How to put captions on instagram videos

How to Add Captions to Your Instagram Videos

Social Media Marketing·Videos

September 7, 2021 | By Catrina Gardner

With roughly a billion active users, businesses are jumping at the opportunity to develop immersive brand storytelling through video. Instagram Stories, Reels, and in-feed videos are great for providing engaging and dynamic insights that increase brand recognition and loyalty. However, many businesses are leaving out a simple yet major facet of their videos which is dampening their value: captions. Yes, these videos aren’t meant to receive the same attention as feature-length films, but learning how to add captions to your Instagram videos can drastically upgrade their accessibility and engagement.

Why Use Captions When You Have Sound?

According to Next TV, a survey of US consumers found that 92% of mobile users view videos with their sound turned off. In stark contrast to the early days of custom ringtones, more smartphone users than ever have their phones on silent, including when they browse social media. With captions, whether the user is in public or simply wants to enjoy some peace and quiet, you can get your point across. More importantly, however, captions are necessary for accessibility, as they’re a means of communicating the content to viewers who may be hearing impaired.

How Can Captions Increase Instagram Video Engagement?

Facebook says that adding captions to videos boosts viewing time by 12%, earning you more attention from your audience. Without captions, your video’s view length drops, and users are spending less time engaging with your brand. Also, transcriptions of your audio boost your SEO. While search engines aren’t able to view your videos, their algorithms can gather information via captions. Search engines can then index these captions and verify keyword usage. This improves your video’s searchability and thereby results in higher engagement.

How Do You Add Captions to Your Instagram Videos?

There are two options to add captions to your Instagram videos. Each one comes with its own set of benefits, but the best choice for you ultimately boils down to how much time you have. To learn about each of these options, watch my video by clicking on the image, or you can read the written instructions below.

How to Auto Generate Captions

If you’re running short on time, you can simply have Instagram automatically generate your video’s captions for you. You can accomplish this via the following steps:

While editing your video, swipe up to open a menu of editing options.
You will see a white button with blue text that says, “Captions.”
Selecting this button adds speech-recognition captions to your video.

This option is so easy that there’s no reason not to take the extra minute to add captions.

How to Manually Add Captions

This is a bit more time-intensive, but viewers tend to appreciate this method even more. It allows viewers to read through the captions at their desired pace. You can manually add captions by doing the following:

At the top right of the video editing screen, there is an “Aa” button.
Clicking on this button allows you to manually add in your words.
You can also click and drag the text where you want it to be displayed on the screen.
When adding captions to an Instagram Reel, there are extra steps required if you want the caption to only remain on screen for a specific window of time.

While it takes longer than simply autogenerating text, it gives you more power over what’s displayed.

Adding captions to your Instagram videos is certain to increase your views and engagement, but you also need to be consistent and produce content that resonates with your audience. Staying on top of your social media accounts can be a tough task, which is why many businesses will outsource their social media management to a marketing partner like Vision Advertising. Not only are we adept at creating content geared toward your ideal client, but you can also benefit from our expert brand management. If you would like our help creating engaging content, contact us today.

How to Add Captions to Your Instagram Stories

Instagram is rolling out a new accessibility feature that allows you to add captions, or subtitles, to Instagram Stories and soon, Instagram Reels.

With the captions sticker, brands and creators can work toward building a more inclusive experience for their community.

Here’s everything you need to know about Instagram’s newest feature and how you can use it for your business:

How to Automatically Add Captions to Your Instagram Stories

Using Instagram’s new captions sticker is quite similar to using any other Instagram Stories sticker. Here’s how to add captions to your Instagram story:

Step #1: Head to the Instagram Stories or Reels camera and either record or upload a video from your camera roll.

Step #2: Once uploaded or recorded, tap the sticker icon.

Step #3: Select the “Captions” sticker.

Step #4: At this stage, you can choose from four different text formats, move the text around the screen, and change the color.

And that’s it! Your captions should now be generated on your Instagram story.

Be sure to watch and read the captions before posting as Instagram may not accurately transcribe your audio. Currently, users are unable to edit the captions after the fact.

NOTE: The Instagram captions sticker is only available in English and English-speaking countries.

