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When creating content for social media, how long are your Facebook posts? Do you include a link with each tweet? How many hashtags should you use on Instagram?
What once was common practice becomes user annoyance. As hotel marketing trends regularly change, and a world of paranoia arises from debating whether your content strategy is a good practice or “spammy.” A common question recurs: how long are the best captions for hotels on social media?
Posts longer than 400 characters hide part of the post, and users must click “see more” to read the full message. Making users go through more steps can diminish the number of people who view useful information. Overall, shorter posts will gain the most engagement. Anything above one sentence that gets the point across will suffice.
Brevity is a must for Twitter! Users are only allowed 280 characters. Links count for 23 characters, plus a picture for each post. Posts should be less than 100 characters to allow for re-tweeting, but realistically not every post will meet that condition. Aim to have short posts in conjunction with longer posts.
If you are looking for Pinterest best practices, then a crucial step is optimizing your posts to use various sized pictures. These pictures may include text on the actual photo to tell what the post is about. Captions on Pinterest are small and only display up to 3 lines of text in small font below the photos, so keep to these numbers.
After two lines of text, Instagram hides the rest of the post, so keep to the two-line cutoff to get your point across. Although hashtags will still be tracked if they are below the cutoff, don’t overdo it. You can decide how many hashtags you want to use as these have no limit. Instagram is another visual platform that must use vibrant photos to entice users to read the captions. Everything about Instagram isn’t perfect, but if you generally have a good idea of how to use it, users will notice. While scrolling on a user’s profile, captions are hidden until the photo is clicked. No great picture, no users to read your hotel captions for Instagram, so make sure to take advantage of all of Instagram’s great features!
Here is a review of the numbers:
- Use 40-120 characters
- Fewer characters lead to more engagement
- Less than 100 characters
- Leave room for re-tweeting sometimes, but it’s ok to use all 280 characters
- Less than 11 words for the title and less than ten words for the preview
- Use photos of various sizes
- Less than 15 words, give or take, must fit on the first three lines
- Must be accompanied by an eye-catching photo
Overall, there is no single magic number that will tip the scales in your favor when it comes to captions. The user experience is key to building relationships with clients and customers who seek quality content, so give the people what they want. Straying from these guidelines will not damage your social media strategy as long as you keep your audience engaged! Remember, quality over quantity in conjunction with functionality!
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