Less is more? Not this time! At least, not when you’re providing the content your followers REALLY like to read. Because the point is, you don’t want to create posts mindlessly, to share them for the sake of “keeping your profile alive,” right? When you write about what people care about, what they need to read, what genuinely interests them, they don’t skip reading in the middle. They don’t scroll away.
Today we’ll be honest – the ultimate goal is to keep your readers hungry for more – and make them see you as the expert worth their time. Instagram is known as a visual, photo-first social medium, but it’s changing with time – caption plays a more and more critical role. It provides a context to photos, infographics, carousels, videos – intriguing copywriting is what distinguishes great content creators from the good ones.
When publishing your new post, you want to engage with your audience but not overwhelm them. There’s a thin line between a post you put your whole heart, and it shows, and a massive block of text that will scare people away. Today we’ll discuss the difference, and we’ll analyze why more extended captions can work wonders for your Instagram account. Let’s learn how to let your followers connect with you on a personal level (and get curious to know more – about you as a creator and about your brand/business as well)!
Show your point of view and make your content much more engaging
Long captions give more room to be persuasive and to provide more details. People LOVE feeling special – and as a content creator, you need to show your followers how much you appreciate their presence. The best way to do so? Reward your audience, give them the secret sauce of your niche, the practical tips and tricks no one else is talking about (because they’re too scared to reveal the industry secrets), and they will be more likely to spread the word about the valuable content you’re providing.
How to sneak your personal point of view intriguingly? Infuse your point of view into your posts and tell stories about your experience, your insights, the industry news you’ve heard, the tips you’ve tried. People followed you for a reason (except those hoping for a follow-back, as they keep believing in the follow4follow method or what’s even worse – follow unfollow tactic).
Don’t give your followers a reason to leave your profile by not providing them with valuable news and precious pieces of you (your knowledge, your energy, your expertise, experiences, and your unique sense of humor!).
Your followers will appreciate the time you put into writing (and so will the algorithm!)
Choosing the right emoji takes between 2 seconds and 4 minutes. Creating a meaningful, engaging post? Well. It can take long hours.
Do you worry that this effort will go unnoticed? It won’t.
Keep in mind that Instagram’s algorithm takes into account the engagement of your posts to determine how they will rank in your followers’ feeds. What does it mean for you? The algorithm tracks the time followers spend consuming your content. As they take time to read your longer caption, they let the algorithm know that your posts are genuinely interesting.
Let your Instagram profile be seen as a precious resource for your audience
Make sure they know that they can always expect fresh and exciting content!
Having said that – keep in mind that at least 70% of what you’re posting should be relevant to your audience’s interests, pain points, latest questions, and concerns. Sit down and precisely analyze who your audience is (what they like the most, why they’re following you, what are their Instagram habits).
If your stats are mysterious because the percentages aren’t straightforward, and you want to know much more about what your followers care about – start a conversation with your audience, ask questions, create pools.
What else? Surprise people with cool facts/tips – who doesn’t love that? We surely do as well! Instagram users adore to come across something that is informative, unique, shareable.
Oh, and we couldn’t not mention it: don’t be afraid to be a bit informal at times, as humor (in good taste, of course!) goes hand in hand with helping your followers relate to you.
Practice makes the master (you know this saying too well, don’t you?)
Instagram copywriting is where you might want to spend some extra time improving. Engaging, long, languid posts aren’t always easy to write. Long-form content requires patience. We all have busy everyday lives, and sometimes it seems like a huge challenge to sit down and come up with the perfect, thriving caption. Fortunately, there are several things to keep in mind to make the writing process much faster and more fun!
So – how to write more engaging captions? Let’s focus on the tips to remember even when you’re in a hurry – those things can actually save the thoughts you want to share!
Formatting – always on point
Nobody likes reading an overwhelmingly long text block – and that goes double for Instagram. If someone lands on your profile and finds messy and horribly long captions without spacing and without any paragraphs, they will not think twice before skipping it.
How to make your more extended captions more pleasant to read? Divide your text into smaller parts!
The reason we need to divide the long text into paragraphs is the same as why we use grammar (and all the dots and commas): to improve readability. If your caption is one continuous piece of text, it will be really displeasing for any reader to follow your perspective. Formatting your captions will also improve the appearance of your posts – and it will encourage your audience to read everything you’ve written. We’ve heard it somewhere, and we can’t agree more: well-structured captions have the power to win millions of hearts!
Emojis are a good idea (yes, even for business-oriented content)
Do you remember how you felt the last time you were reading a long block of text with nothing but dots and commas? There’s nothing to grab the audience’s attention when there isn’t a single emoji! We mean: of course, there is, but psychological research shows that the brain processes the knowledge much slower in that case.
Believe us when we say: emojis are a long text’s best friend. Big chunks of plain text aren’t what people enjoy, at least not on the Gram, so toss in your favorite emojis without hesitation.
You may want to ask: are they safe to use in business-oriented content? The thing is, when used correctly, emojis can add lots of positive energy and optimistic playfulness to your captions. On the downside, yes: improper use can make your thoughts seem a bit unprofessional.
Fortunately, it’s really easy to avoid missteps: just don’t overuse them, and rather don’t use them to replace words. Rather than using them to replace single words, use them as a kind of ornaments for your thoughts – they should be considered as a support to embellish the message of your paragraphs.
To wrap-up!
Your captions can be up to 2200 characters (including hashtags) – so make the most of it. Longer captions make a much better impression and tend to be more engaging, so it’s a good strategy for most of the posts you prepare. Of course: every audience has different needs and preferences, so there’s no one size fits all golden rule regarding the format you should use. Our advice? Test various post lengths and see for yourself – also create pools to find out which topics are the most interesting ones for your audience. Focus on them. Give them answers to their burning questions. Ask for feedback.
Lastly, remember that learning how to write engaging captions is one of the best ways to convert random readers into regular, loyal followers. So, always write it mindfully!
