In this article, we’re discussing all the best practices for writing great captions on Instagram! We’re also going to show you how you can take your caption game to the next level with an Instagram caption generator! If you’re struggling to write quality captions, you’re in the right place.
If you’re managing a social media account, you’ll know that captions cannot be written in a jiffy. Being an important element of your Instagram marketing strategy, they have to be written with a lot of care and attention. They also have to adhere to your audience’s expectations from you; you can’t write a deep, philosophical quote in the caption of a post intended for 13-year-olds.
This is what makes captions (and social media content in general) tricky, especially if you’re a freelancing social media manager. Even the subtle nuances in a caption related to tone, mood and word choice have to be altered according to the characteristics of different audiences (this goes for your profile picture and Instagram bio as well!).
Today, we’re going to discuss AI-powered Instagram caption generators, and why you should absolutely consider one.
First, let’s discuss some of the basics you should be mindful of while creating a caption.
The absolute basics of writing an Instagram caption that converts and incites engagement
1. Use a conversational tone; don’t sound like a keyword robot!
If you’re a brand or an influencer, you’ll only fulfil your Instagram marketing objectives once you establish a connection with your target audience. In order to do this, take your ‘salesperson’ hat off for a while.
You’re going to be engaging with humans, so be a human and a friend first. We get it, you want to ultimately sell your product, or your service or an online course. However, it’s best to not rush into things. Post content your audience will appreciate and take notice of and support it with a caption that’s conversational instead of sales-y. Here’s a great example from @subkocoffee, a specialty coffee roastery in India.
Notice the use of puns, sarcastic language and how the profile addresses its viewers as ‘guys.’ It’s what you’d expect from a caption in a coffee-loving friend’s post, and it genuinely humanises the brand.
Instagram Ads is a platform where social media managers stuff keywords for effectiveness. Would you rather click on an ad with a witty caption like this, or one with keywords like ‘buy coffee online’ or ‘best coffee online’?
There’s a very fine line between a copy that reads well and one that’s optimised. Try to find a good balance between the two!
2. Include calls-to-action in your Instagram caption (or ask a question for engagement)!
A higher number of likes, comments and shares ties in directly with Instagram’s algorithm to increase your organic reach, so you have to do everything in your power to ensure you maximise these actions. One good way is to include CTAs in your captions. Write them so that your viewers won’t be able to resist taking actions on your post!
Here are examples of great CTAs you can use in your captions:
- Like if you relate!
- Like if you agree!
- Tag a friend who’d love this
- What do you think about [topic]? Let us know in the comments!
- Head straight to the bio for the article link!
- Which one of these would you pick?
- We’d love to hear your thoughts. Debate in the comments!
One particularly great way of kickstarting engagement is to ask questions. Ask questions about topics that your audience actually care about, and those that will potentially ignite sparks for good discussions. A literary influencer on Instagram does a particularly great job at asking questions that relate to her audience.
Pro tip: For maximum engagement, make sure you push your posts out at optimal times!
3. Don’t repeat what’s in your post image/creative
This should be relatively obvious, but a lot of profiles still do this. For example, you’ll often see a creative with an insightful quote, and then the same quote is written in the caption.
Apart from making you seem lazy, what’s really the point in this?
Instead, include a caption that will complement your post, and further inform your viewers about its content. Also, keep in mind that captions are usually read after the viewer has gone through the post image, so write the caption accordingly.
4. Don’t write Instagram captions that are overly long.
Most Instagram users scroll through their feeds on their phones. If you’ve done so as well, you would have noticed that the Instagram caption size is very small, and gets uncomfortable to read and follow when there is too much text. If you have a lot of information to convey, consider making a carousel post. Even though users will have to repeatedly swipe to reveal each individual creative, carousels are miles ahead when it comes to readability. Also, you just have more creative freedom with carousels.
If you still want to write a long caption, include appropriate line spacing for different points, or even fancy bullets. This makes the content much easier to follow.
5. Use emojis to set the tone.
Establishing a tone in your caption (only using words) is hard, because again, you don’t want to write an overly long one. Your creative can have images and colours to set a tone, so this isn’t much of a challenge there.
If you’re struggling to convey emotions through your captions, use emojis! They’re great, and there are no restrictions on how many you can use per caption. Keep in mind, however, that using too many consecutive emojis seems tacky and somewhat desperate 😫😨🤢😱😰.
See?
Pro-tip: When you’re casually scrolling through social media, be on the lookout for emojis that are ‘trending.’ Yes, if you spend enough time on Instagram, you’ll notice some emojis being used very frequently. For example, usage of the 🤡 (clown) emoji has exploded in 2021, with people using it alongside situations or anecdotes where they’ve done something stupid. Similarly, the ‘chef’s kiss’ emoji was introduced recently to a few OSs, and it is being used for when you find something extremely appealing/satisfying.
