How to Write Good Instagram Captions

Learn our tricks for writing good Instagram captions that will engage your existing followers and attract new audiences to your page.

Posted 5 months ago

Written by

Julia Cohen

Posted 5 months ago

Good Instagram captions can be a determining factor in persuading someone to hit that follow button and want to see more of your content. While Instagram is primarily a visual space, users have increasingly seen the usefulness in thought through caption-writing that tells a story, lets people know more about them, gives more context, or just helps with strategic SEO.

Compelling captions can help you attract your audience’s attention and give them a reason to keep scrolling through your posts—they allow for more engagement which is critical regarding Instagram’s algorithm. It is not too hard to learn how to write good Instagram captions that get likes, but there are some best practices for writing Instagram captions that will always win. But what is a good Instagram caption? In today’s article, we will share some of our tips for writing Instagram captions that will win prospective followers over.

How to Write Good Instagram Captions

Make a connection 🤝

One of the reasons Instagram captions were created, was to allow users to provide more context on an image or video they post, so, it is important that your “supporting words” connect with the content you share. Not only does this make sense, but it also helps from an SEO-perspective. Since Instagram places a large focus on categorizing content to make searching easier, the more accurate and descriptive you are in your caption, the more likely it will appear when someone searches for something related on Instagram.

This can sometimes be easy, and sometimes challenging. For example, if part of your content strategy is to share inspirational re-grams or imagery from other artists, you might not initially think to write a caption related to the image. Try and consider this throughout your entire strategy in order to keep your page consistent. Here’s an example of a creative way to link an inspirational post with a relevant caption:

Be candid 💁‍♀️

One of the best ways to write good Instagram captions is by treating the text a little like a diary. Sometimes it can be hard to get your personality across on the platform because the majority of the content is still either static or artistic, rather than ‘sitting down for a chat’. Also, as Instagram is so saturated, it’s important that you stand out within your niche and give people a reason to follow you. An effective way to do this is by creating a human connection with someone by sharing something they find relateable or ‘different’ – and communicating your thoughts, feelings, etc. in a caption can do this. Instead of posting a one-liner, you might share a story, talk about something personal or give a more descriptive paragraph of context for your image/video.

Give value 📲

Besides telling a story and getting personal, you can also add value to your posts by teaching your followers something only you can share. For example, because people are so-fast paced on Instagram, they may not watch an entire video you’ve posted (in fact most people don’t). A way to make sure they still get all the value you want them to is by creating an informative caption that details everything in segments. It might encourage them to continue to watch or explore some of your other content but it’s a little more engaging than a simple ‘CTA’. Let’s compare:

“I just posted a new video, check it out!”

vs.

“In today’s video, I will share my top hashtag tricks, including:

How to pick hashtags that match your account.
How to rank on hashtags.
How to find out which hashtags are working.”

See what we mean? The second option tells the follower a little more, in case they won’t watch the whole video, and it’s a lot more clickable.

Draft Your Caption on a Separate Platform 📝

Write your caption on another platform like Word, Notes, or Pages, and then copy and paste them into your Instagram post. This is beneficial because it is less distracting and can keep your marketing goals and targeted audience when you draft a caption. In addition, many formatting benefits come with using a third-party tool that is not native to Instagram’s UI. For instance, you can add line breaks and even add unique fonts.

If you are writing a caption for a business post, first understand the types of caption and the action it drives. Then come up with several alternative ideas for your caption. For example, a product caption should grab the reader’s attention with an emotional sentence and offer a benefit in an inspirational or educational form. You can use Flick to draft up your captions first before posting online in our scheduling tool, plus Flick can help you come up with relevant hashtags which you can use as inspiration for your caption.

Hashtag Tools: Flick auto-generates Instagram hashtags for you based on your content and captions. As you create or schedule a new post, you can access our powerful tools to help you choose the best hashtags for your content.

With our search tool, you have the option to manually search for hashtags yourself in 20+ languages. Every search generates 40 different suggestions, and you can filter them by key metrics such as keywords and activity levels. We also include a checker tool to help you identify banned hashtags and keep your posts safe.

Store all your favorite hashtags in one location with our Instagram Hashtag Manager. Create different collections of hashtags and access them from your desktop, phone, or tablet.

