In this essay I will-
Here are three things I keep seeing on instagram at the moment that I believe are genuinely doing real damage to businesses that deserve better results.
I am a waffler and I do love a good rant so it's only right that I throw a blog post at you.
1. '...facebook mum' commentary and 'linkedin warrior' monologues.
AI Captions. We Can All Tell.
Accounts that are raw, community focused and genuinely themselves are overtaking accounts that have been around for years; sometimes even within the first year of being active. Raw authenticity with the right structure is what's performing and quite frankly I believe will only continue to perform.
AI captions harm this.
Everyone can tell. It's always 'facebook mum' commentary, or 'linkedin warrior' monologues. A misplaced or completely too on the nose use of emojis and the same round of adjectives and phrases. This harms the very reputation your business voice should be trying to build (regardless the industry you're in).
We are preaching authenticity without being authentic ourselves, what is the point of posting a raw and honest yapping video to then completely undermine it with a generic ai description. And no, telling it to 'sound more natural' does not work, trust me I've tried myself...hence this pet peeve. AI should streamline your work flow and not replace your voice.
Captions should tick off a concise checklist so, again, here’s some rough pointers:
Stop the scroll. You have roughly 125 characters before the ‘...more’ cuts off the rest. That's what the user sees immediately after viewing the visual (carousel, reel or single image). So make it count.
Hold the attention. Instagram captions have a 2,200-character limit. The ‘recommended’ character amount is purely dependant on content type, for example:
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Reels and quick photo posts. Keep it short, punchy and clear. Generally stick within the 125 limit.
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Educational and/or storytelling. On average aim for 150-300 words. Longer captions match this content format as its goal is to be valuable, personal and/or provide insights.
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Product highlights and promotions. 50-150 words. These kinds of posts need to be strictly concise and to the point. Lead with the user benefits not your product features!
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General feed posts (ie. anything that lands inbetween). Max. 150 characters. Make sure it grabs attention, quickly throws any ‘need to know’ at the user and ends on a CTA that focuses on warming up the audience to trust you.
Keep it readable. If a 13-15 year old can’t easily read what you wrote, then your audience will not bother. Stick to sentences that are straight to the point and not waffley.
But please ditch the ‘single sentence statement lists’. We are not cavemen, straightforward transition words never hurt nobody. Plus, selective detail compliments whatever your message is in the caption.
Vocabulary. Use common everyday words over academic terms. Social media performs best when it's relatable; obviously there are occasional exceptions for educational content.
Key words. Assuming your business has a target audience, user or avatar, you will have a selection of key words and phrases used in your industry you will want to rank for. So make sure you weave them in NATURALLY. Avoid key word stuffing, that's a big no no.
Hashtags. Their importance is more relevant to other social platforms like tiktok but for instagram they can act as ticking off the key words you are aiming to rank for. 5 max.
MOST IMPORTANT. Have fun with it, find your voice and use it! Every. Single. Time. Be funny. Be honest. You can ‘automate’ this process by documenting the tone you aim and don't aim for and putting together a template so you check the necessities every time. Finally, let there be imperfections. You don't need Harvard level grammar or anything like that. Captions are informal snippets into our personal insights and experiences.
2. “Reach without retention is just noise”
Not all views are customers.
As of this post being published for the last couple of months one of the best performing content in terms of views has been the 3 second static image or almost boomerang-style clip, where all the value and actual content is included in the caption. It gets views and the algorithm rewards it. All industry types are trying it across social media.
This format drives me up the wall but I understand the mechanics and appeal behind it.
Here's my problem with it. It works. Those 3 seconds, regardless whether you like it or not, get counted as a view before you even notice. The views go up, the algorithm rewards it and congrats you have those ideal analytics graphs. The issue is that you achieve reach with no retention; the format exists purely to satisfy a platform mechanic.
Here's the caveat, views only get you so far. The one thing the algorithm loves more than views is engagement, ie. the SOCIAL part of media.
A 3 second clip with a throw away visual is decoration with a caption that won't be read, that just so happens to land you a view. Your message was not seen nor delivered correctly, your profile was not visited and that view did not turn into a follower.
If you're a business with a message or mission you truly believe others should see, understand and follow, give your content genuine value and a deserving format that will build your community.
Now to counteract my own point for fun. This is a trend (atleast I bloody hope it will sooner rather than later pass), trends help business remain relevant so I do recommend we dabble in them. That being said, you can follow the generic layout but make it your own, add your expertise, share a nugget of knowledge.
3. Intensity, Regularity and Burnout.
“Post 3-5 times a week”
“No! You have to post everyday!”
“Just focus on being consistent, avoid burning out.”
“Post 5 times a day, guaranteed results”
There is no magic number. There are approximately 200 million businesses on Instagram. If a posting frequency and schedule was the answer, then we’d all have booming businesses.
Your only focus point should be, stand out from the crowd, get noticed and build community following.
That's it.
Viral posts can help with the first two steps but should not be the main goal. Virality puts you in front of the masses but only a small percentage of that will be your target audience.
Some rough pointers? so I’m not leaving you completely in the dark:
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3-5 posts a week keep your account alive in the algorithm's eyes.
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Research the recommended posting times for your industry and specific platform; they are all different.
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If you choose to post everyday or multiple times a day, follow a content pillar structure. It lets you build on your own content without feeling repetitive to people who are already following you.
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Repetition is actually useful for reach but spread out. Our attention spans are short but be tactical with it. The message hits harder when reiterated but not back to back.
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Content pillars also keep things fresh for active followers and new ones who come to have a little stalk of your page/profile. Nobody wants to scroll through your grid and watch the same video 3 times in a row.
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Create a series!
QUICK NOTE: everything here is instagram-specific. Other platforms play by different rules. For example Tiktok, it does not penalize repetitiveness in the same way.
The accounts winning on Instagram right now are the ones showing up consistently, sounding like themselves and giving people a genuine reason to stick around. No AI caption that sounds suspiciously like everyone else's, no obsessing over whether to post four or five times this week and no throwaway visuals dressed up as content. Just honest, structured posts with intention behind them.