Don’t Have Access? Here Are Other Ways to Add Instagram Story Captions

If you don’t have access to the new captions sticker, no need to panic.

According to TechCrunch, Instagram is “rolling out the captions sticker first to Stories and will then begin testing it in Reels, with a broader launch to follow.”

Luckily, there are other ways to add captions in the meantime.

The first is to manually add text overlays in Instagram to summarize your key talking points:

Alternatively, you can use third-party apps to generate captions for your Instagram stories. The following apps are helpful resources:

Clipomatic
CaptionMax

To make Instagram Stories creation and planning easier, save time and schedule your Instagram Stories with Later.

It’s simple — upload your videos to the Later Media Library and select when you want them to go live on your profile.

You’ll get a notification on your phone as soon as it’s time to post your stories, and all of your links and text will be copied to your clipboard.

The best part? Since you’re manually uploading the stories, you can apply the captions sticker before it goes live to ensure you’re sharing accessible stories.

Start scheduling your Instagram Stories with Later today, available on all paid plans!

Why Instagram Stories and Reels Captions Are Important

Instagram Stories captions are easy-to-read subtitles for your videos, making it easier for your community to digest your content.

New feature 📣
Now you can add a captions sticker to Stories that automatically turns what you say into text.
"Sound off" is a request we get a lot so I'm excited that it’s coming to Reels too. We also hope to expand beyond a handful of countries soon. pic.twitter.com/4eMczUoj4x
— Adam Mosseri 😷 (@mosseri) May 4, 2021

It’s been one of the most highly anticipated features on Instagram — and for good reason!

As a brand, your Instagram content should be as inclusive as possible, and the new Instagram captions sticker helps with that.

Not only are Instagram video captions important for people who are watching without sound, but they’re essential for those with hearing difficulties. Especially since over 5% of the population — 466M people — have disabled hearing loss.

If a user is scrolling through Instagram Stories or Reels in a quiet public place without headphones, there’s a chance they may exit your video.

But, if that very same story had subtitles — it suddenly becomes easier for your audience to stop, watch, and understand the video.

TIP: If you want to level-up your accessibility beyond Instagram Stories and Reels captions, discover 5 Ways to Make Your Instagram Account More Accessible Right Now.

Including captions in your Instagram stories and reels can massively help create a more accessible space for everyone in your community — proving to be a no brainer for your brand or business.

Sign up for the Later newsletter and get the latest Instagram trends, tips, and tricks delivered straight to your inbox:

Instagram Photo Captions: The Ultimate Guide to Writing

Instagram is a visual social network, but post captions are getting more and more attention. With the tightening of algorithms, everything becomes important: both the general appearance of the account and the captions for photos.

We figure out what to write in the caption for the photo on Instagram, how to format it correctly and use the caption to engage the audience.

Instagram captions

The caption is a short text under the photo in the account. You can write texts for Instagram posts up to 2200 characters. If this volume is not enough, bloggers move part of the entry to the first comment.

Hashtags are added to the Instagram photo caption or users are tagged. You can also add emoji to your signature. The main thing is not to overdo it with their number.

What does the signature contain?

First of all, the caption to the photo is a functional part of the post. Bloggers here talk about the product they are promoting, and brands convey a key message that cannot be expressed visually. For example, they talk about a new collection or detailed instructions for contests.

There are more and more bloggers on Instagram who use the platform to post small texts. Popular topics: proper nutrition, exercise, personal care, recipes, parenting, travel notes.

Sometimes serious or controversial topics are raised, resulting in interesting and lengthy discussions in the comments. Instagram recently announced tree comments, an update that shows that the platform is indeed moving beyond visual content.

How do I tag a person in an Instagram photo caption?

A user can be tagged in a post in two ways: on the image or tagged in the caption.

1. To tag a person in a photo, click on the three dots in the right corner above the photo, then "Edit". Click on "People Tags" in the lower left corner, a window will open where you can tag a user - anywhere in the photo, start entering his nickname.

With this mark option, the user will receive a notification about it, and the photo will appear in his account, in the "Photos with you" section.

2. To tag a person in the Instagram signature, add the @ sign and start typing a nickname - you will see a list of users in a tooltip, select the one you need.

