Instagram is booming: over a billion people worldwide are using the social network. There are over 15 million Instagram users in Germany alone, in Switzerland, it’s 2.5 million. By now, companies have discovered the social media platform to be a valuable channel for approaching potential customers. One thing is certain: Tomorrow’s customers are extremely active on Instagram. The young adults, often referred to as “digital natives”, have grown up in the digital world and so their smartphone is the first resource, no matter whether they are looking for simple solutions or complex answers.
Even if the focus on Instagram lies on visual content, captions should not be disregarded either. This is where you give your images an individual, company-specific note. Captions support your visions and offer the possibility to connect with your target group on a verbal level, too. If you pay attention to the following tips, you will succeed in creating captions that stick in your mind.
No need to rush
Finding the perfect caption is not an easy task. It is therefore advisable to create more than one version, which can then be discussed in your team to find out which hits home with your target audience. Avoid hurried publication of content and remember your concept: who do you want to reach? How can you bind customers? Which content is really of interest?
Focus on what is essential
The length of your Instagram captions doesn’t matter. With up to 2.200 signs, there is plenty of space for detailed captions. However, be careful: in the newsfeed, captions are cut down to max. 2 lines, while the rest of the text can only be read by clicking “more”. Therefore, start your caption with the essential and trigger your reader’s interest for “more”.
Social interaction
Instagram rewards you for posts that trigger interaction. The more likes and comments your posts cause, the better is their visibility. There are plenty of opportunities to provoke interaction so that your followers are no longer only passive observers of your feed. The keyword: call-to-action. In order to increase the interaction rate between followers and your company, it is helpful to get to know them better. Post questions, highlight interesting links that you can place in your biography, motivate your followers to tag friends or organize raffles and contests.
Hashtags for the reach
Hashtags have not been invented by Instagram. Other social media channels like Twitter also use the symbol to highlight a keyword. If the user clicks on the symbol, they are forwarded to an overview of all posts that have been tagged that way. Not long ago, as many hashtags as possible were used to attract more followers. Today, however, less is more. Using hashtags is not obligatory. Here’s a tip: place the hashtags at the end of your caption. That way, you don’t interrupt the text flow and leave space for the essential.
Setting the right tone
Just like any other social media network, Instagram has its own kind of language. It is based on the young user group, who make up a vast majority and are the reason behind the rather entertaining and playful tone. Try to balance your captions between authenticity and accessibility. Moreover, it is advisable to create and stick to a consistent Instagram strategy and, for example, regularly publish posts of roughly the same length. This creates trust and a certain kind of anticipation.
Emojis
For most smartphone users, there is no way around emojis. The character images in the form of pictograms make texts more emotional and vivid. You can use emojis in the place of words or highlight or loosen up your captions. However, you should take care not to overuse the pictograms and only choose them at a rate that suits your company.
Omnichannel marketing
Are you using other channels besides Instagram? Why not share this information with your followers? If you post an interesting offer on Facebook, you can turn your Instagram followers into Facebook fans. By offering different content on various social networks, you ensure that there is a vast pool of information about your company available, consequently reaching a larger audience.
