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How to Write Engaging Captions For Social Media

How to write engaging captions for social media. Now, we also know these frustrations. We already gone through them already. I'm not gonna beat a dead horse because we all feel the same way. Now, people tell me quite often, I have writers block, I'm not a writer, I'm frustrated. Now, the thing that we want to do, when it comes to creating captions is I know, I talked to my mom this morning, because a block that was coming up for me in just all reality, I'm like, I feel I'm coming on Creative Live, and this is gonna be broadcasted for free, and what I feel is, the thing preach to people is don't sell, show. And what I feel like I'm doing is I never want anybody to think that I am selling Social Curator. Make no mistake, I have a business and that's the thing I want to push, but I am not coming here as an infomercial. But what I show, is what I preach and what I create. And this is me in my truest form. So, when you hear me talk about these Instagram caption templates, these Facebook cap...

tion templates, it's because it's the thing that I do, I teach and people use efficaciously, so there's that. I want to be a 100. So, I tell people that I promote caption templates to save you time. Now, when you join Social Curator, we ask you take a five minute quiz to determine what stage of social curator you are in. Because, do I expect somebody who's just starting out to have a IG TV channel and a YouTube strategy and a Facebook? No, we're all at different paces. And so, but as a result of using all different paces, when you're just starting out, and you don't know how to write a caption, the templates are perfect for you. Now if you're an advanced person who knows how to tell their story, and just needs like, a creative push, like, "Oh, I see what she did." And I've had members of Social Curator who've been in there for two years, and their like, they see it, ah, got it, off of my own. These are the different stages. So, all I am proposing is that you can sit there and try to beat your head against a wall to find the level of creativity that you want, or you can look at a caption, and use it in one of five different ways, depending on where you are. So what we're going to do now, is pop into the video of how are small business owners were using these captions to modify an event. Okay, so now we are going to have a lot of fun. Up until this point, we have discovered who our dream customers, our target market is. We have created content that they find appealing, and we started applying a strategy to it. How are we going to show up? How are we communicate to them? How are we going to find the gap in the market and put our businesses there and show up everyday online? We've gone through and seen a gallery of images for each of our business owners, and they have selected 30 images to plan a month of content in just a few hours. And we're gonna get into that right about now. So, y'all are in Social Curator right now. And what we're going to do is expedite how we are going to plan for your month of content. I'm going to do a brief overview and then we are going to work on a couple captions together to showcase a couple things. How different each of the caption templates are, the flexibility you can use to use them and make them your own, and then we are going to showcase how easy it is to put them into an Instagram planning app. And then how you from there, go through and stagger your content on Facebook, cool, so when you log into, so you're going to log into, I always suggest, when your brand new to Social Curator, I love starting with issue 12. That is what we call our 30 day Instagram challenge. So you are going to click on that issue, that's going to be in your account right now. You could click on "My Subscription." In the upper right-hand corner. And as you scroll down the page, you are going to see a basic welcome note, and what we call the Power Guide. The Power Guide is going to be an overview for the month of me talking and explaining what you're gonna do for the month. And then we have our Action Plan. I'm gonna get to that in a second. Now, as we scroll down through the site, you are going to see 30 captions. And all these are going to correspond with, like, in the month of June, June 8th is National Best Friends Day. We now have content to go towards that. In June, is Fathers Day. We create contact for that. And now from your business perspective, these photos may not work well with your feed, but you're like, okay. What about getting dad a throw blanket? Like, just stuff that you can, or maybe getting dad's dog a dog bandana. So we're thinking about those kinds of things. And maybe Caitlyn would be highlighting a specific Amazon reseller who does really great dad gifts. Right, so were being aware of the content in advance and then working backwards. So as you go through, you're going to find captions and photos that are going to be reflective, so for instance, June 30th is World