The user will receive a notification that they were mentioned in the post, but this post cannot be found in their profile.

How to use Emoji in a signature

To add an emoticon, simply add it to the post text. The audience has different attitudes towards emoji in texts.

The best use of emoticons is to highlight important points in a post. For example, using colored squares or dots to make a bulleted list.

This way your Instagram photo caption will stand out better and look better if done in moderation.

How to use hashtags in signatures

To add a hashtag, put a pound sign in front of the word. When published, the tag will automatically become clickable.

In Instagram, tags work as links, and clicking on the tag takes the user to the overall post rating.

9 photos are included in the "Best" section. Getting into this top depends on several parameters, about which the social network does not talk in detail. It is known that reaching the top is affected by the number of reactions under the publication, the speed of gaining likes. Therefore, the number of involved users will largely depend on how to sign a photo on Instagram.

The "Newest" section contains photos with a hashtag, sorted by publication date. However, Instagram tech support acknowledges that the picture may not get here either. Because of this feature of the platform, myths about the shadow ban of Instagram appeared: hashtags stop working in the account. This is not so, it’s just that in any account, any picture may not be included in the results for the tag.

Create a branded hashtag for your company: this way you will introduce it to users, and they will use it in UGC.

More than 30 hashtags cannot be placed under one publication: the rest will not be clickable.

Tags can be placed both in the photo caption and in the post comment.

Beautiful Instagram photo caption

How to create interesting photo captions on Instagram? Take a cue from the accounts you like. Track what topics they raise in posts, what is the size of the signature in their account.

In your personal account, tell the story of the appearance of the photo, your latest news, or discuss an issue that concerns you. Tell us about the cafe you go to, a movie you recently saw, ask the audience an interesting question. Beautiful captions under the photo, which also involve, will arouse interest and bring great benefits. Quotes are a bad idea, leave them to the public from VKontakte.

In a company account, captions are part of the content strategy. Formulate what topics your brand talks about, with what intonation. Each post should be in line with the company's content strategy. Good morning wishes remained in 2012. Beautiful signatures on Instagram can be seen on the example of panaceas_pantry (photo above), outdoorvoices (photo below).

How to analyze Instagram captions?

Instagram statistics gives detailed data on photos and stories. But it is impossible to calculate the effectiveness of signatures on it. Yes, and a beautiful signature on Instagram or not, if you evaluate it “by eye”, this is subjective.

Use Popsters.ru to analyze topics, text size and hashtags in any Instagram account.

Text Referencing Tool

Click on the button with the letter "T" on the right above the feed of posts. Two graphs will appear in the left block: "Words" and "Words/ER".

Words

Shows how many posts the word occurs in.

Words/ER

Shows the average ER for posts that contain a word.

Using this data, you can analyze different topics of posts.

That is, you can find out which topics and texts for Instagram posts create more engagement.

You can also analyze the signature using charts:

Number by length of text;

Displays the number of posts with different text lengths: short, medium, long.

ER by text length;

Shows the average ER of posts with different caption lengths on Instagram.

Relative activity by text length.

Shows the average activity in posts with captions of different lengths relative to the average performance of posts in other formats.

Instagram hashtag analysis

Let's continue to analyze the new opportunities for analytics on Instagram. There are three indicators to evaluate the effectiveness of the use of hashtags:

Hashtags

Shows the number of posts containing certain hashtags

Hashtags/ER

Shows the average ER of posts with certain hashtags.

Relative activity by hashtags

Shows the average performance of posts with certain hashtags relative to the average performance of posts in the account.

Key Findings

1. An Instagram photo caption is an important part of a post. In it, you can tag a person, add a hashtag and give detailed information.

2. The subject of your caption can be anything: rules of the contest, history of photo creation, question to subscribers. But this content must be relevant and consistent with the company's content strategy.

3. It's convenient to analyze captions and hashtags on Instagram using Popsters.

Useful articles on a similar topic:

Creating creative Instagram stories: tips from Instagram;
The most popular hashtags on Instagram: everything you need to know;
How to become a successful Instagram blogger;
How to beautifully design an Instagram profile.

