Writing captions for your social media content is as important as the pictures or videos that you are going to be posting.
With social media being more and more about the visuals, captions can often be forgotten and this is us telling you to NOT forget about social media captions.
Captions may be the single biggest factor in determining the success or failure of a post.
Nobody wants to read boring, obvious captions. We know we don’t. What a lot of people running social media accounts tend to do when writing captions is describing the image they are posting. It’s the most obvious thing to do, and a lot of people fall into this trap. The picture or video you are sharing should already be giving people information about what you are trying to say or sell, your caption should be used to give people an additional reason to engage with the content (liking, commenting or sharing). A great way to get more engagement is to tell your audience about something that is not in the picture, this can be done by sharing a backstory, a tip or something they can’t see in the picture.
Don’t tell your audience why the image matters to you, explain why it should matter to THEM.
A few examples of brands that get captions right:
Famke Jewellery: We love that not only is the picture beautiful the background story is super cute too. Who doesn’t love matching sister rings? 
Letterfolk: They sell letter boards and paper products. We love how not only is their image super funny and engaging but that they also tagged Home Depot in their captions as a “Hey, you should make a Human leaf blower thing happen”
Here are a few reasons why you should also be focusing on your social media captions.
- It helps with engagement: A great caption makes people give your social media post a second thought or comment. If someone has stopped to read your comment there is also a higher chance of them clicking through to you feed or your website to read or find out more. A popular form of engagement on social media is also people commenting below a post with just “Caption 😂” this is not a form of engagement you want to miss out. At the end of the day, the more opportunities for engagement the more likely your post is to be seen by a person or their friends.
- It adds a little something-something: If we look at your social media content as a plate of food, the caption is the spice you add to your food. A little salt or pepper to enhance the taste? A caption does the same.
- Gives users extra information: Captions on Social media (whether they are short or long) are an opportunity to provide more information that a single text or an image can. Use them effectively to get your point or product across.
- Helps build a community: This is especially true when you are giving shoutouts or mentioning people who have tagged you in a post. People love to be tagged in a caption, it shows the brand recognises and appreciates their user-generated content.