View in-depth analytics on your hashtag performance using Flick’s Analytics tool. Monitor over 20 key metrics in real-time with our reporting tools and use these insights to help you improve your content strategy. Track your average ranks, rank ratio, top-performing hashtags, low-performing hashtags, and more.

You can also compare these stats to previous reports to see how much they’ve increased or decreased over time.

Tell a Story 📕

Caption writing is more like narrating a story. Avoid being neutral and add personality to spice up your caption. Make use of sensory phrases or anecdotes to paint the picture you want. If you are posting in a series or consistent format, make sure that every Instagram caption works together with the others as a cohesive unit.

If you can, try to “tease” the coming content in each Instagram caption without giving away any spoilers or details about the content itself. Instead, tell a relatable story to help your audience understand you beyond your product or services. Remember to share helpful tips and tricks within these stories, or even be funny where you can. This will help attract potential customers to your product or service, making them more receptive to your paid offers.

Want to learn more about Instagram captions? Take our Instagram Caption course and get a FREE 30-days of caption templates!

Consider Caption Length 📏

Posting a short yet tantalizing comment is a must for any successful Instagram account. Be concise with your comments, use your Instagram strategy’s primary aims, and allow them to guide you before diving into Instagram caption writing. This is essential for businesses as they have to entice Instagram users to engage with your post.

Your Instagram text caption is about quality over quantity. So make it brief but adequate. However, there is no sentence length to consider right or wrong when it comes to caption writing. So if you’re just starting out, experiment with different caption lengths and see which resonates the best.

However, generally speaking, it’s best to keep it simple when you start writing an Instagram caption. Tell a compelling story concerning your product or brand using relatable anecdotes. Consider using an introductory sentence when writing a product caption to include an explanation or background information that has nothing to do with the post itself but is relevant enough for the audience or viewers of your post.

Use Hashtags 🔍

Instagram hashtags are crucial since they make your posts searchable as their function resembles keywords in blog articles. Therefore, a keyword-rich hashtag will help you expand your reach with the help of Flick. For example, when writing a caption for a business post, you can sprinkle some relevant hashtags about the post and associated product for better engagement with the audience to give the cation a dimension.

The best hashtags include popular related ones like your brand, location, and descriptive words that are relevant to your post. Always aim for a mix of branded, product, community, and relevant trending hashtags. There are no complex rules regarding how many hashtags you should use. Just make sure you do not use too many hashtags as it might break the flow of the post itself (you can always add some of them in the comment section).

Make sure to use an appropriate number of Instagram hashtags. Do not include unrelated or unnecessary hashtags to fill space because this will only drive away potential customers. Adding a hashtag to your Instagram caption enables users to follow your posts through different social media platforms easily and boots your ranking. You can even link hashtags to specific Instagram posts and captions for greater accountability.

Hashtags & Analytics

Find, manage, and analyze hashtags for Instagram.

Make the Most of the First Sentence ✍️

Use your first sentence as a hook to entice your target audience into clicking through and scrolling down your post. If you have too much content in your caption, try to limit yourself by keeping the first sentence short and sweet. Treat the initial line of your caption as more of a headline than an actual caption, then tell your whole story as a series of captions after that.

Treat the opening copy of your Instagram text caption to how you treat marketing email subject lines. The content may not be all about the product or service itself, but it should be interesting and contain an offer you can use to promote your business.

If you are writing a follow us on Instagram caption the first sentence of your caption could be a summary of what is coming in your post. This will attract more readers because they will get a sneak peek into what they can expect from the rest of the post and feel confident and eager to click on your other post. Remember to include the phrase “follow us” in your caption.

Including a CTA 🖱️

An Instagram caption is used to get people to take action in some way since each post should have an intention and purpose. Use the caption to lead each post to its goal and allow the aim to determine the call-to-act you should include. For example, if you want Instagram users to give more comments on your posts, you can consist of a question and encourage them to post their replies in the comment section.