6. Use relevant hashtags
Using relevant and targeted hashtags on Instagram is really the best way to get organic traction and be seen by new sets of audiences. After this, it’s like a domino effect that leads to more reach, more engagement, more followers, and more customers for your business! It’s a classic win-win situation.
With Instagram’s decreasing organic reach, it is now more important to use hashtags diligently, and correctly. Spend your time doing hashtag research! This isn’t a step you’d want to skip if you’re a social media manager.
Apart from using the right hashtags, you should also focus on making your caption look CLEAN, despite the presence of hashtags. For example, after you have posted your picture and caption, use the comments section of your post to write your chosen hashtags. This will make your caption look non-spammy and neat. A lot of accounts have started doing this lately, and Instagram has confirmed that it doesn’t affect the reach of your hashtags at all.
If you aren’t too keen on this, you can leave a few lines between your captions and hashtags. This way, your caption is completely uninterrupted and still looks clean. Your post viewers also won’t see your hashtags unless they click on ‘Read More’. Of course, your hashtags’ reach will not be affected!
Posting regularly on Instagram but not getting a good number of views and engagement?
If your answer is – YES, then my friend, you’re probably missing out on an awesome Instagram generator tool!
Boost your exposure on Instagram by using our free Instagram hashtag generator.
7. Mention other Instagrammers (without overdoing it)!
When you mention an Instagrammer on your caption, they get notified. If you mention Instagrammers that are directly concerned with the post, they will likely take actions related to the post, and may even share it with their followers, thus increasing your post’s reach. For this reason, it is a great idea to include positive mentions in your captions, wherever possible. Brands often mention individuals and other brands they are collaborating with.
If there’s a certain action you wish to be taken by one of your mentions, sending a humble DM works really well. For example, you can send a collaborator a DM request to share your post on their feed so their followers can see it. Remember to be subtle though, sounding desperate is not a great look!
However, you have to be careful using this feature. By no means should you spam people’s notifications and tag random accounts for ‘engagement.’ This could be counterproductive, and could instead lead to your post being reported. Also, if you’re just starting out on your Instagram journey, don’t bother tagging the big guns. Is Cristiano Ronaldo really going to bother checking out a page with 89 followers?
These tips have proven to work really well for the general Instagrammer, but note that there are no hard-and-fast rules at all! Of course, you need to write long captions once in a while if you’re telling a story. Of course, you wouldn’t want to use emojis in every caption. Experiment with these tips and see what works best for you!
How an Instagram caption generator works
Most quality text generators (these don’t include text spinners, by the way) you would have come across, are based on GPT-3, which was a tool recently created by OpenAI, a leading research and development company co-founded by the great Elon Musk himself.
Without going too far into the technicals, GPT is a transformer model, and it uses a small amount of input text to generate much larger volumes of text (when required) that read naturally and intelligently. It’s been generating buzz for a year or so, mainly because the text it generates reads exactly as a human would have written it while taking only a fraction of the time.
While there are a lot of complex parameters considering which the input is converted to a larger output, all of this happens only in the background. All you need to do is add a small input text indicating what you want the output to be about.
There are many applications of this, and one way Predis.ai uses it is to power an Instagram caption generator.
Predis.ai’s Instagram caption generator
To access this feature, you first have to log in to Predis.ai. After logging in and linking your Instagram Business Account, you’ll see the following screen. Here, you can input the theme of the post you want to generate. For this example, I wanted to generate a post for exotic places to visit in Asia.
When I entered this, the following is what Predis.ai returned.
On this ‘Creatives’ tab, I can choose from a bunch of suggested high-quality and free-to-use images, from Unsplash and Pexels. If you want to edit or change the caption, click on the ‘Captions’ tab and you’ll see a screen that looks like this.
Here, you’ll find captions of varying lengths and descriptions, that you can easily edit and copy according to your needs. For this post, I have chosen the first one. If you want to generate more ideas, you can scroll down and click on Generate More.
Predis.ai’s auto-generated content calendar
Alternatively, if you’re looking for posting ideas along with captions, you can check out the auto-generated content calendar feature on Predis.ai. You can navigate to it using the side menu on the Predis.ai app. Here’s a sample content calendar I designed for a brand in the fashion and lifestyle niche.
With a very small input comprising of general information about your handle, you can generate a social media calendar with fresh, unique ideas and comprehensive captions.
Play around with these features for a bit, and you’ll begin to comprehend just how much time can be saved through a simple Instagram caption generator, with no compromises on quality.
If you absolutely do not have a caption in mind, just type in a few words related to your Post, and Predis will use this minimal input to create something catchy for you. If you do have a caption in mind, you can still use the tool to gain more inspiration and create something that reads sharper!
Have you tried an AI Instagram caption generator yet?
How has it worked out for you? Let us know through our socials! Should you have any tips related to writing great captions, let us know so we can share them with our followers! If you’re looking for ways to grow engagement on your Instagram profile, this would be a great start.
If you’re using hashtags in your caption, and you think they might not be working, check out this blog to find out what’s wrong!
