There’s a new Instagram algorithm in town—again. The new algorithm favors posts with lots of varied comments, meaning your posts will get more visibility (and have more influence) the more engagement they encourage. Fortunately, you can employ easy design tricks and winning captions that’ll get your comment thread poppin’ and give you the best chance at beating the 2019 Instagram algorithm. The following Spark Post templates use 2019 graphic design trends to keep your social media game on point while employing crowdsourcing, comment-boosting captions, giveaways, trivia, guessing games, caption contests, and other sticky stuff that keeps eyes (and thumbs) on your posts. Here are six strategies to employ and 15 templates to get you started.
Crowdsource Opinions
People love to share their opinion! Crowdsource answers to anything from your #OOTD to a new feature or product for your company to get real-time feedback and boost conversation. Encourage people to elaborate on their choices, and remember to reply when someone comments—both to show appreciation to your followers but also to stay fresh in Insta’s algorithm.
Play a Game
Trivia games are Instagram gold when it comes to encouraging comments. Your trivia questions can be silly, smart, focused on current events, or related to your brand. Any way you work it, trivia questions and games tap into competitive spirit and encourage interaction. You can use trivia posts in your Instagram Stories or your feed. For added engagement, offer a reward to the first person who gets the answer right. Trivia not quite on-brand for you? Try guessing games, such as posting a photo of your latest vacation destination and asking people to guess the location.
Make it Easy with Multiple Choice
Make it dead-simple for your audience to comment with targeted, specific questions and prompts. Volleying up a few options and constraints can help boost engagement. Instead of a generic “How are you today?”, try something more specific, such as asking them to pick a word they’re meditating on or venting frustration in emoji form.
Hold a Caption Contest
Hold a caption contest using a funny meme template or inspirational content and then ask people to add their own caption. You can have a prize, or the winner just gets mad props in a post. Reply back to everyone who puts in a solid try. The more you engage, the more your boost your recognition and the more you feed the algorithm in a positive way. Pro-tip: search by emotion, such as “funny,” in Spark’s image library to find content
Spread Good Vibes with Quotes and Affirmations
An easy way to extend your reach is to get your audience to tag someone who may not already follow you. And since we know Instagram users love a positive vibe, sharing your favorite Instagram quotes and affirmations can be easy wins. Make sure the call-to-action in your caption is contextual to the image and gives people a reason to joyfully pass on the share to their friends. While a generic “Tag a friend” feels spammy, a more specific and targeted call-to-action can encourage authentic connection. Consider these potential captions to the above creative:
- Tag the boo who makes you feel like the subject of a D’Angelo song.
- Tag someone who’s on their grind.
- Who needs this reminder?
Don’t Neglect the Caption
We’re the first to tell you how important a thumb-stopping image or video is on the ‘gram. But that’s just the hook. A thoughtful caption gets people engaging beyond the double tap. We find captions that build off the image in clever ways correlate to some of our most commented posts. We also love re-posting other people’s great shares, but we make sure to follow best practice by tagging the original poster and making sure we’re offering our own take in the caption. (That’s the difference between curating for the sake of connection and lazy piggy backing!) Only you can know what’s on-brand for you. Maybe clever one-liners do the trick or you like to use Instagram as a microblogging platform (one of the 2019 social media trends we spotted) to dive deep on a topic, or perhaps asking questions works for your audience. Check out some of the captions that got our audience engaging with our Instagram below!
Don’t forget to tag #AdobeSpark in your social posts! We always try to leave a comment. 😉