Social media can be the most frustrating place to hang out on the internet.

There is nothing more defeating than creating images / videos and then writing the perfect caption only to be met with silence or robot led comments.

It’s so frustrating to feel like your hard work isn’t being seen and can make it really hard to continue showing up consistently. 

But I believe in keeping things simple and for creating systems and formulas for everything so that business operations can run more smoothly and efficiently.

And caption writing is no different.

So today I’m going to share with you my 4 step caption cocktail recipe that you can apply to every single post to get the most engagement and response out of your posts.

Ingredient 01

Grab their attention aka The Hook

Think of creative ways to get your ideal client to “stop their scroll.” This can be with a shocking statement, fact or statistic or taking your main point and putting it at the beginning. 

Examples:

• Your wasting your time on social media (controversial statement that makes people want to hear your thoughts)
• Only 2% of your following will ever see your posts so is social media still worth it? (a shocking statistic that will have people wanting to find out more)
• Are you responsible for climate change? (a personal and somewhat accusatory question that will have people ready to read)

Bottom line: Make it a concise statement people can’t NOT want to read. It’s okay to ruffle feathers, be controversial or shocking to get your point across. 

Ingredient 02

Connect aka The Body

This is where you tell a story that relates to your point or lay out the main points of your caption. You’re having a conversation with your audience so lay it out in that way. They should feel like you’re talking to them like they’re sitting right in front of you.

Examples:

Bottom line: Don’t be afraid to get personal. Don’t be afraid to be honest. It doesn’t have to be tips and tricks all the time. Remember stories sell. So use that. 

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Ingredient 03

Visual Elements aka The Garnish

Create good visual flow with small paragraphs and lots of spacing as well as add in emojis to keep the caption visually interesting and easy to skim.

Examples:

Bottom line: Have fun with visual elements to help support your caption but don’t go completely overboard that it looks spammy or like a robot created it. 

Ingredient 04

Engage aka Call to Action

Tell your audience what to do next. Do you want them to comment, DM you, follow a link, connect with you somewhere else? Tell them what they should do next so they can have a clear cut roadmap to follow.

Examples:

• Tag a friend below that benefit from these tips
• Share this to your story so your besties can have IG success 
• Save this post to refer to next time you’re creating launch content
• Give me your best time management tip below so we can all be more productive
• Tag your favorite podcast below so we can add something new to our list

Bottom line: Tell your reader what to do and how by taking action they will benefit themselves or someone else. Remember, we are inherently selfish creatures so we need to see the benefit for ourselves or be able to feel good by helping someone else in the process.

Social media captions don’t have to be complicated and by following this basic formula you’ll no longer be staring at a blank screen or wondering “does this even make sense.” 

Next time you’re creating content just follow this basic caption cocktail recipe and see what shakes out.