Captions on instagram: what is text for in a visual media?

Instagram is the visual social network par excellence, allowing you to upload photos, videos, stories, reels, and IGTV, but have you ever wondered, does anyone read the text of my Instagram posts? Answering this question could mean surprise, anger, and resignation for many Community Managers.

But the question has been asked and it's time to answer it.

Does anyone care about texts on Instagram?

The short answer is: We don't know, nor do we or anyone else.

The topic of text on Instagram is entirely subjective, it might seem silly to believe that text could be important on a social network where the content consumed is purely visual. Still, we believe it depends on many factors and we've gathered some truths about it. So we can decide together if our time writing for Instagram would be better spent researching what NFTs are.

We can start by saying that Instagram was conceived and is used by users as a visual social network, therefore, as we consume less time viewing an image than reading a text, the consumption of content on Instagram goes at a much faster pace than on any other social network.

A couple of years ago it began experimenting with videos within the platform, being increasingly popular for the time in which they retain users, which is very important for Instagram so much that it rewards with reach to the content, and this makes users consume more time watching.
Text on Instagram works as a complement to the image, giving context or developing the message you want to convey, but it is so visual that even within the text we use small images (Emojis 😅), being present in more than 50% of Instagram profiles.

Descriptions on Instagram matter... sometimes.

Average users care about this just like digital marketing sickos; on their profiles, they give a lot of importance to the texts they write. Just check out the growth of the search for "Instagram caption" on Google Trends, which is growing more and more every year, filling the results with listings of creative ideas for captioning yours.

On the other side of the coin are the brands, and the fact that our audience values their texts does not mean that they value ours, or that they even read them.

The logic of accelerated Instagram consumption might tell us that our texts should be concise, but the algorithm rewards us if the user spends more time on our post and, if we make them read more, it will be time that we will retain them. While National Geographic triumphs with long paragraphs, Beyoncé doesn't put a single letter in her captions and both continue to break the internet every time they post.

No magic pills.

As almost always on the internet and in marketing, Instagram texts have no magic formulas or recipes, it all depends on who you are and what you want to do. While some posts can work perfectly well without any text at all, for others you need to provide more information that can only be conveyed through text.

We are very clear that there are some logical aspects about texting, such as that using hashtags is very likely to benefit your posts and that misspellings are a BIG NO, plus we know that Instagram's algorithm rewards posts that we spend more time viewing.

And so?

Even with the seemingly contradictory information, we can conclude the following: Texts on Instagram are only important if they provide value.

If users find in the text of your post the opening hours of your store or the price of the product you show, it will have been a success. And if in the text you tell them an honest part of your reality with which they identify, also. What will always work against you will be the texts you write to fill in, to dress up the photo, to comply.

A few more tips:

Once you've hooked users' attention with an amazing image, it's time to invite them to read the caption of the post.

To write on Instagram we must take into account two fundamental principles: Don't bore the reader! Although Instagram allows you to use up to 300 words, the first two lines are the most important, and we must adapt the language of the brand to the tone of Instagram, a youthful, fun and relaxed social network that seeks to show the most human, authentic and friendly side of brands.