The main focus of the caption is to create a sense of dialogue and conversation by boosting commitment, as engagement is the metric that Instagram’s algorithm checks to serve your posts to followers. For a follow us Instagram caption, promoting engagement increases the likelihood of your posts appearing in other users’ feeds. Some of the suitable call-to-action you can utilize in your text caption are:

Leave a comment
Tag a friend
Follow me for more
Click the link in the bio
Double tap if you agree
Swipe to learn more
Save this for later

Consider the Type of Caption to Use 🤔

Understanding how to write your status on Instagram requires you to learn the type of Instagram caption and how to use it. There are various Instagram caption types you can use in your status on Instagram, including short, sassy, long, funny, bio, seasonal, and selfie captions. What kind of caption to utilize depends on the product you are promoting or the purpose of your post.

For instance, consider using a short and sweet Instagram caption when you post a photo that says it all. Suppose the tone resonates with your audience, products, or the brand you are promoting, utilize a bold and sometimes sassy Instagram caption.

There are some business posts where it is okay to go with the usual bio-style caption as they do not have many followers. Below are some guidelines and considerations to write your status on Instagram to help you use the relevant caption style.

Type of business of the company
Specialty
Links to other social networks
Contact details and other data
Hobbies and favorite activities

Example Hype Captions for Instagram

Funny Hype Captions:

Puns or Wordplay

To make time fly, throw your watch out the window.
To the guy who invented zero, thanks for nothing.
I don’t trust stairs because they’re always up to something.
People are prisoners of their phones… that’s why it’s called a “cell” phone.
I was wondering why the ball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.
I don’t like violence but I don’t mind if I get hit by luck.
Thanks for explaining the word ‘many’ to me. It means a lot.

Self-Deprecating Jokes

I put the ‘pro’ in procrastinating.
People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.
Young, dumb, and broke.
I have no selfie control.
When people say, “You’ll regret that in the morning,” I sleep in until noon because I’m a problem solver.
I followed a diet, but it didn’t follow me back, so I unfollowed it.
I never make the same mistake twice. I make it like four or five times, just to be sure.
I don’t think inside the box or outside the box… I don’t even know where the box is.

Mocking a Common Saying or Belief

What matters is on the inside. Like the fridge, for example.
People say “go big or go home” like going home is a bad thing.
He who laughs last didn’t get it.
You never know what you have until you’ve cleaned your house.

Mock Insults

Don’t be ashamed of who you are. That’s your parents’ job.
Your secrets are safe with me… I wasn’t even listening.
I’m sorry I hurt your feelings when I said you were stupid. I thought you knew.

Turning Advice Into a Joke

Be careful when you follow the masses. Sometimes the M is silent.
Always give 100% at whatever you do. Unless you’re donating blood.
When nothing goes right…go left.
Yesterday, I wanted tacos. Now I’m eating tacos. Follow your dreams.

Being Relatable

I eat cake because it’s somebody’s birthday somewhere.
It sure is strange that after Tuesday, the rest of the week spells WTF.
Dear autocorrect, that’s not what I was trying to say. I’m getting tired of your shirt.

Quoting Famous People

“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.” ― Charles Bukowski
“The reason I talk to myself is because I’m the only one whose answers I accept.” ― George Carlin
“I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally.” ― W.C. Fields

Cool Hype Captions:

Advice

Forget the failures. Keep the lessons.
If you can’t change your fate, change your attitude.
“Being cool is being your own self, not doing something that someone else is telling you to do.” — Vanessa Hudgens
Those who think it is not cool to be kind are cold-hearted.
“If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” — Maya Angelou
Sometimes one day changes everything; sometimes years change nothing.

Joking or Mocking the Concept of ‘Cool’

Passion isn’t cool, it’s hot.
So uncool it’s cool again.
Weird is the new cool.
“I’ve never been cool and I don’t really care about being cool. It’s just an awful lot of time and hair gel wasted.” — Chris Martin

Boasting

“Nothing is cooler and more attractive than a big comeback, and that’ll be me.” — Steven Adler
“See the bowtie? I wear it and I don’t care. That’s why it’s cool.” — Steven Moffat
Even on my worst day, I’m killin’ it.
I don’t follow trends, I set them.

Use Emojis and Have Fun 🙃

Make it fun by using emojis and other fun images in your Instagram caption, such as pictures of food or animals. To add flavor to the text caption, you can use emoticons that let you convey a more personal message. Relevant emojis at the end of sentences serve as aesthetics that break up long strings.

