5 HACKS FOR WRITING INSTAGRAM CAPTIONS THAT WILL WOW YOUR FOLLOWERS!!

June 29, 2020 | Fox Tales

Writing captions can be an extremely drawn- out and arduous task. You sit down for a good whole hour, conjure up something that sounds insanely genius and type it out carefully on the ‘write a caption’ segment. And then you move on to the moment you have been waiting for, when you get to share all the wonderful thoughts that you typed out so painstakingly with all your followers – the moment of truth. You click the ‘share’ button…….

An hour and 20 Instagram page refreshes later you notice only a mere 2 likes. If this is you, we have 5 amazing hacks that will get your followers to scroll down, read your entire post and tap that all so elusive ‘like’ button! And you also have an added bonus – great captions also motivate people to share your posts! So, when you try these hacks, don’t be surprised by all the shares and saves you notice on your insights!

Staying true to our form, we promise you these aren’t airy fairy statements that hold no truth when you try them. These are a bunch of tried and tested caption writing tips that have worked for us in the past, and we always keep going back to these when we want to write impactful captions for our clients as well. We have loaded these 5 tips with several examples that will help you decipher these hacks better.

So, here they are:

Hack #1. Lead with the hook

When your post appears on your follower’s Instagram feed, they only get to see the first fold. Now that my friend, is your prime real estate!

The first fold usually contains not more than 7 – 10 words (depending on the length of the words). Therefore, it is absolutely imperative to put your best foot forward and use phrases that instantly hook your audience. Think of the ‘hook’ as your bait – are your first few words powerful enough to lure in your readers? The best way to find out is to use the first few words while speaking to a friend or family member who is busy scrolling through their phone. If they look up or even glance or raise an eyebrow, there you have it. That is your hook.

Hook phrases can be of two kinds – the ones that ‘startle’ you or the ones that ‘pique’ your interest. Choose the one you want to go with, depending on the post and frame your phrase. It is similar to writing a headline for a magazine article or a website. To pick up some good hooks, read a few gossip or news websites. Nope, we are not kidding, believe us! They are the best way to learn to write a captivating sentence.

For example,

A startle hook –

Don’t ever try out the pesto sauce recipe I shared last week! …

.

.

Because I have an even better and easier one for you today. No kidding, it takes on 3 ingredients.

Pique your interest hook –

‘I tried this amazing pesto sauce recipe with only 3 ingredients that tastes even better than the one I shared last week! Look below for this easy 2 min recipe you must try on a busy day.’

Hack #2. Break it up

Nobody likes a long endless read. No matter how elaborate your Instagram caption is, make sure you break after every 5-6 lines. Switch your paragraph to make it easier for the reader to consume your content.

There will be readers who just prefer to skim through content, and it is a great incentive to give them if you offer distinguishable paragraphs. This also leads to another sub-point – The opening of each paragraph must be eye-catching. Luckily, this is easy and can be done in multiple ways – the good old use of the ‘upper case’, introducing a nice emoji at the start, or by using hook words/ phrases like the ones mentioned in Hack #1.

Using emojis is a great way to break up your paragraphs too, and they put some life into a rather dull text. None the less, you needn’t always use the fun emojis, if you are stating something serious or informative, use emoji numbers, bullets, tick marks or arrows.

Hack #3. Include a story

Storytelling is the most engaging and interesting way to convey any message! Who doesn’t remember a good grandmother’s tale or an interesting gossip?  After you write your hook in the first line, follow it up with a story or an example. Make a list of related incidents or experiences that you have personally had – with regard to your hook. Then put pen to paper to detail out exactly what happened. Stories can often run long, thus, this little exercise will help you discard the extras and pick out what is relevant!

Example – If your post is about a new product you are launching, follow up your hook phrase with a story on how you developed the product or what inspired you to do so. Mention aspects like – your struggle while creating the product, a particular time when you kept failing, or a funny team story while testing the product. Be real, don’t shy away from embarrassing details!

Hack #4. Use our bucket list

Here’s a hack that we use, which you can borrow!  When we work on a client’s content / caption, we follow our easy-peasy bucket list. Simply, put, there are 3 buckets under which we categorize our captions – USEFUL, ENTERTAINING and PERSONAL.

USEFUL: Informative content/captions that talks about your brand, product or service and helps your reader understand your niche. This content inadvertently helps the reader form an opinion about your brand.

ENTERTAINING: Or as we call it at Fox HQ, ‘time-pass’ content! This is where you get to have a little fun. It could range from a passion you want to write about, to some behind the scenes shenanigans to social commentary. Think – captions about embarrassing childhood stories, team fun, current scenario views. However, this content must eventually be linked back to your brand.

PERSONAL: This is mostly for giving your brand that human touch. It could be a caption that draws inspiration from a personal passion, experience or situation. This content may not necessarily link back to your brand.

While writing our caption/ content, we make sure that our content checks off under at least one of the above buckets. This way we avoid posting content that is superfluous.

Hack #5. Use your original voice

There is no handbook or bible to adhere to when it comes to the kind of content you want to put out. You don’t need to follow social media lingos or imitate the latest trends. It is tempting to look at leading brands and influencers and think – ‘oh, I need to be funnier, or do I need to sound more professional?’

Well, scrap that! Use your original voice! Use phrases and words that you use often while talking to friends and family. Write your captions like the way you would talk.

Remember, what makes you – ‘YOU’ also makes you unique!