Your Caption Checklist

No, I’m not gonna tell you to check your grammar and that you’ve used good hashtags. Hopefully these are a few different pointers to think about before you publish that next post.

?? Do you want to read it?

Honestly, skim over it and ask yourself if this would stop your scroll. If the answer is yes, then go for it and press publish - but if not then you know it needs some work. This probably applies most to your graphic & hook so give them a rework so that they’d catch your eye.

??Are you being repetitive?

There’s no such thing as a fresh idea anymore, but you can have a new outlook on something. Taking inspiration for posts is fine, but you need to be offering something new for your audience else they’ll just get bored. When you read through, ask yourself if you’ve seen this post before. Try and identify where you’re offering something new or different to your audience to make sure it’s original.

??How valuable is this?

If you can justify that your audience need to see your diary from the weekend, then have at it. But if it’s irrelevant what you had for dinner, then skip that post. It needs to be building your brand or credibility to have a place on your feed. Your family can absolutely be a part of your brand, I post about Sophie’s birthday and big achievements because it helps to create that personal connection - but she’s in no way the main feature and I surround any personal posts with plenty of value for my audience so that they get a nice balance.

??Could I make this simpler?

Take out those acronyms and that technical jargon. Noone’s got time for that. You’ll be alienating more people than you realise and nobody’s impressed you can condense words into letters. You want your content to be easy to digest and super shareable, so make sure that it’s accessible to a wider audience than just those who will understand your technical talk.

??Does anyone want this?

I don’t care if you’re screaming ‘But they NEED to know this stuff!’. Nobody cares about what they need, they care about what they want. They may need more clients, but they WANT more money. Tap into what they want to really reel them in.

Are you guilty of any of these?