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How To Write An Engaging Instagram Caption

Heyo, 

Tyler from Tyco Social here! 


Are you someone that has trouble coming up with quality Instagram captions?

 

Are you struggling to answer these main questions? 

 

Should your Instagram caption be funny? Serious? Inspiration? Should you use emojis and hashtags? And what about your call-to-action?

 

Don’t stress! I’m going to be helping you out by explaining some key factors to help you drive more engagement to your page!

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The Main Qualities Of A Great Instagram Caption

 

  • Captions consist of three main parts: contextpersonality, and a call-to-action.

 

  • Your captions need to explain and contextualize your images while keeping in line with your brand voice. 

 

  • To help people connect and engage with your posts, you should also add a bit of personality to your captions, and emojis can help you a lot with that.

 

  • Finally, you must definitely add a call-to-action to help readers engage even further with your brand.

 

Let me explain more!


Post by @FeralCreature

Context:

 

Catch your audience’s attention! The most important part of your message should always come first 

 

Does your post feature an Instagram influencer or Brand? Anytime that you are posting an image with another person or brand, add their handle into your caption as well, instead of just tagging them in the photo. Then your followers can discover their profiles too!

 

Or, is it mostly user-generated content? Whatever the case show some appreciation and add these Instagrammers’ handle on the caption, so that your followers can check out their profile.


Post by @GaryVee

Post by @GaryVee

 

Personality: 
 

Ask yourself these questions:

What is the personality of my business?

Who is my ideal customer?

How do I want this post to make my followers feel?
 

An effective Instagram marketing strategy will be consistent, authentic, and tailored to provide value to your business’ followers.

 

A specific way is by a branded hashtag. A branded hashtag is a great way to start a conversation with your followers and increase the reach of your content.

 

Branded hashtags are a way for your “fans” to share with their followers how they are already engaging with your brand, and for you to inspire user-generated content (UGC).


Post by @PhiPhiBB

Post by @PhiPhiBB

Call-To-Action:
 

To create a call-to-action in your Instagram caption, you just need to ask your followers to do something after reading your caption!


Something to keep in mind when writing a call-to-action is that action words like “start,” “stop,” “build,” “join,” “learn,” and “discover” are more effective at prompting your followers to do something than passive nouns and adjectives.


You should also consider turning your call-to-action into a question, using the 5 W’s (who, what, where, when, and why) as a way to encourage your followers to comment!


Emojis are a great way to draw in the eye and make your followers notice the call-to-action in your posts.

You can use an emoji next to “link in bio” so it’s super obvious to those who are reading your caption that you want them to click the link your bio! 


Use the “Explore” tab on Instagram to find a mix of popular and general keywords and filter results by tags.
 

You can also browse through popular posts to discover the hashtags that were used. And include a mix of popular and specific keywords in your caption.

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Extras:

How to hide your Instagram hashtags in the first comment:

  • After posting your photo, add a comment
  • Add the dot symbol, dash, or asterisk each on a separate line
  • Add your hashtags all together (Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post)
  • Now, when your comment appears in the thread it will look like […] and your hashtags are not visible to your audience.

Tag your friends: Ask your followers to tag another Instagram user in the comments of your post. This will get new eyes on your business and encourage conversation among your audience.

Follow link in bio: Suggest that your followers click the link in your Instagram bio! This could lead them to your business’ website, another social media profile, your blog, or any other location that is meaningful for your business.

Double Tap: Encourage your followers to give your photo a like! Not only will you see a boost engagement on that particular image, but you’ll also become more likely to show up in other users’ feeds. 


Thank you for reading, I hope you learned a few things about how to create an engaging Instagram caption! 

If you need any help, be sure to reach out to me at tyco@tycosocial.com

Also, if you have a caption you're proud of, be sure to tag me so I can check it out and give you love (@ItsAhTrap or @TycoSocial on Instagram)