Social Media Day. This is a great way for you guys to join the social conversations and find moms who might be interested in social media and never knew that your business existed, by jumping into a popular national holiday hashtag. Like, I call them silly national holidays, but they're great for social media. Yeah we like those. Yeah, I mean a lot of people do, they're a lot of fun. So what we're going to do is we're gonna scroll to the bottom of the page, but you'll see that there's going to be content that's going to start falling specifically into categories, and take note that they're going to have photo ideas. So even if the Social Curator photos don't match with your brand, all of them, that's okay. You're going to have a way to pick what does fit with your brand, and then find a way to create that content on your own. Now we are at the bottom of the page, and this, for business owners, would be bonus content. We know that quotes do really well, so we will provide quotes for business owners if they don't know how to make it themselves. But since we are here at the bottom of the page, what we're going to do is work on a caption. But before we do that, I am going to show you the action plan so you have two ways to engage and learn from it. So, what you're looking at right now is issue 12 of Social Curator. This is what you get every single month. This is going to be a PDF. We are going to walk through exactly how this Instagram challenge is going to work. Every month we go through a new social media topic. In this particular issue, we are going and focusing on Instagram. So, as you get to page, as you get to page six, I'm always goal driven. I want Curators to set goals and say, "Where did I get, according to it?" There's no such thing as missing a goal. We're just gonna set a goal. And so here, we're gonna start with, and this is what we're gonna do at the end of today, is how any Instagram followers do you have, how many likes do you have, how many comments per posts. I want to, what your goals are. I want to have this many followers in 30 days. We do 30 day benchmarks because we know what's attainable in 30 days. So, as we go through that, what you're gonna see denoted are our categories, right? So each of our categories are going to have a color. So yellow is behind the scenes. Blue is about me. Red is my why. Indigo is the benefits, indigo! (laughs) Green is showcasing your product or service. Orange is your personal insight. And purple is your inspiration/motivation. We want to make it as clear as possible, but just to make it even clearer, what we have is a 30 day Instagram Challenge Calendar. So all you have to do, you could start your 30 days whenever the heck you darn well please, right? But all our focus is to show up everyday for 30 days. See what changes we can make. So, what we have here is a great starting point. So if we know that and we know that our, well one, we're gonna celebrate. And then also, towards the end, we're going to be able to find out our results. So this is what we're gonna do. Now you have a whole overview. And now that you know we're gonna be taking these things into categories, what we'll then do now, is we'll go back into Social Curator and you can absolutely scroll up to the PDF and be looking at which captions are going to be the ones that you want to lay out. But for right now, lets hop into your Instagram planning apps. So, what you'll see in the lower right-hand corner of the caption is a button that says, copy text. All you have to do is click on that, you'll copy that text and drop it in your case Planoly and in Caitlyn's case Plan. So all you have to do now, is you'll be able to fill in the blanks accordingly. So what we're going to do is, let's just work through this last one together. It's at the bottom of the page. It starts with the hook, lets play a game. Remember we're gonna go through the hook, the two to three insights, and then the call to action. So I'm gonna read it out loud, let's play a game. Hook, take stock, right this second, of three things you're grateful for. Do you see what we're doing? Two to three insights. Feel free to elaborate and keep it super simple. I'm staying simple because I think this list speaks for itself. I say blank, blank and blank. And then you give examples. Roots 3 from Pressed Juicery. Amazon Prime, same day delivery, hey! Season 2 of Big Little Lies. We're giving you ideas, obviously they're not gonna be yours, but how are you framing it? Because what do we wanna do? Drive engagement, it doesn't matter how big or small, but share your list in the comments below. Call to Action. Okay, so what was going to be the main thing that we were gonna be talking about is to save you time. And that's just the conversation. Because I know that there have been pop-up competitors to Social Curator. And I know that people can go up buy their own stock photos, and I know all of those things, and yet, I remain undaunted because our valued proposition is the ability to understand and synthesize, number one, what