will be ordered to show the moments Instagram thinks we’ll care about the most. This is when the caption will play a big part in your success as the visibility of your posts will depend on the number of likes and comments the post has.
This is why it’s important to take your time constructing a great caption that’ll keep your followers interested, and encourage them to engage with your content.
The Most important Comes First
The maximum character count of an Instagram caption is (2200) but the important thing to note is that captions cut off users’ feeds after 3/4 lines of text.
This doesn’t mean you need to keep your caption super short to keep within the 3/4 limit, you just need to front load your captions with the juicy content or call-to-action.
Include a Call-to-Action
The best way to increase the shareability of your Instagram post and engage your followers is to have some sort of call-to-action in the captions of your photos. That means using action verbs to prompt people to do something, instead of just passively scrolling by.
Ask your followers a question encourage them to engage with the post. To increase engagement and delight your followers even more, respond to users’ answers to make it like a conversation.
Direct people to a link in your bio, URLs aren’t allowed anywhere except the single website box in your bio. For example, if you are running a competition or want to increase subscribers to your blog? Just change the link, and then post a photo that mentions the new links in the caption!
Invite people to tag their friends – encourage your followers to share your post with friends by inviting them to tag their friends.
Limit Yourself to 0-4 Hashtags
Just like Facebook & Twitter a hashtag behaves the same way. It ties the conversations of different users into one stream. As long as your account is public, any who does a search for that particular hashtag may find you on Instagram.
Hashtags are great for connecting users who aren’t otherwise connected to one another, but who are interested in and talking about the same topics.
Some Instagram users include a string of searchable hashtags as a way to get more followers — but the fact is, it looks spammy to the followers you do have. If you use a ton of hashtags, people will notice, and they will think it’s rubbish! Limit your hashtags to three or four, tops.
Unless the hash tagged phrase fits naturally into a sentence, don’t list any hashtags until the very end of the caption. Therefore your post will be more appealing and user friendly!
Use Emojis
The cartoon-like emoticons are available to most smartphone users, can add some personality to an Instagram caption.
There are a lot of different ways to present the emojis in your posts. For example, you can use them at the beginning of the post to catch peoples eye. You can also use them in the middle of a sentence to replace a word.
If you have a project that you’d like to discuss with us, then get in touch today for an informal chat with a member of our team. We’re on hand to help you and your business grow online.