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How To Write Engaging Instagram Captions
It’s not enough to use gorgeous pictures on IG to boost your following. The captions should be just as compelling! Here are some tips to boost user engagement through IG captions.
Instagram is all about the photos, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put much effort into the captions. Just like any text-based content, you’ll need engaging, relevant, and well-optimized captions to improve searchability and gain more followers on IG.
Instagram’s algorithm is quite unique. It is so good at detecting profiles that get a lot of likes, comments, and shares. That’s how those awesome videos and photos trend on the Explore Page!
What is the Instagram Explore Page?
The Explore page is a collection of trending content on IG. It is similar to TikTok’s “For You” page. All of the content you see in the Explore Page were filtered to similar content that you’ve checked out in the past.
For instance, if you’ve been watching, liking, or following beauty-related IGs in the past, the content you’ll see on the Explore page will feature beauty-related posts. If you’re into fashion or footwear, all you’ll see is style and footwear-related content on the Explore page.
Now imagine if your page appears on their Explore page! As you ride the trending wave, you’ll get a lot of exposure and gain thousands of followers in no time at all.
To go viral, you need to attract a lot of attention. And to attract a lot of attention, you need a killer caption + a fabulous photo. That’s the best combo.
What Makes a Killer Caption
A killer IG caption should
- It should attract attention in 3 seconds or less
- It should provide value to the readers
- It should compel viewers to take the desired action
- It should be optimized with your primary keywords
- It should include several relevant hashtags
- It should use the optimal character count!
It’s a great idea to use a casual, informal tone to put people at ease and keep people engaged. No one wants to read content that seems to be written by a robot.
How To Write Engaging Instagram Captions
Eye-catching
Your IG captions should be eye-catching. Remember, there are literally millions of businesses similar to yours on IG; it’s crucial to stand out. You only have 2 to 3 seconds to catch the attention of your target audience. Otherwise, your message will be lost in the sea of generic-sounding captions… never to be seen again!
Talk to your followers like a dear friend or a sister. Keep the tone warm, friendly, and engaging. And your message? Relatable to connect to your followers!
Value-Driven
IG peeps bore easily, so it’s not enough to catch their attention; you have to keep them engaged to drive the message home. How? A thoughtfully written IG caption should provide valuable information, a solution that solves a viewer’s problem. It should speak in a way that makes the viewer feel that you’re their go-to person for these kinds of topics.
Finally, the IG caption should include carefully chosen hashtags. These are used to search for specific topics on Instagram, like a keyword. There’s no magic number for the number of hashtags to use; you can add 10 to 30 just be sure that they’re relevant to the topic.
Compelling
An engaging Instagram caption should compel readers to take the desired action. The desired action could be signing up for a newsletter, entering a contest, and subscribing to free content. All of these will be used for future marketing.
A call to action is your attractive hook. You'll have to let the readers know what to do to take them a step closer to getting the information they need.
On IG, a call to action include asking readers to “click the link in the bio.” The link could lead to:
- A website
- A blog post
- A link tree
Another trick is to ask readers to leave a comment in the comments section, liking a particular post for increased traffic, or leaving product tags on a photo that people could “tap to purchase.”
Relevance
Relevance is a critical part of any marketing campaign. The same thing can be said for Instagram captions; the content must be relevant because the last thing you want is to alienate your existing audience.
Posting irrelevant content on your IG may seem like a good idea when building an attractive feed, but it will definitely mess with the algorithms. To attract and maintain attention from the right people, you need to give people what they want. If people come for your cupcakes, you should give them the hecking cupcakes!
Start a Conversation
IG is so good at spotting posts that get a lot of attention, and trending content appears on the Explore page. If you want a post to go viral, you have to spark a conversation and keep the convo going.
The goal here is to keep every conversation meaningful and helpful, so avoid yes and no questions that seem to be thrown in randomly. Touch on topics that are important to your target audience. Don’t be afraid to share your own insights to get the convo going; it’s a terrific way of interacting with your viewers and nurturing relationships.
Instagram may be a photo-based social media platform, but a well-written caption could turn an onlooker into a loyal client. So the next time you upload a photo on your IG, think carefully about how the caption was written. Is it relevant, compelling, and engaging? Will it start a conversation? Does it touch on things that are important to your readers? These are the things that make an IG caption stand out.
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