Speaker 1: I think the best Instagram captions tell stories, so this video is designed to give you prompts to share great stories on Instagram. These are going to work well as Instagram captions. I've got a whole lot of prompts coming, so get ready to write some captions. I'm Phil Palin, a brand strategist. Welcome to my channel where I promise practical advice to build your brand. I've been wanting to make this video for a while, a really useful resource that you can use and scrub through to write captions on Instagram, which I know can sometimes stump you and me. I'm not repeating here song lyrics or writing the caption for you. Oh no. Instead, I've created a whole bunch of prompts that will give you some direction, get you on a starting point on a caption idea, and there are a lot of them. So get ready. I've selected a bunch of prompts from my ebook, 100 Evergreen Content Ideas, which you can download for free, link below. I recommend downloading this because it has even more prompts than what you'll get from me today in this video. I'm going to share my screen now and move pretty quickly through some caption ideas so you can sit here and get writing and use these prompts as a starting point. So let's get started. So I'll break down these prompts by category. I'll go through a handful of them. We're going to start with inspiration. Your first prompt is this. What's something that you want to try? Maybe something you've never done before, something that you want to try. This would be a great jumping off point as an Instagram caption and think about your visual that will go well with this. What is something that you want to try? Second prompt. What's the highlight of your day? Identify something. It could be something that's a part of your routine or it could be something specifically about today that maybe you reflect on tomorrow. Prompt number two, inspiration category. What is your highlight of your day? Mine is making coffee in the morning with my AeroPress. Can't imagine a day without it. Let's keep going. Prompt number three under the category inspiration. Who do you idolize living or dead? Okay. This could be a photo maybe of that person or it could be a photo of you thinking at your desk, you know, reflecting on your industry or your career. Who's something you, you know, someone you look up to. Who do you idolize living or dead? It could also not be related to work at all. Finally, in this category, prompt number four, what do you like listening to? What do you like listening to? Podcasts, music. If music, what kind of music? Right now at the time of recording this video, Spotify's Unwrapped is out, so everyone is posting their top artists. What do you like listening to? What gives you inspiration? What gives you joy? Use this as a prompt for an Instagram caption. Story time. Let's keep going. We're going to switch categories. Now we're going to talk about nostalgia. Prompt five, what career did you aspire to be growing up? What you wanted to be when you were younger. Does that match up with what you do now or did it, you know, prompt some imagination on what you could be and now maybe it's a bit more practical. What did you want to be when you grew up and now, now that you're grown up, I'm assuming you are, is that consistent with what you wanted to do or is there similarities? Let's keep going. Prompt number six, what was your favorite class in high school? I bet you haven't thought about this for a while. What was your favorite class in high school and maybe how does that fit in with what you do day to day as part of your work or as part of something that brings you joy? Prompt number seven, who is the best boss you've ever had? What did you learn from them? Why were they the best? What were their traits or characteristics, right? This is something people can relate to. If they were the best boss, there's a reason for it. Reflect on that and maybe a lesson along the way that you can take from that and share with others. Prompt number eight, what is the best book that you have read this year? Something that you read if you're like me and you don't read as much. Maybe it's a news article or a news publication or a magazine. I read a lot of blogs versus actual physical books. What's the best book or what is the best thing that you've read this year and why? That's the important part of the storytelling piece as you reflect on it. In nostalgia is the category, why? Don't forget to include that part. Let's keep going. In this category, we're talking forecasting. Number nine, prompt number nine, where will your industry be five years from now? Make some predictions. Another word for forecasting, right? What's your prediction? What are trends that are emerging? What are you seeing? Think about your industry. Answering questions like this in the Instagram obviously helps reinforce that you are in fact an expert in the industry that you are positioned in. Where will your industry be in five years? Prompt number 10, we're halfway. What should someone buy with only $10 or rather $100? What should someone buy with only $100? $10 is not quite enough. But if it's $100, let's say someone looking to get started in your industry that doesn't have a ton of money or a ton of resources, what would you recommend them invest in or what would you recommend them do to start? For example, in my industry, investing in a comprehensive brand identity is probably not the first thing you need to do when you get into business. I would hire a friend who's a photographer to help create some photos, use as profile photos and photos for your website and social media. That gives you grounds to be able to show up in a professional way. That's more important than having a comprehensive brand identity to start, just put your name in a logo or put your name in a good font to start. What should someone invest in or what should someone buy with only $100? You can answer that question in