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What Are Social Media Captions?
To put it simply, a social media caption is the text that accompanies a photo or video on social media.
It can be used to give context to the visual content, share a personal story, or even add some humor to your post.
Alongside your content, captions are an important lever for community-building and can also be used to spark action — whether it's encouraging followers to click the link in your bio or share with a friend.
A good social media caption has the power to grab a user’s attention, convey a message, and evoke emotion.
According to Later’s Social Media Specialist, Chantal Hermetz, “A good social media caption summarizes your content while adding value, in as few words as possible.”
In other words, don’t overthink it.
Instead of writing several long paragraphs, opt for something more concise — whether it's a few short sentences or five simple words.
With increasingly short attention spans, front-loading your caption with an engaging hook is more necessary than ever.
And with the right text, you can actually stop users mid-scroll and compel them to stick around and read the rest of your post.
On Later’s Instagram posts, we typically start with a one-liner that feels relatable or funny:
By using a caption that tapped into pop culture while providing value, we were able to reach a wider audience — reaching over 100K people, with more than 5K likes, and nearly 600 shares.
So, however you approach the first line of your caption, aim to grab attention!
One of the easiest ways to increase your reach and engagement is to have a strong SEO (search engine optimization) and hashtag strategy.
That means writing relevant, descriptive captions using choice keywords to improve your content’s discoverability.
Take the keywords “best time to post” for example. When searched on the Explore page, a relevant post from Later’s Instagram account populates:
And since hashtags are used with the intent to discover new content, using the “right” hashtags can put you in front of your target audience, even if they haven’t connected with you before.
At Later, we focus on smaller niche tags created by social media managers to help our target audience discover our posts:
The takeaway? With a strong SEO and hashtag strategy, you can ensure your posts reach your target audience to give your content the visibility it deserves!
PSA:Later’s Hashtag Suggestion tool is an easy way to find hashtags based on the content of your post and similar hashtags in your industry.
Tip #5: Encourage Conversation
The tell-tale sign of a great social media post is plenty of comments.
But in order to create a lively comment section, you need to write copy that naturally invites it.
Whether it’s by asking a question, making a bold statement, or using humor so your audience can’t help but add a few cry-laughing emojis to the mix — being conversational is key.
And if you really want to seal the deal, make sure your content is relatable by providing commentary on popular pain-points or shared moments of joy.
And that’s it!
With captivating social media captions, you can increase your engagement, while building connections with your target audience.
Experiment with these tips and you’ll be well on your way to writing social media captions that encourage plenty of double taps and comments galore!
Level up your social media captions by planning, previewing, and scheduling them in advance with Later — sign up today.
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Lindsay is a social media manager based in Northern California. You can usually find her wandering around farmers markets or scheming up her next trip.
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