How to: Write Better Captions

Ah! The perfect Instagram caption. So simple yet so complex. The art of captioning your photos on your business page all comes down to balance within balance. Your business is a (hopefully smooth) running machine, made of many different gears that all have to work with each other and serve a purpose. If you’re like us and our clients, Instagram is your number one way of communicating to your audience and while imagery is the main enticement, your captions play a more technical part in the process and further emphasize that same imagery and help tell your brand story. Here are some tips to add some extra oomph with your captions.

Information

Develop a template of what you’re always talking about. And stick to it. Variety is welcomed, but structured variety reduces messy communication. Decide what’s most important for you to shout about and break it up into (maximum 5) topics. For Example, a restaurant would talk about : Food, Heritage, Ethos, Suppliers

Language

Your language can vary depending on the topics, but using consistent tones will help develop your brand personality. Having a good understanding of your audience is a great tool for connecting and “speaking their language”, while taking into consideration how you might be perceived when speaking a certain way. Developing a chart of 10 words that relate to your brand and using them along with associative terms in your language style is a huge help when you’re stuck. A good starting point is understanding what type of language personalities there are.

Simple Language

Uses common words that are easy to understand for anyone reading and avoids industry “lingo”.

-

Emotional Language

Creates a strong impact by evoking the emotions of your audience. Emotional language can be controversial, humorous or even stern. Be careful and avoid being biased if ever discussing topics of importance.

-

Purposeful Language

Is created to drive results such as engagement and navigation to your website. Purposeful language can often be a question or survey.

-

Connectable Language

Addresses topics that the audience can specifically relate to. It often uses industry terms, and slang. The use of empathy and relate-ability are helpful in creating a community of followers that feel safe and understood when interacting with your brand.

-

Amusing Language

Is often witty, short and takes the stage when your brand imagery doesn’t entice enough viewers. As an example, a Self Storage company would use amusement driven language to convey their message and services by creating lingual content that makes you go

“ha, that’s funny” Our favourite example is from a company in NYC called

"Manhattan Mini Storage" Their slogans always include some sort of pun that makes their brand memorable and humorousExample: “We’re not scientists, but we totally get space”

Personalisation

The visual style of your captions can play a big part in developing your personality.

Maybe you have some favourite emojis, or you break your paragraphs up with bullets, Underscores, or again..emojis. There’s also Instagram fonts, and while they may not match your brand fonts, they grab attention and have the basic functionality of making something bold or italic.

Find them here!

Written by: Alla Malina, Creative Director @ FSM