Using Flick and including emojis or images in your caption allows you to let your imagination run free. A funny or animated caption can help promote your business’s unique selling proposition by making people laugh and share it with their friends. They are also an excellent method of driving users to take a particular action, such as following for more.

However, it would be best if you do not overuse them by mixing multiple emojis in the middle of your sentences. If you are writing a caption for a business post, determine a set of relevant emojis to keep it on the brand and be consistent.

Use Analytics

Integrating analytics and benchmarks can help you grow in terms of followers in just a few months. However, did you know that analytics can also help figure out which captions and images resonate with your audience the most?

Instagram Analytics

Grow your account with best-in-class Instagram Analytics.

You can use Flick’s Content Analytics feature to understand how well your content resonates with your target audience. To do this, simply go through your top-ranking posts and analyze what’s helped them succeed on various measures, including on the captions. Do your questions highly engage with your target audience? Or is it your hot takes? Which topics are conversion starters and others that provide disappointing results?

Use AI Assistance

Flick also offers powerful AI social media tools to help you create social content faster than ever. Break past creative blocks with our AI suggestions, receive Instagram caption help, and schedule posts to automate your workflows.

Caption Writing: Write social media captions quickly at 10x the speed with our AI caption writing. Customize the writing style, tone of voice, post idea, and more to generate highly-personal captions that suit your brand voice.

Brainstorming: If you’re struggling with what to write on Instagram, access an infinite source of engaging content ideas with our AI suggestions. Simply search for a topic and watch our AI assistant generate a list of original ideas for you to choose from.
Scheduling: Streamline your publishing with our Instagram scheduling tool. We analyze your audience insights to determine when your followers are most active and give you the best time to post on Instagram for each day of the week. You can then plan and organize your scheduled posts with our intuitive drag-and-drop calendar.

Don’t forget the details 👀

Captions can be a great way to amp up your discoverability and increase your chances of getting shared. Here are some things you shouldn’t forget, and some ways to keep your captions clean and readable.

Always add tags! If you feature a specific brand in your post, make sure to tag them in the caption, so that they will see it and potentially comment or reshare.
Use line breaks. Recently, Instagram made it possible to add line breaks in their captions, facilitating longer-form writeups. If you are creating lists or writing a long caption, make it more visually appealing and less overwhelming by using line breaks.
Use hashtags. You can use these in your caption on your comments, but either way, make sure you are using them to ensure your posts have the best chance of reaching a new, audience.
Keep it visual. Make sure to include emojis in longer captions, which will also help break the text up, visually.
Always include a CTA (call to action) at the end of your captions to encourage further engagement, for example, “link in bio,” “comment your thoughts below,” “follow for more,” or “visit our Instagram shop to buy!”

💡 Flick’s Tip: Sometimes all you need is help with coming up with new ideas for the month ahead … and that’s where our AI Social Media Assistant comes in! Brainstorm content ideas in seconds along with the best on-brand captions for your social media posts by clicking the banner below to get started with a 7-day free trial of Flick!

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To Sum It Up 🎀

Instagram is among the most popular sources for engagement on social media, and people that want to gain more followers will often seek tips and tricks on getting more likes on Instagram. To write outstanding Instagram captions-update, consider the tips mentioned above and guidelines. With these Instagram tips, you can get more views on your posts and increase their engagement rating.

An Instagram caption should be a conversation starter like a question or an incentive to boost engagement so that you can market your brand or business or meet the post’s intention. Write direct, short, funny captions, keeping it to the brand or purpose, witty, and layered with emotion. This article also sheds light on the types of Instagram text caption you can use and how to utilize them to help you achieve the goal of the posts.

In the end, what counts is how many people are reading your caption and how much the users enjoy it, so take time to think of great captions for your social media post and practice them before posting them.

Need help with writing some great captions and want them pre-made for you? Click here for 75+ funny captions you can use today. And if you are ready to start writing good Instagram captions that will make your audience even more excited about your Instagram page, learn more about the best Instagram strategies for reaching new audiences by visiting our blog, or clicking the banner below.

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