it means to be part of a community for accountability, because I could show you the way, but if you don't do it, it doesn't matter. When you're doing it with a group of people, it changes. And then to save you time. Now I want to be very open and disclose how some things work for some businesses and others don't. But the actual, the amount of efficacy doesn't matter, as long as you become more cognizant of the strategy. Case in point, when I was working with Highway Three, and we're gonna get into how they plan their content right about now. We're gonna show them how their doing it, is, at the time, which still remains today, they post three times a day to their Instagram account. That level of volume is really different from the person who's showing up three times a week. So they're doing a ton of posts. So when they have to go through and list out all of their categories and all of their topics, they were like, "Jasmine it feels like I'm mapping a beautiful mind, like I don't know which way to go." It became really overwhelming, and that was okay. It opened my eyes to show that their are businesses who run their Instagram accounts very different. So then, at then end of four weeks, I had a conversation, and Erin and Trisha said, "What we decided to do is go old school." Yes, we have a planning app, but they also have a white board, and each day on the white board, they have these magnets. Benefits about me, da da da. And so they had to visually lay it out. And I thought to myself, good for you for doing the hard work. It took you three and a half weeks to figure out what's our system. My job isn't to give you the system, my job is to show you, and then you make it according to your own. So what you see here, is then being like, "Holy God, we're trying to rethink our entire system." What we know now is they figured out their system. Did it take them four weeks? Yes, watch what they do in four months. So, lets go into that video now. Now we see where we're going, right? We have a clear path to save us time, to stay on brand, and extend the conversations and drive engagement. So I am going to pop over, I'm gonna bring up the Highway 3 girls, ladies team are logged into their social curator. And we're also going to log into their Planoly. Now what I'm seeing right, and what I want to show on the screen right now is they have organized their post in Planoly and that's what you're seeing now. We're scrolling through. Now if you'll notice in the upper left-hand corner of each post, it says "you." That means that is has not been posted yet. So, if you scroll down their list, they have already populated other photos. Now this is earlier on before we started our training, but you'll see they have a lot user generated content, and that is good and that's great. So "you" means that it's unscheduled. If we click here on this center tab that means that it is, it would be. those are already posted These are already posted, absolutely. There's no scheduled right now. Okay great, because they would be denoted. They would need to know if they were scheduled. It would show it. Absolutely, so, what we're gonna do is we're gonna go to the unscheduled tab and, ladies, I'm gonna let you take it over. So you'll pop here. Okay so, lets go to social curator. So what you're gonna do, is you are gonna click on the copy text, but if we're in there and we're talking about three things about-- Three things, it has to be three things we're grateful for, that's-- Yeah, exactly, so now what we can do is we can pick anywhere on this feed right now, three things that you're thankful for. Any things? Any photo, like any photo right now. Because this is the beauty of it, right? We have the photos, we have the collateral. Yes that's true. So then copy and paste it in apple it would be command V. There it is. (laughing) Well we're use to these Of course, I know, I know I totally get it. I keep doing that to my computer So, now what we have, is we have a caption with three blank spots and we have inspiration here. But since we know, like your inspiration's not gonna be our inspiration, we'll delete that. Great, so now all I have to do is pick three items that you want to, we'll go to delete. Yep. Great. And are we sticking as-- As a team? A great, a great, a great, a great thing. So you guys get to We say. We say, I like the fact that you guys would say we. But whenever it's just like a photo, just like of you, you could say "I" or if it's a photo of her, and then you're writing it, and be like, happy birthday to my sister. Well see, we've struggled with that 'cause we've done that, and so we didn't know, like if we needed at the end, do I need to put, like, who's saying it, I mean? No, people are smart, they get it. If the ready the comment, they get it. Okay, so we say... Great, so, I love, love, love what just happened here. I love, love, love, so because you guys are a team, one thing to take into consideration is that we'll change a couple things. We'll change three things you're grateful for filter or edit or