Top 3 Mistakes of Social Media Writers on Instagram
Okay, let’s (finally!) face it:
Instagram is not only about beautiful pictures but also compelling captions. A caption is what leads to engagement exactly, inviting users to like and comment. And the more likes and comments your content gets, the more often your followers will see it in their feeds.
Nothing personal, it’s just how the Instagram algorithm works.
The only problem:
Writing a good caption is hard. Very hard. Extremely and terribly hard.
- First, it needs to be as great as your Instagram photos: attention-grabbing and easy to read.
- Second, it needs to speak to the photos, add context to them, show your brand personality, and entertain your audience as well as encourage them to take action.
- And third, a social media writer needs to balance out every time when writing a caption: long or short (up to 2,200 characters allowed), funny or serious, with or without emojis, how many hashtags are enough in every single case (up to 30 allowed), what CTA to choose, etc.
Too many rules, too many guides for social media writers to follow. The digital world is on the Instagram hype today, so most blogs and media are jam-packed with “latest Instagram trends,” “tips on Instagram writing,” and other salesy content from “Instagram experts.” The problem is that users take all those recommendations at face value and start applying all at once. And that’s the first and foremost mistake you can make when writing captions for your content.
In this article, you’ll learn three more mistakes of social media writers on Instagram.
#1 — Overusing emojis and hashtags
Sure enough, Instagram is a social media channel for informal communication. Emojis are great to use, especially if you want to structure a long caption, add personality to texts, or point out the call to action. Emojis are okay at the beginning of your caption to hook readers, and they work best at the end of your text to invite followers.
But the problem is that some social media writers just can’t use them, giving us Instagram captions like this one:
Sorry, but it’s 💩
Keep a cool head when using emojis in your Instagram captions. They can stand in for entire words, they add personality, they make your texts warm and sweet. But let’s stop overusing it.
The same goes for #hashtags.
Yes, they are good for SEO. Yes, they allow more people to find your Instagram post. And yes, there’s a limit on how many tags you can use with one post — 30. But with 30 hashtags in one caption, your message will hardly engage followers. More than that, if all 30 are general and popular (like #love, #happy, #dog, etc.), your message will hardly reach followers at all: it’ll just get lost in the sea of identic Instagram posts.
Well, it doesn’t mean you can’t use popular hashtags if they are relevant to your message. Just remember that it’s much better to decide on 3–4 tags that are specific to your target audience and use them in captions. Or, come up with your branded hashtag! It will help the audience to distinguish your posts from others.
Also, you can “hide” hashtags and therefore make Instagram captions clean yet SEO-friendly.
Here go two ways to do that:
- Bury hashtags beneath periods and line breaks. While users see only the first three lines of a caption, they won’t notice all hashtags unless they click “More.”
2. Write all hashtags in the first comment of your Instagram post.
#2 — Writing too long/short captions
If you are a part of writing business or want to make money blogging on Instagram, you’ll have to withstand the temptation of writing too long posts there. Yes, this social media allows you to publish up to 2,200 characters in one post, but remember:
Users scroll their feeds with despatch, and they see only the first three lines of your post. So if you are not sure how long your text should be, keep it brief: up to 125 characters will display, all others go under the “More” section.
There’s no one-size-fits-all recommendation for the length of an ideal Instagram caption. Everything’s relative: some accounts skyrocket with long texts, structured in keeping with the best traditions of storytelling; others are okay with visual content that needs no context and speaks for itself.
But the recommendation here is as follows:
Write long captions when you have quite some loyal followers already. Otherwise, all your writing endeavours will go unnoticed. Or, put all the hooks and CTA at the beginning of the message so users could see it at once.
As for short captions on Instagram, it would be a mistake to structure it like this:
No hooks, no context, no CTA, no interesting facts or questions to encourage likes and discussion… #Too #many #hashtagged #words, which makes a post look spammy. And, put it bluntly, the picture itself has nothing to do with quality.
Instead, write a question, share an interesting fact with followers, or use a quote and mention those relating to it. Make it brief but clear for users to understand what it’s all about. Inspire them, evoke some feelings, and be human.
#3 — Speaking the language your audience speaks
Okay, you’ll find this advice in every guide on Instagram. It makes sense: the better you know the audience, the easier it will be to generate content ideas, decide on the best marketing strategy, write sales content influencing their decision-making, and so on and so forth.
Sure enough, you need to build your buyer personas. With basic details about your customers, their goals and pain points, you’ll know what to do to meet their expectations.
But if your audience speaks something like “hey, chiquitas” or “dude, that’s hooey” and you are a 50-year-old massage therapist — writing your Instagram texts like that will look… well, awkward.
Another fail would be ignoring their comments.
Communication with followers allows you to build a strong community on Instagram. They will see you read them and appreciate their connection.
There’s no need to respond to every comment, especially when most of them are just mentions or emojis, but try to comment on at least a few. Use a positive language when talking to your followers. If you write Instagram posts with a brand tone of voice in mind, then remember about it when commenting. Also, address to readers by names and adapt to their communication style: if they are angry, your LOLs are out of place; if they are excited, maintain the same mood in your comments.
It’s also a good practice to visit some of your followers’ accounts, give likes to their content, and follow them back.
In a Word…
Rules for social media writing are so many that, when you decide to take a closer look at them, you get buried under all those hooks, verbs, CTA, transitions, visuals, hashtags, time for publishing, cognitive biases, persuasive techniques to make them act and buy, whatever. Relax. You know the basics already.
Just remember one golden rule aka “too much of a good thing is good for nothing,” and keep a cool head when writing for Instagram:
- Don’t jam-pack your posts with emojis and hashtags.
- Don’t overdo it with the length of your texts. Test both long and short captions to see which of them work best for your audience.
- Watch your mouth when speaking with your audience.
And last but not least:
Don’t know what to write in your next Instagram caption? Keep a diary and write down all ideas there, consider mind maps to create content plans, try freewriting to release your writing muse, follow some brands and influencers on Instagram that inspire you most, travel more to broaden your horizons… And remember: practice makes perfect.
Write more, don’t be afraid of sharing your thoughts on social media, listen to your audience — and the result won’t take long in coming.
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This is a Guest post by Lesley Vos
Lesley Vos is a seasoned web writer from Chicago, helping peers develop the confidence and skills for better articles creation and promotion. Blogging at Bid4Papers, she also writes for publications on digital marketing, social media, and self-growth. See more works of hers on Twitter @LesleyVos.
