8 Steps For Optimizing Your Instagram Caption Copy

Image source:

Social media marketing is one of the most important things to all companies with a digital marketing strategy. There is now so much to be gained from developing and implementing a really rigorous social media marketing strategy that to ignore it is to actively handicap yourself and your business. One of the challenges that you face as a social media marketer is that, in spite of the enormous business presence in social media, it isn’t an inherently business oriented platform. Blending in as a corporate Instagram in amongst all the personal Instagram users can be a challenge in of itself. So there’s a lot that makes Instagram quite tricky. One of the areas where your focus should land particularly, is an area that is not as obvious as some others: the caption. Captioning your post may seem simple enough, especially on a site that’s so focused on the visuals, but actually leaves a lot of questions. So let’s take a look at how to get this area right.

1. Don’t Be Impulsive

It’s important that as you develop each of your posts you spend a good amount of time making sure it is spotless. This matters regardless of the size of your audience, but is, naturally, extra important if you have a big following. The best way to do this is to draft your post. “Before a post comes out from a corporate Instagram account, I would expect there to have been several drafts. This isn’t just to ensure that there aren’t any glaring errors, but also to make sure that the post is optimized to achieve the most it possibly can”, says Ron Eliot, tech writer at State Of Writing and Essay Writer.

2. Examine Length

Instagram is surprisingly generous with their length allowance for captions. This is actually something that is very useful to bear in mind when crafting your caption copy. In fact, you’re allowed to post up to 2,200 characters in a single caption. Now, whilst this will come in handy once in a while, it’s usually going to be inadvisable to use your full allowance. Social media breeds short attention spans so reems of words isn’t going to be good. Plus you want to make sure that you know what content will only be seen if someone clicks ‘See More’ and what will always be visible.

3. Use Emojis

Emojis help in a few ways. Primarily, they’re eye catching and they give a sense in which your page is up with the times, and savvy, not stuck in the dark ages and desperately clinging on for dear life. But there are other advantages too: “Given the word limits, and wanting to maximize the impact of your caption, emojis help you to visually tell a story without burning much character space. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words”, explains Pardeep Singh, journalist at Assignment Writers and Academized.

4. Lead With Crucial Information

When you run a corporate Instagram account, it’s very important not to be coy in your captions. If you’re advertising a sale on certain items, don’t open with a rambling yarn, open with ‘SALE! HAPPENING NOW!’. You want the 3 seconds of time a social media browser gives the post to grip them and motivate further research, not to send them on their way out of confusion at what it’s all about. On top of this, as mentioned above, there is a cut off before they have to click see more to read the caption, so use the space you do have very wisely.

5. Don’t Over-Hashtag

Individual users sometimes try and abuse the hashtag meta to get a wider group of people seeing their posts. This is not the right approach, least of all for a corporate page. “Spamming hashtags is a very bad look for a corporate Instagram. If you want to reach a wider audience then pay for adverts and build a wealth of posts in the hashtags you are using, don’t make yourself seem desperate and unprofessional to your potential customers”, advises Martha McLaren, Instagram marketer at Boomessays. Plus, it takes up space in your caption which can be filled with more useful information and content.

6. Use Humor

Humor is a key tool in crafting good instagram caption copy. It’s pretty easy to see why. The sharing system on Instagram allows browsers to send posts to friends, something which companies generally are very keen on. Humorous posts, things with wordplay or topical references, play very well with the Instagram general population and is a great way to get your post shared for you, which is like free marketing! You want to be a bit careful with humor in this day and age, because something which is funny to someone might upset someone else, but in general it’s an excellent tool.

iMAGE SOURCE 

7. Show A Human Touch

Humor, as mentioned above, can be a pretty good start when it comes to this next point. Social media was, in its birth form, built for human beings. A hub where people could communicate with one another and express their interests and opinions with friends and strangers alike. Now that corporations play such a big part in Instagram, normal users have their guard up against overtly corporate content, in some cases seeing it as an invasion. Work on developing a friendly, human rapport with your followers and viewers.

8. Be Pithy

There are a few times when being concise isn’t the right move with your Instagram caption copy. However, in general, it’s exactly what you want to be doing. If you doubt your content, always alter by paring it down, not building it up.

Conclusion

Every opportunity you have in digital social media marketing has to be seized with both hands. Instagram captions are certainly no different, with a whole load of different directions to take things as you try and establish the correct approach for your company. It’s always worth experimenting a bit, so get started!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Aimee Laurence has worked in HR for the past 3 years at Essay Services, and freelance at BigAssignments. Her writing focuses on ethics and health as well as topics relating to sustainability and the environment. She also has an interest in social media and its various uses. Aimee writes for blogs and online magazines like Assignment Help, educational service.