As promised on my New Years’ update I am going to start sharing some Bookstagram and Blog tips. Let me be clear upfront I am not an expert, and I am only sharing what worked for me personally, and perhaps a few friends I have asked as well. I’m not selling anything or trying to get you to sign up for a class either, I am just sharing what worked for me. Below are simply some things I have changed in my Bookstagram captions that have helped me increase my engagement. Also, feel free you join/follow my Bookstagram tips and tricks Pinterest board.
start with an attention grabber
Remember that only the first two lines of your caption can be seen as people are scrolling through their feeds.
You want to have something in your caption that makes people want to read more. As you can see I like to ask a question (and I will be expanding on that next), but quotes are great too. If you’re hosting a giveaway, that should be at the top. I’ve seen many bookstagrammers that use emojis or special fonts to draw attention to their first lines.
Ask a Question
The number one thing I did that helped increase my engagement was starting to ask a question. It gives people something to do with your post other than to comment on how pretty your post is.
I did a poll in my Instagram stories with this post in mind, and 96% percent of people said they are more likely to comment on a post if there is a question. This is true for me personally, I am much more likely to comment on a post if there is a question. Often times if I don’t see something that I can answer I won’t even comment. And as an added bonus, asking a question is that you have something to answer in your own caption.
Be Consistent and Clear
My captions follow the same formula: question; answer; challenge hashtags; other hashtags. Each section is separated out and clear.
You don’t have to follow this formula you could do something like: quote; question; answer; hashtags. I have several friends that The key is making your question easy to identify and keeping it the same spot. If people can’t find your question they aren’t going to answer it. In fact, 65% of people who answered my story poll said they preferred QOTD at the top of captions.
Be brief
You can see my caption above is not that long. People don’t want to read a super long caption. In my story poll, the majority of respondents (56%) said they only sometimes read people’s whole caption. Only 7 percent said they almost always do. We are busy, I for one don’t have time to be on Instagram all day reading paragraphs of captions. I know I’m not the only one who sees a long caption and things, I don’t have time to read this.
Share a bit of Yourself
I know I just said keep it brief, but your captions, along with your stories, is really where people get a sense of who you are. Don’t be afraid to share a little of your life in your captions, tell a funny story or something you’re excited about. This is also a great way to generate comments other than your question of the day. Perhaps you share that you binged the whole first season of the Witcher, believe me, you aren’t alone and I guarantee people will have some comments about that. But don’t go on and on, remember to keep it brief.
I hope this was helpful, and I plan to do a post on some Question of the Day ideas soon, so if you have tips send them my way. Personally, that can be the hardest thing to come up with when writing a caption. If there are other specific topics you’d like me to cover please let me know.
Do you have any tips for increasing bookstagram engagement?
Next week I will be discussing how to use the right hashtags for your posts.