Instagram has gone through many changes over the years. We have Reels, IGTV, and Guides. These changes make it seem much more complicated to grow on Instagram, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the power of a good Instagram caption. And if you REALLY want to grab people’s attention while they’re scrolling, you need to learn how to write engaging Instagram captions with microblogs ASAP.
In this post, we’re going to talk about how you can use this caption technique to get people hooked on your content as soon as they land on your page.
It’s a unique way to grab your follower’s attention and get more Instagram saves. Why should we care about saves?
We’ll discuss this next! Then we’ll dive right into microblogging.
Written by influencer coach Dani The Explorer
Why are Instagram Saves Important?
Instagram saves have become all the rage lately. Why? Because:
- Instagram gives users the ability to hide likes.
- Likes simply aren’t as crucial as saves.
By hiding likes, Instagram forces us to care less about them. And in all honesty, we should.
Remember the last time you shared an Instagram post with your friend? It’s because it resonated with you somehow and less about the pretty picture that went with it.
A save signals to the Instagram algorithm, “Hey, this piece of content is important to me. So important that I’m going to bookmark it to refer back to later.”
We want more of these signals on our content. We want Instagram to deem our content as valuable, so the algorithm pushes our content to more eyeballs, essentially increasing our reach.
Comments, saves, and shares tell us how much your audience actually gives a damn about your content—not likes. This is especially important when you want to land paid Instagram sponsorships.
We want users to care about our content enough to keep coming back for more! And brands care a lot about that relationship.
That’s why I tell my Instagram influencer course students to use this engagement driving technique as much as possible!
How Can You Get Instagram Saves with Captions?
Sure, a good photo or Reel will get Instagram saves, but an engaging Instagram caption can make a person feel seen.
Captions are your place to use written word to connect with others. Think about it like you would a good book.
Great writing can tell a story, paint a picture, make someone happy, sad, or even mad. When you write a scroll-stopping caption, it can be just as impactful as a video.
It’s all about the delivery.
Lucky for you, if you’re not the best writer, microblog captions have a fool-proof formula to them that anyone can rinse and repeat.
All you have to focus on is delivering value.
For example, you can tell a relatable story, teach your audience something, and even inspire your audience to do something.
Therefore, if you focus on writing value-driven Instagram captions, you’ll be able to generate more shares for your content.
This is why microblogs work so well!
Freebie: Enroll in my Free Reels Course — 0 to 100 Reels Challenge was designed to help you create videos that get you upwards of 100 new followers a week.
What are Microblogging Instagram Captions?
A microblog caption is like a miniature blog post. Rather than writing a thousand-plus word post about a topic, you’d essentially condense the information you’d write about into a caption.
That means for Instagram, you’d have to pack your info into 2,200 characters.
Therefore, microblogs get to the point much faster than a blog would. They omit any fluffy details and get straight to the key takeaways your audience needs.
These takeaways can help them plan a trip, sell a product, find outfit inspo, cook a new recipe, and so so much more. The possibilities are endless!
Microblogging is a compelling way that you can serve your audience.
Why I Was Skeptical of Microblogging
Now listen, I was super skeptical of microblogging my Instagram captions at first.
I was worried that I would give everyone what they wanted on Instagram, and they would never leave the platform to go to my blog.
Why would anyone want to read my microblogs then go to read my actual blogs on the same topic? Turns out that’s what followers want!
My followers love to read my microblogs to summarize the information they’re looking for—fast facts, if you will. Then when they need more detail on a topic, they head to my blog to get it.
In short, microblogging has helped drive even more traffic to my blog! It also results in more Instagram saves, and more and more people are sending my content to their friends and family.
Which turned out to be a great way to grow organically on Instagram.
The moral of the story here, my friend, is that you need to know how to write engaging Instagram captions, and microblogging is the way to go!
Example Content Scenario
Now we’re going to deep dive into an example scenario where you’d write a microblog Instagram caption.
In this example, let’s say you’re a travel influencer. You decide you want to write a microblog based on a recent trip you took to Oregon.
After spending five days in Portland, and you have decided to write a blog called The Ultimate Guide to Spending 5 Days in Portland, Oregon.
You write a blog post with everything the person needs to know about their trip. These can be things like how to get to Portland, where to eat, and what things they should do and see.
You create viral Reels around this topic, and you’ve already shared a couple of Instagram Stories from your trip.
So you think a great way to tie all of this lovely content together would be to write a microblog!
Your blog post will end up being close to 3,000 words, and it’s going to be very helpful for your reader.
You might even sprinkle in some affiliate links so your readers buy a product, and you get a small kickback from the purchase.
With this blog post, your Reels, and your Stories already done, you have plenty of opportunities to microblog about your trip.
You want your microblogs to give your Instagram followers a little taste of what they’ll be getting if they go and check out the big daddy blog.
Plus, we want our Instagram followers to get just enough information from your microblog, so they save it for their own Portland trip later.
Here are some great examples of microblogs you could write based on your blog and trip:
- Top 5 Sites to Visit in Portland
- A Quick Guide to Visiting Portland in the (insert season your visited)
- What to pack for visiting Portland in the (insert season that you visited)
- Top food trucks you HAVE to eat at in Portland
- Best day trips from Portland
Now, this is the critical thing to remember; these will be captions that are way shorter than your blog post. However, they are going to cover similar topics.
You shouldn’t just be copying and pasting. Keep the format in mind and give people small chunks of information that they can return to (which will land you so many Instagram saves).
Let’s put this example together below!
