How to Caption Instagram Posts to Increase Follower Engagement

How to Caption Instagram Posts to Increase Follower Engagement

Instagram is a necessary evil in the blogging and small business world. Knowing how to use it to your advantage takes time, attention to detail, a creative eye and confidence. So much goes into an Instagram post… from the editing, to making sure it flows with your feed and everything in between, it takes a lot of brain power. Every small step you take goes into how well your post will do. Instagram engagement means exposure for you and your brand. Taking tiny steps to make these things better can up your engagement and grow your return on time invested, eventually.

Beyonce wasn’t built in a day, your brand won’t be either.

The hardest part for some is creating captions to increase engagement and beat the Instagram algorithm. I know this because they’re texting me or sliding into my direct messages to help them caption their post. Sometimes I feel like the human version of the old I’d Cap That app.Though I am not qualified to teach you how to defeat the beast that is the Instagram algorithm, I have been dubbed “the caption queen” and “caption goals” by the lovely ladies in my comments so I figured I should share the love.

Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty on how to caption Instagram posts to create a buzz… & I’m even going to show you how I implement these tactics with some examples.

Call me your one-stop-shop for Instagram captions…

Keep it short.

Studies… yes there are studies on social media… Studies show that your typical Instagram user (not a fellow blogger) will only skim over the first 1-3 lines of your caption 95% of the time. Keeping your captions short will also help you from getting wordy and odd topic, or giving too much away about your blog post. Yes, sometimes things need to be said to create a conversation, however keeping it short and sweet will compel followers to read the entire thing.

I have the hardest time with this one. Sometimes I have a lot to say, but I’ve found that it is definitely the shorter the better, unless it needs to be long and is giving a ton of value to your followers.

Make sure it’s common knowledge.

If it’s an inside joke between you and three people, only you four will get it and want to interact. The goal is to get people talking on your post, so make sure you make your caption something they can elaborate on or relate to.

I once wanted to caption a picture on a large chess board “Zugzwang” because I love Dr. Spencer Reid. Since I don’t know how many people actually watch Criminal Minds or hang on ever work he says, I made the caption “Checkmate”. (below)

Ask for a response.

Asking a question that people can’t resist answering will do wonders for your post engagement. Be careful not to use this on every post. Using this tactic too often can make you look desperate for engagement.

*Helpful hint*
If you are going with a long caption that asks a question, put the question in the first two lines. This will make readers want to answer and finish the caption to see your opinion on the subject.

The more wit the better.

Making people laugh will almost guarantee a response. Use a play on words or a pun to really get people talking on your post. Ordinary pictures with humorous captions are sure to create a stir. Use current events (not the serious kind) and situations that your followers can relate to, but give them a humorous twist. The possibilities are endless.

I usually get inspiration from lyrics, pop culture references and Pinterest quotes. I keep the first two the same, but I typically try to put my own spin on the Pinterest quote. An example that you’ll see below is when I saw a quote that compared Monday to a Mullet, so I compared it to Tristan Thompson, thus managing to cross current events, with pop culture and a witty caption. BOOM!

I hope you find this post both helpful and inspirational! Now go make those captions golden, pony boy…

xo,

Ash