Written by Aimee Laurence
Social media marketing is perhaps the most important aspect of digital marketing for companies today. Having a really robust and comprehensive social media marketing strategy is a sure-fire way to boost your business and expand your reach, and not having one can be the reason your company stagnates or fails. As a social media marketer, one of the main challenges is that social media platforms aren’t oriented for businesses, and you want your corporate Instagram to work among all the personal Instagram accounts. It’s important therefore to put a lot of focus on the caption of your post to make sure you’re getting it right. Let’s explore 8 ways to optimize your captions.
1. Don’t post on an impulse
You should write multiple drafts of your posts before finally publishing it. The last thing you want is to post something too quickly and then think of the perfect caption once it’s already posted. Take your time instead and write down some different ideas. Think on each one and ask colleagues for their input.
According to Maggie Dean, an Instagram marketer at Academized and UKWritings, says “that means you should take the necessary time to write the best caption that will intrigue your followers, incite them to share with friends, and engage with the post.”
2. Be brief
This one depends on the audience, but if you’re in doubt you should keep your captions brief. It’s okay if you’re posting full-length recipes if you’re a food company, but you should be starting off with the key information if you’re doing this, or else it will get cut off. If you’re not sure what your brand voice should be, the best rule is to be short and sweet. Some of the best captions are punchlines that are short and let the visuals do the heavy lifting.
3. Add emojis
Emojis are a great way to add some personality to your caption on Instagram. A lot of brands, even those that are considered more serious, use emojis in captions. You can use them at the start of the post to catch viewers’ attention, use them in sentences to replace words, or put them at the end of the post as a punchline.
With Combin Scheduler, you can easily add emojis to your captions and make them even more engaging.
4. Start with critical information
As mentioned, the captions get cut off in the feed after three or four lines, so if you have longer posts, you want to make sure you’re leading with key information. You don’t necessarily need to put everything visible and keep all your captions short, but you do want to frontload them with the CTA or most important content.
5. Limit your use of hashtags
Hashtags are great to link your content to other users and for people to find your post. It’s also a good way to add some fun humor to a post. However, you want to use them carefully without going overboard. If you add too many searchable hashtags, it’s seen as a blatant attempt to get more followers and appears spammy. You should limit your hashtag use to three to four. You also don’t need to add any hashtags if you don’t want to. Hashtags usually appear at the end of a post unless they’re part of the phrase in the caption.
6. Humor and puns play well
If you’re not sure what tone to use, go for humorous and puns. Cleverness is often very popular on social media, especially on this platform. People engage a lot more with content that includes jokes or play on words.
7. Show your human side
Instagram is not the place to be serious and corporate. Joan Ritter, a tech journalist at UK Services Reviews and Australian Reviewer, explains that “people don’t want to engage with a faceless entity, and instead want to see the human side of your brand. Take this opportunity to post content that is authentic, genuine, and relatable.”
8. Be lighthearted
Every social media platform has different tones, and Instagram posts should be more authentic, fun, and lighthearted. It’s a way to show the more personable side of the brand. Adapt your brand voice to fit with the platform. If your brand is more serious, you’ll have to find a nice balance of sincere and relatable. The important thing is to be more consistent.
Editor Aimee Laurence works for Boomessays and Essay Roo. She is interested in Instagram marketing and how businesses can use social media to boost their audience and followers. She also works as a freelance editor for Top European writing services.