keep it super simple. I'm staying simple, so what we're just gonna do is you guys can do this or you can give it to your social media manager, and say, hey, you like-- Yeah, change it To change it for us, prep it for us. Have her go through and-- (speaker gets quiet) So we say because I think it would be we, So maybe throwing a little bit of fun in there. (client speaks quietly) So we're staying simple because we think this list speaks for itself. We say our kids, being able to work side by side and Bahama Mamas. It doesn't matter how big or little but share your list in the comments below. This is super cute, you can even add an emoji It's is an emoji, you're supposed to add. Right, like the tropical drink emoji, great Yeah, 'cause people won't know Yeah, or you can just say, we say our favorite drink. Our favorite drink, the Bahama Mama. Yeah, I think you should add that in there. Add it in. Add it in Because not everybody knows what a Bahama Mama is. I didn't either, like, now I'm just gonna be looking for it on every menu. (laughing) It's not on every menu, we go a lot of places and have to tell them what to put in it, so. Okay, so while you guys are focusing on that, Caitlyn do you want to read any amendments. I mean, this is just a free flow Yeah, so I obviously have the same one, and then I use the donut picture because I want to start with that. Cute. And I put my three things, I did stick to Amazon Prime because that's what I do. (laughing) So, Amazon Prime, Pink Donuts and Crazy Toddler. Cute. Very good. Good, so what we're noticing now I would say I'm on Amazon Prime too. Hey, Amazon Prime is life changing, y'all. Like I order something and I get it in an hour. I broke my french press, Amazon Prime on my porch an hour later. Yeah they don't do that in the Midwest. The Midwest is struggling (laughs) You guys let me just tell you, you guys. The struggle is real. Amazon, I'm telling you Does Amazon want to sponsor this? Creative Live, Amazon? We're open for sponsorships. Okay so, this is great because what we've just done is we've personalized the caption, and then the more you do this the faster you're gonna get. So, now what were gonna do, is Caitlyn, you're gonna save. Highway Three, you're gonna save. Great, so now lets try this one more time. It's just building on a pattern. Okay, so we have our seven categories and then we have topics underneath that. That would be, what we just did right now would be a really good about me or insights, right? Because we're talking about three things that you guys are inspired by, or three things that would help define you as a business. Okay, so inside of social curator, we're gonna scroll up to do another one together. Lets focus on, something that works well on social is travel, talk about holiday plans, it gives insight to who you are. So Caitlyn, I'm looking at this one, it says "I'm hatching a plan." Alright, perfect. Okay cool, and so, the caption reads, I'm hatching a plan to get out of town awhile. It looks like I'll have blank, a solid six, two glorious weeks, Labor Day weekend to spend blank. Anywhere in the world, in France, Switzerland, a staycation. This season, I'd love to hear your recommendations. I'm hoping to travel solo, coax my husband into leaving the kids with grandma, keep the actual travel to a minimum, we're relaxing, the world's my oyster, what do you recommend? So what we just did, is we did the hook. I'm hatching a plan to get out of town. Two to three insights, how long are you going, where you going, who are you going with? Call to action (snaps), what do you recommend? And we also mentioned, the world's my oyster. So we decided to include a picture of oysters. Now this might not be on brand for you guys. But what we're gonna do right now, is I'm hatching a plan to get out of town awhile. Based on what you have shown on your Planoly, I'm hatching a plan to get out of town for awhile. Based on these photos here, there are photos that would denote, I'm hatching a plan to get out of town for awhile. To me, I would choose this one. It's like, it's got the things I didn't do yesterday. I should have packed my bags. But then we have here, a photo of your product, right? So we're subconsciously putting on top of this right here a photo of your product based on our product photo shoot. A list of things that didn't go right. I'm planning, I'm hatching a plan to get out of town. Of your three insights, I should've packed my bags, that would work there. It would also work, another option that I think would work really well for you guys would be I'm hatching a plan to get out of town. This Polaroid. That's the one I was thinking Cool, I like that one My thing also, or one that just spoke to me was this. Exactly. Only because (gets talked over) We're on the same freaking page. Exactly, exactly, good! But that's really, really good. And the fact that like, we all thought of this same ones, already showing you guys get it. You guys are connecting the dots. So, is there one that sticks out right now that you guys would