What is a good caption? One that entertains or educates your audience, is consistent with your brand’s voice, and compels your audience to comment, like, or click. Notice I repeat the phrase YOUR audience. The first thing you need to do to write a good caption is understand your audience.
- KEEP YOUR AUDIENCE IN MIND. Who follows you on social media? Who buys your products or services? Do they appreciate a certain kind of humor? Are they looking to be educated on your industry? What life stages are they at? What types of things are trending in their world? What are their hopes and dreams? Where do they spend a lot of their time? Answering these questions will help you build an audience persona. Then make sure you write for that persona, so you can capture their attention.
- KEEP YOUR BRAND VOICE CONSISTENT. Make sure the voice and feel of your captions are consistent. For example, if you are a cutting-edge brand, your voice may sound modern and edgy. If your brand is for children’s clothing, your voice may be fun and whimsical. A consistent voice gives you wider recognition and loyalty among your audience.
- USE YOUR FIRST 2-3 LINES WISELY. Most social media platforms only show the first 2 or 3 lines of your caption. Your audience needs to tap “more” to read the rest. Either keep it brief and only use 2 lines or make sure those first 2 lines are compelling enough to make your audience tap “more”. Use words that convey emotions and compel your audience to act. You need to hook them in to read more.
- ASK A QUESTION. This may feel weird at first but the more you do it, the more your audience will start responding. It can be an open-ended question or just a yes/no. Depending on the platform you can ask your audience to answer in emojis or gifs too. Make it interesting so your audience wants to get in on the fun!
- GIVE A SHOUT OUT. Have a customer who loves your product? Or a vendor that you partner with a lot? Give them a shout out by tagging them in your post (of course, the post must be relevant to them). People find it hard to ignore a shout out and will likely engage back with your post. This in turn will not only give your post more engagement but will likely put it in front of their audience too, giving you more reach.
Now you are ready to write! Try my 5 tips and let me know if you see more engagement.
Have any questions? Feel free to reach out to me: LoriCaralis@gmail.com