How-to: Instagram Captions

Longtime spouses supposedly understand each other without words. But when followers land on a company’s Instagram profile – whether by chance or purposefully – it’s more like a first date: You want to convince, inspire, enchant. But appearances alone are not enough to win the love of your life. If the relationship is to last, the man or woman has to offer more: amazing news, a touch of humor, or an exciting story.

Basically nothing new. A caption is what every print journalist has to know inside out: a fitting picture caption. More interesting is the question: What is a caption that works on Instagram? With a good caption, you keep the interest of jumpy followers who have briefly lingered on the photo. Ideally, the caption encourages them to write a comment or click on a link in the bio. How does it work?

• Write briefly, simply and understandably. 2,200 characters is possible, but Instagram cuts off after 125 characters. That means the first part of the caption has to be really good to get the reader to hit the more button
• No text-image scissors. Clearly, the caption has to match the photo.
• Emojis loosen up, are fun and convey – tataaa – emotions?
• Call-to-action: ask questions, point to link in bio, ask to link friends, sweepstakes.
• Respond to comments from followers

Not every caption has to win a Pulitzer Prize. But short texts in particular need to be well thought out. This requires preparatory work. You should first be clear about how you want to present your company or brand, what content you want to convey and what brand story you want to tell. What are customers interested in? How can I offer them real added value? It’s best to think about five to six topic strands that you serve in turn.

Especially companies that do not have a large media budget need not only good photos and texts, but also carefully selected, relevant hashtags to attract new followers. 30 tags are possible. Opinions differ on how many are ideal. In any case, the number of hashtags increases visibility. But whether ten or 20 keywords – the main thing is to set them consciously. Very generally formulated tags such as #foodlovers or #foodblogger may have a reach of millions, but in the large mass of contributions they do not make it into the field of vision of the audience. Actually a matter of course: The hashtags must fit the image and content.

It pays off to put creativity and a little time into writing the captions. As a company, you have the opportunity to communicate directly with your followers and get closer to your customers. Most people are curious and love a behind-the-scenes look. Talk out of the closet and tell stories – then your picture really says more than a thousand words.