With roughly one billion monthly active users, Instagram is a behemoth of the social media world. Effectively writing for such a visually-led medium can be difficult, but with the platform’s unrelenting popularity it’s a tool content creators can’t miss out on.
As a copywriter and content designer, I’ve lost track of the number of clients I’ve spoken to over the years who have dismissed Instagram as being ‘just pictures’.
‘Why do I need a copywriter for Instagram?’ they’ll say.
And the answer is always for the same reason John Lennon needed Paul McCartney, why Steve Jobs needed Steve Wozniak, why Stan Laurel needed Oliver Hardy.
Because words and pictures don’t exist in isolation. Each are powerful, but together their potential is multiplied exponentially.
And nowhere is this more apparent than on Instagram.
Quality versus quantity
Instagram was once a platform where bombarding users with content to generate likes, comments, follows and clickthroughs was the accepted wisdom. But that is no longer true.
Instead you should be focusing on making sure that any content you put on the platform adds some value for your user.
And that means using the limited space you have effectively. A good Instagram caption has to strike a blow with its very first sentence.
There are a number of ways you can do this. Posing a question, instantly addressing a customer need, introducing a story, or using a joke can all be useful techniques.
The language you use is important, though. Concentrate on writing actively, with short sentences and words that will stimulate a response in your reader.
And don’t forget to think about the sort of emotional response you want to trigger, and the journey the user will be on.
A common mistake is hitting that killer first line, then jumping straight to your call to action.
Potential customers or followers can be put off by something so abrupt. So you need to think about what I call the ‘transition phase’.
This is where you’ll move from that opening hook and use clever, emotive and well structured language to move towards your call to action, so that when it lands, its arrival feels natural for the reader.
Making a hash of it
Hashtags are there to make your content more visible and to signpost new audiences to help them find your content.
As such, they’re hugely important. However, they’re another area where I often see the opportunity for good content go to waste.
A large part of the reason for this is people don’t put the time into getting the most out of hashtags.
Hashtags should be treated like keyword research. See what your competitors are using and learn what is trending in your industry.
An Instagram post can accommodate up to 30 hashtags. There are different schools of thought on whether you should use all of them or not.
Perhaps the most common approach is to use three hashtags in your post, then hide additional hashtags at the foot of your copy, using punctuation marks to create the white space.
This makes your posts look more aesthetically pleasing, and stops them from appearing cluttered with hashtags, without sacrificing any of the searchable benefits they yield.
And when it comes to how many hashtags to use, and which, I would advise you to experiment.
Don’t use the exact same hashtags with each post. Instead rotate them, see what works and what doesn’t.
If there are a handful of hashtags that are essential to your business, these can be retained for each post. But beyond that, you should test the waters, and monitor the results.
Don’t forget, if you’re using a business account you can check on your stats and see how your hashtags are performing. Use this knowledge to inform your posts.
Take a step back
Ok, this doesn’t relate to captions as such, but it’s another trick I see missed again and again on Instagram.
Instagram gives you a username and a name field for your bio. This is some extra real estate when it comes to attracting people to your content.
Consider using the username field for the name of your business, and the name field for a tagline that will engage your audience.
And as for that bio, above all else, make it count.
A good bio will encourage users to scroll down and feast on all your wonderful content.
But there’s no use having all that great content if your bio pushes people away.
Focus here on crafting something that’s free from filler, interesting and will make people want to stay on your page.
Your bio should make it absolutely clear what you are offering, why people should be interested in it, and make them want to take that next step.
If your bio isn’t doing these three things, the rest is pretty irrelevant.
Joe Sharratt 