Instragram: Do your followers read your captions?

I recently did a Twitter poll to find out whether your followers on Instagram really do read your captions. The results were interesting.


Surprisingly, 44% said that they always read captions in full. I expected this figure to be less, but it's comforting to know that nearly half of your following likes to read your captions. Only 5% admitted to never reading captions, and 51% said that they sometimes read captions.

I'm really interested, do you read IG captions? (If you don't/do sometimes, please comment below what attracts you to read it)

— Lexi Gagan (@LexiGagan) July 13, 2017

Here are some of the common reasons why people don't read/sometimes loses interest in your captions:

- Unnecessarily long captions
Most people who took part in the poll agreed that captions that are unnecessarily long, when it could easily be condensed down, lose interest. It's important to understand that we are bombarded with content, so in order to ensure your content/agenda is being seen, you need to be quick and snappy with your delivery.

- Complimentary quotes
Surprisingly enough, quite a few people commented on the use of quotes, used to compliment the photo/content. The main complaint being that using a quote instead of writing up authentic content is a bit of a cop-out. For me personally, if I want my photo to speak for itself, I will just use a complimentary quote. Plus it's a snappy and readable caption.

- Lengthy book/product reviews
This one was pretty unanimous. Most people believed that very long reviews on captions should be left for the blogosphere or Goodreads. Most agreed that it is fine to give your rating of a book and/or product, with some general feedback, but anything lengthy should be left off IG and instead give people the option to read the full version. For example, 'Link in bio for in-depth review'.

- Getting personal
I have mixed feelings about this one. A few commented that getting personal, for example speaking about your day, in your caption is off-putting. I love getting to know the people behind the beautiful accounts, however if the caption is loooong, then I struggle to keep interest.

Do you always read captions? If not, what puts you off a caption?