TUTORIAL ARTICLE

Beginner

4 min

How to write better social media captions

The importance of a good social media caption and 10 easy tips for improving your captions instantly

What you’ll need
Practice in the app

We all know that social media can be a very visual space, especially when it comes to platforms like Instagram and TikTok. However, with Twitter still in the picture, and Meta’s Threads on the rise, could we be overlooking the power of the social media caption?

While imagery is great for drawing the eye and capturing attention, the real value of a post is often found within its caption. The caption is where the full iceberg is revealed — news is shared, jokes are made, education is given, and thoughts and feelings are divulged.

But how do we, as marketers, business owners, and influencers, make our captions more effective? Let’s dive in...

What makes a good social media caption?

A successful social media caption is one that resonates with the reader and/or gets them to complete an action such as leaving a comment, reading your blog post, or making a purchase. To create enjoyable and effective captions, you’ll need to have a deep understanding of your target audience, be able to craft your captions with purpose, and show just the right amount of personality.

10 tips for instantly improving your social media captions

1. Grammar and spelling

Poor grammar and spelling, especially if you’re a business, can damage your reputation more than you might think. Everyone understands that the occasional typo is inevitable, but consistent or extreme mistakes can make you look careless — a quality nobody wants in a company. Furthermore, they’re distracting. Typos and mistakes may make your captions hard to understand on first read and could ultimately reduce the impact of your message.

2. Avoid speaking in third person

While many businesses and brands often refer to themselves in the third person, this can give off a sense of grandiosity and coldness. Speaking in first person (I/we) or even second person (you) will come off as more personable, human, and likable.

3. Emojis

If the use of emojis aligns with your brand then by all means, go ahead. Emojis can be great for breaking up blocks of text and allowing you to more clearly express the sentiment behind your words. It’s also a way to make your captions more playful and fun.

4. Hashtags and keywords

If you want your social media captions to be more discoverable, it’s important to include keywords and relevant hashtags that will enable your content to appear in search results on your chosen social media networks. Using hashtags and keywords will also help the social media algorithms (and your audience) to quickly understand what your content is about and who the correct audience is.

5. Calls to Action (CTAs)

CTAs can be incredibly effective at driving traffic to a chosen location or increasing the engagement on your post. Your audience isn’t made up of mind readers — clear instructions that explain what you want them to do and why will go a long way to netting the results you desire. It’s as simple as that; if you want your audience to do something — just ask.

6. Tell a story

Simply put - people love stories. Not only are stories incredibly engaging and enjoyable, but they will also help you to appear more human and relatable. If you can tell a great story and relate it back to your chosen CTA, then congratulations — you have crafted the perfect social media caption.

7. Alter your approach for different platforms

Because each social platform attracts slightly different audiences and has slightly different content, the same captions won’t work across every network. When it comes to Instagram and Facebook, longer captions are okay — and storytelling is particularly popular — especially from influencers. Longer posts and stories are also acceptable on LinkedIn as long as they qualify as valuable content and come with a lesson or pertinent message. TikTok and Twitter are more suited to shorter, snappier captions, while YouTube video captions only need to be longer if they’re including extra information, such as links to items referenced in the video or CTAs to look at for additional resources.

8. Open a dialogue

Captions can be a great place to share ideas, thoughts, and feelings, but also get a conversation going with your audience. Show that you value their input by asking for their opinions. This is a great way to get more engagement with your content and help to grow your social media following, as well as gain a better understanding of your audience.

9. Watch the formatting

Nobody likes looking at a thick block of text, regardless of how much they care about you or your content. If you’re crafting a longer caption, remember to break it up into chunks. Use headings and emojis if you need to and try to write in bullet points if you can. Also, put the most important information first in case some of your readers drop off after the first paragraph. Additionally, you can consider including a “TLDR” section at the end to summarize your caption.

10. Do the research

The best social media captions are directly tailored for your target audience. As a result, you need to put in the work to find out what your audience is interested in, what they think about, and what kind of content they enjoy seeing in their feed. Use features such as Polls or Questions Stickers on Instagram Stories to find out more about your target audience’s preferences.

The moral of the story? Don’t put all of your focus into purely visual content and forget the importance of your social media captions. The written word can have just as much power as any TikTok or Instagram Reel. Use our 10 tips to craft the perfect social media caption sure to make an impression and bring you the results you crave.


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March 4, 2024

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