A Copywriter's Guide to Writing Instagram Captions

Like most things in life, the hardest part is just getting started.

YAY or NAY: Do writing social media captions always have you drawing a blank?

I recently played a fun counting game. I discovered over the past 12 months I've written about 1,025 social media posts. 🤯 What a crazy perspective! Some days it’s easier to get started and the creativity is flowing. But for the days that don't, here are the tools I lean on to make writing social media content more manageable. I hope it will help you find new inspiration and tactics as you write yours too!

7 Writing Tips for Social Media Captions

While everyone has their own flavor and formula for writing on social media, here are some of my favorite tricks.

1. Keep a list to help jump-start inspiration!

I use the Notes app on my phone to keep a running list of catchy one-liners, quotes, or links to example posts from other accounts that I'd like to recreate. (I do this to keep ideas for email subject lines too.)

2. Use a workflow tool to drop some words in a draft form.

For most of my clients, I'll use an Asana workspace to collaborate with my graphic designer and keep track of our content ideas. Any time I'm creating a task, I'll try to drop in a few notes on what the caption might be while the idea is fresh for when the image is finally ready to schedule!

3. Play with length.

Sometimes an image really is worth 1,000 words and a simple one-liner is all you need. But for posts that are more educational or personal, don't be afraid of some length. If the content is meaningful, it almost feels like a mini blog post. Plus, the time users spend reading doesn't hurt your engagement either! ;)

4. But for Reels, shorter is usually better.

Most people skim over captions on Reels or glance at just that first line. So if you've got a longer caption, just keep in mind you probably need to call it out by adding "Read full caption" or put some text when you share it on your stories such as, "Click to read more."

5. The first line is important.

In the same way we write headlines to catch your reader's attention and keep scrolling down a webpage, the first sentence of your social media caption is quite important. Make it catchy. It is basically a headline.

6. Create visual breaks that keep the reader engaged.

Your own personal tone and that of your brand will dictate how much of this, but I personally love using emojis, paragraph breaks, and symbols to help keep captions visually interesting.

7. Subtle CTAs are smart.

I try to avoid ending with generic CTAs (calls-to-action) like "drop a comment below" as much as I can. Instead, try sprinkling in a CTA at the beginning of your caption with an opening statement like, "I tried something {insert here} new this week! Have you ever done this?" See what responses that will prompt.

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