Today, we are going to dive into some tips for your Instagram Reels captions. If you’ve ever wondered what to include in your captions, how to write one, and whether or not it should be the same as a photo post… today’s video is for you! We’re going to talk about all of those questions and I can’t wait to get started! PS. Don’t forget to sign up for my FREE class on Instagram Reels so you can learn how to grow your reach, followers, and customers with Reels, too! 

BEST PRACTICES FOR YOUR CAPTIONS

Add a Call to Action

When it comes to your Instagram Reels captions, there are three things to keep in mind when you write captions. The first is to include a call to action. Instagram Reels give you a lot of flexibility when you think about how long your caption should be. But whether it’s super short or a longer caption, always include a call to action. I’ve seen this work super well on my Reels (and my students!). Give your audience something to do – like the video, follow along, comment below… whatever it is, provide that invitation to your viewers to do something on your account. 

Use Your Brand Voice

The next thing is you should write your captions in your brand voice. When you write a caption, it should sound like you’re talking to a friend – using the language that your brand uses and making it clear that it’s YOUR voice. It’s important in digital marketing to feel like that they’re talking to a human being that they can trust – that’s you. This is really crucial when you’re building a personal brand, too. You want your brand voice to truly sound like you. 

Don’t just use hashtags

The other best practice for Reels captions is to not make your entire caption just hashtags. I see this a lot (mostly on Tik Tok): writing nothing in the caption and just using hashtags as your caption. I think it looks a bit spammy, and truthfully, I don’t think hashtags are as useful as people think for your posts. Learn more about my thoughts on hashtags here! If I do use a few hashtags, I prefer to just keep my hashtags in the first comment of my Reel. It just looks cleaner!  

SHORT VS. LONG CAPTIONS

Now, let’s talk about the length of the caption you write with your Instagram Reel. One of the beautiful things about Reels is that they came from Tik Tok, originally. If you’re familiar with Tik Tok, you can’t write a very long caption – you were super limited on the captions. So, when it comes to Reels, I think that these short captions are totally okay. You don’t have to always come up with super long, thought-out heavy captions. Sometimes a short caption will do just as well. Plug in your call to action with 1 or 2 other sentences and you’re done. 

That’s not to say you can’t use long captions. Those are the ones that social media experts teach about on photo posts. These are captions with a hook at the beginning, meat in the middle, and your call to action at the end. You might be telling your audience more about what it is that you’ve created the Reel about or talk about the information in the Reel. Some people just prefer to read a caption, so you might even explain or include the components of your Reel. This is another way for your audience to consume and understand what your Reel was about. It’s not necessary to write these long captions but occasionally it makes sense based on what your Reel is all about! 

Other Reels Resources 

I also offer a free one-hour Instagram Reels class if you want more help with how to grow your reach, followers, and customers with Reels in 2 hours a month! You can sign up for that HERE. And, if you have questions or want some extra support, I’ve got a FREE Reels Growth Facebook Community that you can join. I absolutely love getting to chat with everyone and help them work through their questions about Reels!

PS. We’ve started a podcast! If you haven’t checked it out yet, now is the time! This has been such a fun project since maternity leave and I hope you’ll tune in.If you’re listening and you have ideas about what to talk about next, please send in your requests! I really do want to know what you want to hear about in future episodes. Email me at [email protected] with your questions!! I can’t wait to hear from you!