like to be I'm hatching a plan to get out of town? I think that ones it. That works best. Great, so then what we're gonna do is we are gonna get into, yep, we're going to copy this text. We are going to put it here in Planoly. And now we have our blank spaces. And so, because you guys are doing it together, things to note, "we." And then you're gonna fill in the blank. Now I can tell if it's a partnership, and sometimes people on Social Curator are like, well, we have a lot of people on our team. Well we can highlight a single person. Maybe you're going on vacation and you're not. So then you say in your caption, be like, oh, well Erin is going away with the family, I'm holding down the fort. Erin's going to, doo doo doo doo doo. Or you could say "we." So, in this particular case, now you have to think, as you're planning out this month, like you guys are planning out for the month of May. Is there anything that you guys are doing, or getting away, or perhaps-- I would love to be doing that. Okay, so then that's a caption. That's a caption, that's the caption, that's the caption. We would like to, but. That is 100% the caption, you could change it. I'm hatching a plan to get out of town a while. And here's the thing-- I don't know when that's going to be, but. It's okay, you don't even have to denote that. I'm hatching a plan, no it doesn't have to be in May. It could be in September, but what you're asking for is recommendations of where people want to go, that's okay. And we've tried that a little bit, but not in this way. Okay, great, so then what we're gonna do here is have you guys just kinda chat that over real quick. You're gonna fill in the blanks. How many days, and we'll figure that out. We kinda have out favorite, but it would be good to get the other person's ideas Exactly. (mumbling) And people love, that's one thing that's really fascinating about Social is that people love giving recommendations, people love giving tips, people love helping. And if you respond to them, it makes them like, wow, maybe Highway 3, we'll go to like St. Pete's in Florida Yeah Yeah, yeah, that's true. Okay, so Caitlyn how are you pacing right now? I'm done. Ooooh She's so good Okay so, now, now okay so I'm going to juxtapose this is the same template, the same starting point and we're gonna showcase how different they are. I'm gonna have you read it, Erin Oh okay, we're hatching a plan to get out of town awhile. It looks like we'll have a full weekend to spend at the beach this summer, and we'd love to hear your recommendations. We're hoping to take our families and relax for a few days, if we can do that with our crazy kids. What beaches do you recommend? Great, so we'll save that, already locked and ready to go Okay. Caitlyn. All right, I'm hatching a plan to get out of town in awhile. Every year my husband and I pick a different place in the world to spend a week together. I would live to hear your recommendations for the most adventurous place you've traveled. World's my oyster, what would you recommend? Great, so, very different. Different tonalities, same starting point. Now the more that you guys do this, when you're looking at something that says this is like, I'm looking to hatch a plan. That might be great when you're just starting out. So we have five stages of a curator, right? We have our beginner, we have a industry leader. And when you come in to social curator you'll be taking a quiz to place you in there. Now when you first come in, I just want to get you consistent. Good lord have mercy just get them all out there. Now when you look at a caption, maybe in two weeks when you guys are working on this, it's like, "I'm hatching a plan, that doesn't sound like my voice." It'd be like, "Pack your bag girl, I'm going here." So, small little nuances, but you start seeing the pattern, the hook, the two three insights, the call to action. This is just to see. I can't help but think a little bit back to a conversation that Chelsea and I had in her hot seat. And that was, how important is it to show up everyday? I cannot give you a concrete answer. I can just say that what works is consistency. And I know that there's this temptation that every post that we must put out must be of who we are and what we do, and I want that for you. Do you need it? No, because quite honestly, when I hear that you have a cache of images, that you're not all that excited about, but you're still not showing up everyday, something's not right. So it's either, you do a lot more heavy lifting with your photographer in advance to get you the images so that you do show up because I know you're a curator, and I know you're in advanced. Like, you're not the starter. So what I need you to do is to set aside and we're gonna go through this tomorrow, a 45 minute workflow. And this is what we do, so you put aside 45 minutes a day and you show up and you engage and you grow, that's my big proposition. So I give you the tools. Now you can find reasons why you'll succeed or excuses why you're too busy or it won't work.