Read Next: Complete Guide to Becoming an Instagram Influencer
How to Write an Engaging Microblog Instagram Caption
When writing a microblog Instagram caption, always include these:
- A header
- A quick CTA after your header
- The body
- A conclusion
- Final CTA
Let’s dive into what those mean!
A Header
Make your first sentence an attention grabber. Example “, 5 STOPS IN PORTLAND YOU’LL WANT TO ADD TO YOUR BUCKET LIST.”
A header is even better (oo that rhymes) if you can leave a space between it and the body of your microblog, encouraging readers to hit that “read more” button. MUAHAHAHA.
A Quick CTA After the Heading
After your heading, it helps to add a small call to action. Again, going back to the Portland example, you can do something like “save this post for your future Portland trip!”
The Body
The body is the meat of your microblog. I suggest using bullet points or emojis to break up the body. For example, in your Portland microblog, you can number the spots “1, 2, 3, 4, 5,” etc.
The more the body is broken up, the easier it’ll be to read.
The Conclusion and Final CTA
A second CTA is a great way to direct your followers where they can go from here. Since my microblogs are usually related to blog posts or some other content, I love to refer followers to the link in my bio.
For the Portland post, the last CTA could say something like, “Want more epic places to see in Portland? Click the link in my bio to read my Portland blog!”
If you don’t have a blog, you can tell your followers something like, “Head over to my Portland Story Highlight for more information!” or remind them to save the post for future reference!
Tahhhhh-dahhhhh. You have a microblog. You can click here to see an example I used on a Reel. It’s formatted slightly different, but you’ll get the idea!
Read Next: How Much to Charge for Sponsored Instagram Posts
Microblog FAQs
Here’s what to know before you start writing microblogs!
How long should a microblog be?
Instagram captions can be 2,200 characters long (not words), so when you are microblogging, ensure that you don’t go over 2,200 characters!
What should be in a microblog caption?
There are a couple of ways to approach microblogs:
- Microblogs for driving IG engagement and traffic to your actual blog
- Blogging on Instagram with microblogs to drive IG engagement (aka you will treat IG as if it was your blog)
Let’s discuss the former first.
Will a microblog take away from your blog posts?
If you’re anything like me, you might be worried that microblogging will take away from your actual blog. Which might make you ask yourself, what should I be microblogging about?
Microblogs should be about the same topics but should never be a replica of your blog. You want people to read both, and if they go to your blog and find out that it’s the same thing they learned on Instagram, they aren’t going to keep going back to your blog. Does that make sense?
In simple terms, blogs and Instagram caption microblogs should complement one another.
Remember, a microblog is the short and sweet version of a topic! Your blog is where you’ll get into super juicy details that aren’t constricted by the 2,200 character count on Instagram.
That being said, you shouldn’t just copy and paste your blog post onto Instagram. That’s not a very good method of microblogging. Instead, you need to be creating microblogs in tandem with your other blog content.
How often should you post microblog captions?
You’re probably thinking, “Thanks Dani, another thing to add to my endless to-do list.” And you might be wondering whether or not every time you write engaging Instagram captions, it needs to be a microblog.
Do Instagram captions need to be filled with 2,000 characters that will blow away your audience? The answer is no.
Don’t let this overwhelm you. You don’t have to be microblogging for every post, and if you don’t have anything written out, that shouldn’t stop you from posting.
A good goal to aim for is (if you post every day) a microblog two times a week.
Pro Tip: Microblogs are a great way to charge more for deals — check out my free Influencer Rate Calculator to see how much you can earn!
What happens after you post your microblog?
Well, your follower will read the microblog Instagram caption, they’ll save it, then they’ll go, “oooooh, they have a blog on more Portland stuff? I MUST see.”
They’ll then click that link in your bio, read your Portland blog, maybe pass it to some friends or share it on Pinterest.
Then you get affiliate sales, and oooooohhhh lawdy, it goes on!
If you do not have a blog but have a Story Highlight you can direct users to, you can end up making affiliate sales from any links you shared in your IG Stories!
Freebie: Enroll in my Free Reels Course — 0 to 100 Reels Challenge was designed to help you create videos that get you upwards of 100 new followers a week.
How to Start a Blog on Instagram
Now, let’s say you don’t intend to start a blog right now. Instead, you want to learn how to start blogging on Instagram and believe microblogs can get you there.
Rather than pulling microblog topics from a blog post, as we discussed earlier, you’ll want to pull topic ideas based on your Instagram niche and ideal audience.
In other words, you need to focus on what sort of content you’re already posting and what you believe new and current followers would be interested in.
Let’s say, for example, you’re a fashion influencer. You share Outfit of the Day posts, you make Reels on your favorite clothing hauls, and in your Stories, you talk about some of your favorite seasonal pieces, including affiliate links.
I would advise repurposing some of your Posts, Reels, and Story topics into microblogs! So in this example, you could microblog about:
- Your favorite Outfit of the Days for Summer
- Clothing haul from XYZ company complete with details on each piece you snagged
- Your Summer favorites and why you recommend people buy these pieces
The key is to determine what topics you can expand on and create a long-form caption. Remember, you don’t have to be the best writer in the world to pull this off!
Other Places to Use These Captions
You can also use Microblogging on Facebook if you post a lot there. On the flip side, you can share your Instagram caption microblogs to Facebook with the direct link back to a related post on your blog.
Heck, you can even post your microblogs on TikTok.
Just think of all the other fantastic microblogging opportunities at your fingertips.
Overall
Overall, I’m a Stan of this technique. Next time you’re wondering how to write engaging captions on Instagram, try microblogging.
And while you’re at it, you should check out my other helpful influencer blogs!