How to make an inscription on photos and videos on Instagram? Story Ideas

Contents

1 How to caption your Instagram photo
2 How to caption your Instagram video
3 Beautiful fonts for Instagram caption
4 Instagram caption ideas
4 Instagram caption ideas
5 Short Instagram photo caption ideas
6 Instagram caption ideas for girls

Captions visually enhance any photo. They can be located in the photographs and below them. If you write a phrase on a photo on Instagram, you will have to use additional applications to edit the picture.

If the caption is placed under the photo, it will not be possible to change the view. But you can make a beautiful font on Instagram in the profile description - you can adjust the size of the letters, add emoji and special characters.

To do this, users work on their phone or computer through Google documents or other text editors. And how to put words on photos or videos - in our article.

How to caption your Instagram photo

Users often change fonts, letter colors, and paint on shapes or insert emoji to catch the attention of followers. To make an inscription on a photo on Instagram, you can download photo editors.

Let's take a look at the available and convenient options step by step:

The story editing section will also help you to show your creativity - for this, upload the selected picture to Instagram. When editing, press the Aa button in the top line and add an inscription. You can also make a rainbow inscription for Stories there.

You can also change the font there, at the end of 2020, Instagram added new beautiful variations. At the end, save the image to your phone or publish as a story, and then save to the gallery.

How to caption video on Instagram

If you are working on a video, you can also use the story editor. However, the clip may be too long, and each 15-second segment will have to be re-edited.

You won't be able to save the entire video to the gallery at once, only in parts. For a post, this format is not suitable.

Video editors come to the rescue in such situations. Below is their main functionality:

VivaVideo - through the application, you can edit videos up to five minutes in size. But the watermark of the utility is preserved on the clips - it can be removed through online services.
The inscription on the video on Instagram can be changed in color, size. The application also helps to insert emoji or stickers into Stories, underline text and change the font.
Quick is a great video editor with bomb effects where you can add subtitles, disappearing text and make your fantasies come true.
Filmora Video Editor is a program for PC or laptop. Working with it is similar to using Photoshop. Here you can not only customize the text and its design, but also make transitions.
Inshot is the most famous and simple video editor. Add video, edit effects, transitions and add beautiful captions in any incarnation.
Videoredaktor is an online service in the browser. It has basic functions for working with text, so it is suitable for quick processing when there is no time to download and understand programs and applications.
Mostory is an application designed to create stories with beautiful effects. Many ready-made layouts in the free version, where additional features are available for the appearance of text on the video.

In other video processing services, you can make an inscription in the same way - through the "Add Text" section or similar ones.

Text is also edited in it - colors, location, size and font. They differ only in visual capabilities.

Read our article for 6 Instagram video ideas. They can be used for both feed and IGTV.

Beautiful fonts for the inscription on the photo in Instagram

In applications, you can change the font with which you make the inscription. Among them stand out:

Droid Serif - differs in that, although it looks like a classic, there are clues on the letters.
Butler - also has hooks, but the letters are drawn more sharply. They are not as smooth as in the first version.
Arvo — the print has more weight and no roundness. Reminds me of a typical machine font in Word.
Crimson Text is a flowing script-like font. It has a lot of hooks on it.
Libre Baskerville - similar to the previous one with smooth transitions and an abundance of hooks. Plus it's a little tilted.

These fonts are optional, you may have your own favorites. The main thing here is that the font visually fits into the picture.

If the image is romantic, it is better to use smooth styles. If this is a strict picture, which is dominated by geometric shapes, a machine style of writing will do.

Instagram photo caption ideas in English

To stand out and use custom quotes, read our ideas below:

Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life. Happiness is not a goal, but a way of life.
When life gives you lemons, drink tequila! - When life gives you only lemons, drink tequila!
Work hard. Dream big - Work hard. Dream big.
Be a voice not an echo - Be a voice, not an echo.
As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live - As soon as you trust yourself, you will understand how to live.

Instagram short caption ideas

Small but capacious phrases to hook subscribers.

To win, you first need to play.
Never let yourself get bored.
Every madness has its own logic.
You can fall in love with beauty, but you can only fall in love with the soul!

Instagram caption ideas for girls

Guys rarely bother with the meaning of content, so below are ideas for girls:

You need to laugh as you can, but love throughout life.
Learn more