Instagram might seem like an image-first platform, but you can’t underestimate the importance of a great caption. In many cases, your caption is the reason your post lands on a user’s news feed. It can also be the difference between a user simply scrolling past or actually clicking and engaging with your post.
So how do you create knock-out captions and quotes for Instagram? Use these top hacks to make your quotes and captions pop.
Table of Contents:
- Keep a File of Favorite Quotes for Instagram
- Do Hashtag Research
- Use a Leading Line with Mystique
- Use All Caps, But Use Them Wisely
- Answer “So What?” ASAP
- Use Mentions to Grab More Views
- Intensity Your Vocabulary
- Put Quotes in Your Images
- Hide Your Hashtags
- Growing Your Social Presence with Top Captions and Quotes for Instagram
1. Keep a File of Favorite Quotes for Instagram
You come across amazing quotes all over the place. Maybe you spot a poignant quote on a billboard, in a show or movie, or even in another Instagram post. Quotes can make for great IG captions or they can be used to lead into your caption. No matter how you use quotes, it’s easier to find the perfect one when you want it if you keep a file of your favorites.
Any time you run into a quote you love or one that could be relevant to your content, jot it down in your file. You can even organize that file by categories if you want to make it easier to use. For example, have a category for holidays, one for fitness, one for romance, and so on.
2. Do Hashtag Research
Hashtags can take a solid caption from a 6 to a 10 if you use them right. To find the best hashtags for your Instagram captions, though, you’ll need to do some research.
Sure, there are sites that will show you very general, broad data like the top trending hashtags on any given day. That doesn’t tell you what hashtags will actually appeal to your target audience, though. Finding out is easier than you think.
Use a tool called Snoopreport. Snoopreport is an Instagram activity tracker that allows you to see a weekly report of the activity for any public Instagram account. That includes all the posts the person has liked, new accounts they have followed, and, most importantly in this case, the top hashtags in the posts they liked.
To use Snoopreport for your hashtag research, just follow these steps:
- Determine who your target audience is. This could include a certain age range, gender, marital status, location, and so on.
- Look through Instagram profiles to identify some people who fall into your target audience. This can include people who follow you already and people who don’t. Jot down as many of these accounts as you want – up to 100. The more accounts you find, the more reliable your hashtag research will be.
- Sign up for a Snoopreport account at snoopreport.com.
- Purchase the Snoopreport subscription you want, based on the number of Instagram users you want to track – anywhere from 2 to 100.
- Click “Add Account” on your dashboard and, one by one, add each of the Instagram accounts you identified as being in your target audience.
- You’ll start receiving a weekly report on each of those accounts, showing you their top hashtags for the week.
- Look for hashtags that appear often across these accounts. Start including those hashtags in your post captions when they are relevant.
3. Use a Leading Line with Mystique
Good Instagram captions grab the user’s attention and pull them in, making them want more. You can do this with a strategic first line that gives enough information to attract a reader but lets them know there’s more to be seen.
For example, try a line like, “I never thought I’d be posting this,” or, “What a surreal weekend!” You can then use line breaks so that this mysterious first line is all that readers see and they have to click “More” to see the rest of the caption.
4. Use All Caps, But Use Them Wisely
Capital letters can be an excellent way to add emphasis and grab a reader’s attention for your Insta captions. There are a few guidelines to using them right, though.
First, you need to use your caps lock key sparingly. All capitals only work to grab attention if they are different from the text around them. If you overuse them, they lose their power. For example, you can post a line such as, “Success comes down to this: NEVER stop trying” or “Success comes down to this: NEVER STOP TRYING.”
Second, make sure your capitals appear in the visible part of your caption, so readers can see them before they have to click “More.”
5. Answer “So What?” ASAP
The simple fact is that cute captions on Instagram aren’t always enough to reel in readers. Sometimes you have to entice readers in a more concrete way, by telling them what’s in it for them.
For example, let’s say you’re hosting an Instagram contest that rewards users with entries into a drawing if they share your post. Instead of posting a whole narrative in your caption and announcing the contest at the end, start with something obvious, like, “It’s giveaway time!” This tells the reader why they need to click “More” to get further details.
6. Use Mentions to Grab More Views
Mentioning other content creators is one of the top ways to get more eyes on your Instagram posts, and it’s quick and easy to do too. If you’re not familiar with the term, a mention involves writing “@” and then the person’s username. This tags the user in your post. When you mention someone in your post, the post will show up on many of that person’s followers’ news feeds as well as your followers’ new feeds.
The most straightforward way to do this is to create posts with other content creators and mention them. For instance, you can post something like, “I had a great time in this interview with @someone!”
You can also mention users who aren’t necessarily directly involved. For example, post a caption like, “This shot was inspired by @somone” or “I really related to @someone’s post from last week.”
7. Intensify Your Vocabulary
Great captions don’t have to involve long, heartfelt stories. Even short Instagram captions can pack a powerful punch if they’re well-written.
If you’re not a natural writer, don’t worry! An easy way to make your captions more impactful is to use power words. Power words are intense, punchier, more dramatic words that make your caption more eye-catching.
8. Put Quotes in Images
Quotes are fantastic for Instagram captions, but they don’t have to be limited to captions. When you have a really great quote that has the potential to catch someone’s eye, you can create an image of the quote. This makes the quote more prominent so it’s more likely to pull in readers.
There are a few different ways to do this. One option is to create an image with design software that puts the quote on an attractive background. If you don’t have design software handy, Canva is a popular choice that makes designing your image easy and allows you to choose from countless fonts and designs.
The other option is to write the quote on a physical piece of paper and take a picture of it. Try positioning the paper in front of an attractive background. Or, you can write the quote on something that is relevant to the subject, like a chalkboard for a quote about learning or a sticky note for a post about productivity.
When you do this, though, your caption will fall flat if it’s just a caption of the same quote repeated. Write about the context for the quote, perhaps. A poignant quote image can be emphasized with one-word Instagram captions, like “Truth.” or “Growth.”
9. Hide Your Hashtags
If you want to give your captions a cleaner look, you can use the popular hack of hiding your hashtags.
This is very simple to do for a standard photo caption. At the end of your caption, just use several line breaks and then add your hashtags. This creates space between your caption and the hashtags so the hashtags aren’t in such direct view for users.
It’s trickier to do this with story captions, but it’s still possible. Write the hashtags on your slide. Then, highlight the text and change it to the same color as a solid area of the slide. Finally, move the text to that solid area and it will visually disappear. Users won’t be able to see the hashtags but you’ll still get the benefit of having the hashtags included.
Growing Your Social Presence with Top Captions and Quotes for Instagram
Great captions and quotes can take your Instagram presence to the next level, helping you attract your audience. A larger audience and more visibility lead to more followers. Whether you’re trying to monetize your Instagram following as an influencer or market your business, the Instagram quotes and captions hacks above can help you grow your following.
To start implementing one of these hacks right now, sign up for a Snoopreport account today.