Instagram is all about telling your story through pictures. The CEO and co-founder of Instagram, Kevin Systrom, even dedicated the platform's speedy international growth to one simple, universal factor: "You don't need to speak a specific language to like taking pictures."
With that being said, captions, likes, and comments also make up a huge part of using Instagram, particularly when it comes to marketing through the platform.
In a recent study, Agora Pulse revealed that Instagram posts with captions had an increase of:
- 53.03% in Likes
- 28.78% in Reach
- 127.5% in Comments
Compared to those exact posts without a caption - proving that a good caption is vital to engagement with your followers and, therefore, the success of your post. Not to mention, the longer someone spends reading your caption and engaging with your post, the better your post will rank on the oh-so-difficult Instagram algorithm!
Instagram captions allow you to add context to a picture, build relationships with your followers and tell a story through your image while providing details that your followers may not have previously known.
Once you have built a genuine relationship with your followers, you'll undoubtedly become a source of truth in your niche. Your followers will look to you for brand advocacy, and your buying habits will influence theirs. It's at that stage when you're promoting a product or service that you will most likely have to include some form of promotion in your caption, which makes it a little easier.
However, when you're just posting your own pictures with no brand direction or context required, creating a witty, fitting caption to grab your followers' attention can be challenging.
For those occasions, I've created this list of things to say when you don't know what to say. I hope you find it helpful and use these captions for some inspo along the way on your Insta journey!
For the foodies
- In the mood for food
- I'm not drooling; you are
- Home is wherever I'm with food
- Count the memories, not the calories
- You gotta nourish to flourish
- Goodies for the foodies
- Food is always a good idea
- In the mood for food
- Millennials who munch
- I just want someone to look at me the way I look at food
- Sorry—I'm in a relationship. With food
- Sugar, spice, and everything nice
- My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard
- Donut kill my vibe
- Issa snack
- Age and glasses of wine should never be counted
- The first sip of a hot beverage is always the scariest sip
- Brunch without champagne is just a sad breakfast
- There is no better feeling than a warm pizza box on your lap
- The only way to ruin my day is to cancel lunch plans
For the fashionista
- "Florals for spring? Groundbreaking." —Miranda Priestly, The Devil Wears Prada
- "I'll stop wearing black when they invent a darker colour." —Wednesday Addams, The Addams Family
- "On Wednesdays, we wear pink." —Karen Smith, Mean Girls
- Better to arrive late than ugly
- This dress was doing everything that it needed to do
- Let's hear it for the back of the dress
- Bury me in this dress
- She's custom
- This ___ just hits different
- Oh, this old thing?
- [Insert age], still loves to play dress-up
- "Father, son, and House of Gucci." —Patrizia Reggiani in House of Gucci
- Prada you
- The only F-word I know is Fendi
- It's all Gucci
- Back to black
- Wear your greens
- Neutral agreement
- One day I'll stop wearing this outfit. Today is not that day
- You're cute jeans
For the furry friends
- A house is not a home without a dog
- What did we do to deserve dogs?
- Puppy love
- Pawsitive vibes only
- The best therapist has fur and four legs
- Life's short, spoil your dog
- Cats know how we feel. They don't care. But they know.
- Let's be honest, if dogs could talk there'd be no need for people
- One thing my dog and I have in common is that we never want me to go to work
- Leave me alone, I'm only speaking to my cat today
- The fine line between love and hate is one negative comment about my dog
- Sometimes you just gotta lay on the floor with your dog
- If you want the best seat in the house you'll have to move the dog
- Sorry, I can't, I have to walk my dog
- Pets: Life's apology for every crappy day ever
- Not to brag or anything, but I'm kind of a big deal to my dog
- I wish I could text my dog
- Tell your dog I say hi
- Who adopted who?
- Dogs have a way of finding the people who need them
For the lovers
- Always better together
- I know I'm a handful but that's why you've got two hands
- You're my favourite notification
- My ride or die
- I wanna spend the rest of my sunsets with you
- Life is better when we're together
- I like me better when I'm with you
- Playin' for keeps
- I'm so down for you
- Loves me like I'm brand new
- Never settle
- At least we're under the same sky
- I broke my rules for you
- I pick my poison & it's you
- Happy wife, happy life
- Fools rush in
- That 90s sitcom kind of love
- Can't share won't share
- Never easy, but always worth it
- To the moon and back
For the jet setters
- Go where you feel most alive
- Catch flights, not feelings
- Wanderlust and city dust
- Find me under the palm trees
- Watch more sunsets than Netflix
- Adventures are forever
- Carpe diem
- Holiday calories don't count
- Ready for take off
- 90% happy, 10% burnt
- Come get lost with me
- Let's wander where the wifi is weak
- Life is not meant to be lived in one place
- She wasn't bored, just restless between adventures -Atticus
- Life is short and the world is wide
- If you never go, you'll never know
- Running to the gate is my cardio
- Good things come to those who book flights
- I choose to collect memories instead of things -Elena Lero
- The ocean made me salty
Although an image is worth a thousand words, a good caption has the power to take your post to a whole new level. So next time you're stuck for words, come back to this list and spark some Insta inspo.
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