How to choose Instagram captions to reach ‎higher engagement rates

More than 1 billion active users on Instagram are trying to post and engage with their ‎community. The thing is that despite what many individuals and even business owners on ‎Instagram might think, the key to higher engagement rates is not images you post.‎

Of course, high-quality pics/videos are of paramount importance in getting more followers. But ‎what will make them interact with you is using creative captions.‎

If you want to know what engaging captions are able to do on Instagram, keep reading this ‎post.‎

Social media engagement

Engagement is one of the most crucial parameters by which you can measure the effectiveness ‎of an account’s social activities.‎

The engagement rate is very important across all social media platforms, especially Instagram. ‎In fact, the sorting algorithm of all networking sites/apps is sensitive to this factor.‎

The higher the ER factor, the more chance you’ll have to be discovered ‎by other users. That’s why all users from common users to those who want to increase their sales using ‎Instagram accounts try to increase their engagement rates.‎

The engagement rate is sometimes defined differently by various platforms. For example, on ‎Twitter, it is equal to the number of interactions (likes, mentions, etc.) divided by the total ‎impressions (people who have seen your post).‎

Instagram, on the other hand, defines the ER as the total interactions of your post divided by ‎the total number of followers. Of course, if you want to get a percentile score, you’ll have to ‎multiply the result by 100.‎

As an example, if you have received 15 likes, 7 comments, and 2 shares when you have 500 ‎followers, your ER is 4.8%. The average Instagram engagement rate is usually between 1% and ‎‎3% and an ER greater than 6% is considered high.‎

In fact, the engagement rate tells how you’re interacting on social media considering the ‎connections you have. There are numerous accounts that have thousands of followers but their ‎engagement rates are very low. On the contrary, many Instagrammers are really engaging ‎even with a small following.‎

Analytics tools will easily calculate and report these data. Of course, you may need to pay for ‎analytics reports that Instagram analytics apps provide.‎

How captions increase engagement rates

Without the shadow of a doubt, a picture is worth a thousand words. But remember that ‎Instagram users are watching numerous pics/videos each day.‎

So it’s hard to encourage them to engage with your post simply because of a high-quality ‎picture. If you search for detailed information about ‎

You need to add context to your post and make followers feel comfortable to share their ideas ‎below the post. In other words, captions help you to complete your post because pictures can’t ‎solely tell your brand’s story.‎

Captions will clear your voice and ensure your audience that you’re thinking and speaking just ‎like them. This will cause them to trust you and interact with your posts more easily.‎

Some kind of captions, in particular, can really influence the mind of your audience so that they ‎want to add value to the post. For example, some questions in the caption can arise the ‎curiosity of visitors and encourage them to show off their knowledge.‎

‎5 Tips for Instagram captions to get high ERs‎

Now that you’ve become familiar with the role of captions in engagement rates, it’s good to ‎know how to write them.‎

Here are 5 tips to help you write engaging captions on Instagram so that you get higher ‎engagement rates.‎

‎1.‎ Focus of the first line

Keep in mind that many social users don’t have the time to read all stories. The moment the ‎feel that a caption is boring, they’ll stop reading it and go to see other posts.‎

So you need to capture the eye of your audience with the first line. Try to write your most ‎important information in the first line. Creativity is key to writing a concise, compelling, and ‎informative sentence for the first like.‎

You need to make a feeling of urgency in the first line. This will encourage people to continue ‎reading to avoid losing a significant piece of information.‎

‎2.‎ Speak friendly and emotional

After grabbing the attention of your readers with the first line, you need to build connections ‎with them.‎

Remember that Instagram is a Social Media and you have to socialize with your audience. In ‎other words, you don’t have to speak promotionally. To do this, talk to them in an emotional ‎way.‎

Storytelling is a great approach to write captions. You need to make them believe they’re part ‎of your stories. Try to sympathize with them so that looks like you are just one of them.‎

Emotional stories can work miracles in connecting with your audience. It’s important to take a ‎friendly tone in your storytelling approach. Be relax in use “I” instead of “we” and also informal ‎expressions.‎

When people see that you’re speaking just like them, they’re more likely to trust you and ‎interact with your content.‎

‎3.‎ Ask tricky questions

One of the funniest ways to get more followers to engage with your Instagram posts is by ‎asking questions.‎

If you can arise the curiosity of niche followers, they’ll try to contribute to the discussion to ‎show that they’re kind of an expert in the topic.‎

You need to write something tricky that make a sense of urgency. In other words, you have to ‎make your followers think that they can’t leave your post without checking comments or adding ‎something to it.‎

If you don’t find any special question, you can at least ask a simple question like “How do you ‎think?” or “what would you do in the same situation?”.‎

Asking ideas about your products/services, simple yes or no questions, choosing favorite ‎options, and many other questions can really increase engagement rates.‎

‎4.‎ Use hashtags in your captions

Keep in mind that no Instagram activity would be complete without a set of captions. This is ‎particularly essential for beginners because they should try to be discovered.‎

Big companies that already have a huge following might not need to be found on Instagram. By ‎the way, hashtags are the most important factor in getting exposure and reaching out to new ‎Instagram audiences.‎

Branded and niche-related hashtags must be used together to work efficiently. You can use ‎hashtags within the captions or even after the caption. ‎

Searching the most used hashtags on Instagram and also using hashtag generators like Kicksta ‎can increase your engagement rates. Because more visitors will find your post and the chance ‎of getting more interactions will increase.‎

‎5.‎ Use CTA

If you don’t use an engaging call-to-action your caption will fail even if it’s written so well. ‎Many marketers might think that people will engage with the topic simply because of the ‎quality of the image or a well-written caption. ‎

This is not always true. In fact, your followers need a little 'push' most of the time to leave a ‎message. They would enjoy your post and easily leave the post if they aren’t requested to do ‎something.‎

So gently ask your audiences directly to kindly leave a comment or share the post. Make them ‎feel that they’re doing something great by interacting with the post. ‎

Sentences like “help us to continue by commenting”, “give us hope by sharing”, “share it if you ‎liked it” and so on can be good examples of CTA.‎

Finally, it should be said that responding to engagements is also very useful because followers ‎feel that their comments are important to you.‎