What are you saying with your social media captions?
A great social media caption can make or break your content. If you want people to start engaging with your brand online, pay attention to your captions.
Captions may feel like a bit of an afterthought, but they’re actually incredibly useful for adding context, driving sales, and engaging with your audience.
We’ve put together five tips for creating winning captions on social media.
1. What is the purpose of your caption?
Before you sit down behind your keyboard to write your caption, ask yourself one simple question: What do I want this caption to achieve? Whether you want your followers to take action, leave a comment, like, or share, there needs to be a purpose behind every caption you write on social media. Afterall, what’s the point of doing anything without purpose?
Here are a few questions to keep in mind for your next caption:
- What specific action do you want your audience to take after reading your post?
- Do you even want your audience to take action?
- Are you trying to make a connection with your followers?
- Are you selling something?
- Is your caption supporting your post or the other way around?
- Should this caption be fun, professional, filled with personality, or pragmatic?
2. Try and get some conversations going
The beauty about starting conversations on social media, is how they don’t have to be directly related to your brand or products. An engaged audience is a good audience.
Here are a few examples of conversation-starting captions:
- “What product can’t you live without right now? Let us know in the comments!”
- “Tag someone who would love [INSERT YOUR PRODUCT].”
- “Got weekend plans? Let us know what you’re getting up to this weekend.”
Remember: unless you’re running some kind of comments-based poll, try and avoid “yes” and “no” questions. You’re aiming for repeat comments here, so shoot for open-ended questions. Don’t be afraid to jump into the comments section and reply to a few of the best answers.
3. Add some value
Everything you do on social media should add some kind of value for your audience. This doesn’t mean you have to be constantly giving things away for free. (Although, people love free stuff).
Adding value can be as simple as telling a joke, sharing some useful information, or even demonstrating how your products work.
Keep these value-adding prompts in mind:
- “Did you know that…”
- Before you post, ask yourself: “What action (if any) should my followers take?”
- “Got weekend plans? Let us know what you’re getting up to this weekend.”
- Save your hashtags for the first comment.
- Make the value you’re adding easy to digest. You don’t want your followers to feel like they have to work for the value. If you’re adding value, it should be free.
4. Consider when to use call-to-actions
Including a call-to-action (CTA) is a staple of just about all marketing efforts, and your social media captions are no exception. However, not every post requires a CTA. If you ask your followers to take action too often, you might come across as desperate and drive them away.
Here are a few CTAs to consider:
- Ask your followers to visit your website, click a link in your bio, or read your latest blog post.
- Encourage your followers to answer a question.
- Prompts your followers to tag one of their favourite accounts in your comments.
- Motivate your followers to create their own content and tag your account.
Example: “Do you love [INSERT YOUR PRODUCT]? Read all about its newest features via the link in our bio!”
5. Embrace your inner storyteller
While nobody is expecting you to write a novel in your caption, people love stories. More importantly, people love stories they can connect with.
Try telling these kinds of stories:
- Share your origin story. How did your business start?
- Let your audience take a look behind the scenes.
- Don’t be afraid to share stories of your failures.
- Allow your followers to share their stories.
- Pack your stories with personality. Allow you followers to connect with you on a human level.
- Should this caption be fun, professional, filled with personality, or pragmatic?
Want more learning? Check out a few more captions tips!
Looking for a bit more help? We’ve got the epic Guide to Creating Captions – grab your copy for only $19 👇
A great social media caption can make or break your content. If you want people to start engaging with your brand online, pay attention to your captions.
Captions may feel like a bit of an afterthought, but they’re actually incredibly useful for adding context, driving sales, and engaging with your audience.
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