application any way you like. Problem number 11, what will be popular 10 years from now? So making some forecasts further into the future. People love this stuff. People love the idea of like thinking into the future. What are some trends that you see emerging? What's going to be popular? What's not going to be popular? Those are some things to think about as you, you know, you know, tell some stories. So number 12, what's something you'd recommend someone do? Very simply advice you give to someone. It could be something you're reflecting on, you know, that a friend told you or that you discussed in a client meeting. These are all great things to take inventory of in the moment and incorporate into your Instagram captions as storytelling. What's something that you'd recommend someone do? Very simple. We're switching categories again. Now we're going to talk about experience. Problem number 13, what was the best job you've ever had? This should be an easy one because we've all had jobs that we liked that we didn't like. Let's in this focus on what's the best job that you've had and why? What did you love about it? How did it inspire you to do what you're, you know, what you ended up doing later, what you're doing now? What's the best job you've ever had? Number 14, hand in hand, what was the worst job you've had and why? You know, what, how did you build character, you know, in the time of doing that job? What did you hate about it? How did you make sure you'd never do that again? What's the worst job you've ever had? People love humility on social media. So it's not just about bragging saying, Oh my God, my life is great. My job is great. It's like, no, dig into some of the things that are not great. And that's very relatable for people. Let's keep going. 15. What does leadership mean to you? It really has a definition by every single person based on your experience, you know, your perspective. What does leadership mean to you? Maybe tell an example of how you've seen someone operate as a good leader or as a bad leader. What does leadership mean to you? Number 16, what is one thing that you wished you learned earlier? What's one thing you wish you learned earlier? Maybe you've learned it by now, but you learned it the hard way. Let that maybe bring some stories, you know, let some stories come to mind. What's one thing you wish you learned earlier? Maybe for me, it's the ability to lean on other people, right? The ability in business for the first few years, it was just me. Now I've got a team. I'm so thankful to have them because I have other people in their brains in on this and they helped me. What's one thing you wish you learned earlier? Should have, you know, the importance of delegating. That would be my answer. Moving into our final category here. Hypotheticals. 17. If you could live anywhere else, where would you want to live? Right now I'm really excited about spending time in Latin America, countries like Mexico or Columbia. I also love Europe. And if I didn't live in the US, I think I would want to live in one of those places. If you could live anywhere else, where would it be? Think about it. Accompanying photo or video that would really give some color to this. A relatable question. 18. A business opportunity falls through. What now? Again, it's a hypothetical. What would you do? Or maybe you have been in this situation and you can kind of elaborate on what you learned. Lessons for others, right? As you're working on an Instagram caption, yes, use this as a storytelling opportunity, but really think about what's in it for them, your audience, when they take the time to read it. 19. Is it important to always be honest? Thinking here about integrity, values, you can sub in the word honest with something else as well. It might come, you know, bring some ideas to mind. Is it important to always be honest? I would say yes, if it affects the other person, it is important to be honest, but I would love to know your answer to that. Put it in the comments below. This video is important. Always be honest. That's prompt number 19. Again, you can sub in the word honest with another adjective or adverb. Finally, the last prompt in this video, and don't worry, there's more where this came from, but number 20, you win the lottery. 20. What would you do next? I'm sure you've thought about this. You fantasize, oh my God, if money was no object, what is it you would do next? What would you do with your time? What would you focus on? It's fun to kind of just dream and daydream really about this and let other people have that opportunity. When you put a question like this in your Instagram caption, you answer it, but also prompt your user to think about it too. Just be genuinely curious about how other people might answer this question too. These are a few prompts that I have shared today, 20. They all come from my free ebook, 100 Evergreen Content Ideas, where I break down 10 prompts in 10 categories. That's what you see on screen. These are all of the categories in this ebook. I pulled a few, but there's more goodness where that came from linked below. So there you go. A whole bunch of Instagram caption ideas that should set you up for some awesome storytelling opportunities. I've linked to the ebook I mentioned that I pulled these prompts from, which has been downloaded over 23,000 times, by the way. It's one of my most popular ones. I think you'll love it. It is linked below. If you've got any lingering questions, comment below. Let's keep the conversation going on down there. I respond to those personally. And if you enjoyed this video, give it a like. That helps other people discover these videos, which we work hard to create for you and subscribe for more of my videos on branding, positioning, building, and promoting your brand. Next I'm sharing a few videos I think you'll be interested in. I'm Phil Palin. Thanks for watching. These videos are coming up next.