As with most online content, you should include a Call to Action (CTA) and ask for engagement in your Instagram captions. Note how in the above example, Annette White tries to tie the reader into her story, with questions like "How do you reset after a hard week? What cool new thing could you explore within a half-hour of your home?" You don't have to ask a question. You might merely ask your readers to save or share your post or to make a comment tagging a friend. Don't Be Afraid to be Personal in Your Captions If you enjoy making Instagram posts for your friends to view, then you will have no problem with the idea of being personal in your captions. You're likely to be doing it naturally. However, if you're posting on behalf of a business, you might feel warier about this, thinking perhaps that it may come across as unprofessional. Yet, as we have mentioned above, the best Instagram posts tell a story. And this will often involve sharing a personal picture or telling some work-related tale. People like to get to know the faces behind brands, and by personalizing your captions, you can come across as being more human and relatable.
It can also increase the likelihood that people will engage with your post. Use Hashtags Correctly We have previously written the Ultimate Guide to Using Instagram Hashtags to Grow your Followers. Hashtags generally help you widen the spread of your posts and Simply Measured found that posts with at least one hashtag average 12.6% more engagement than those without. Instagram lets you use 30 hashtags in each post, but just because you can use that number doesn't mean you Image Manipulation Service should. You will gain no value from using irrelevant hashtags. Ideally, you should include plenty of relevant hashtags, however, to help your fellow Instagrammers. For example, the post by Ashley Stark Kenner below shows an upmarket bathroom. Her caption is short, with just "Neutral but not boring. That slab.", some mentions, hashtags, and an emoji. The hashtags all related to bathrooms, e.g., bathroomdesign bathroomdecor. She also makes a point of separating her hashtags from the main part of her caption. Remember that the purpose of using hashtags is to find your post when people search for a particular hashtag. Therefore, you should only use hashtags that will interest your target audience. Mention – But Only When Relevant As with hashtags, you should restrict yourself to relevant mentions.
Don't name everybody who you would like to see your post. The people you mention will receive a notification telling them that you have mentioned them, so there is little point mentioning people who have no interest in you or the topic on which you have made your post. Include Emojis, But Not Excessively Emojis add fun and color to your copy. In addition, they add a small visual component to the text section of your post. You can also use relevant emojis to break up your post to make it look less cramped. However, you need to use suitable emojis for the post you've made. You don't want people to be distracted by a string of irrelevant or inappropriate emojis. If you don't use emojis regularly, be aware that some have developed lives and meanings of their own that may differ entirely from how you intend to use them. Be particularly careful when using emoji depicting fruit and vegetables; some now have interpretations quite different from their innocent appearance. Of course, you can have too much of everything. Ultimately, people take the most interest in the image you share. A whole series of unrelated emojis can be just as annoying as 30 irrelevant hashtags. Create a Consistent Style For Your Captions Over time you will attract a group of interested followers who enjoy looking at your posts and reading their captions. Therefore, you want to create a consistent style that you use in all your Instagram posts. Indeed you might use variations of it across all your social accounts.