Learn the 3 ways publishing companies use personal pronouns in Instagram captions to connect with their readers.
A wall of water hurdles towards you in a narrow canyon.
Sometimes, this is what opening the Instagram app feels like: a flash flood of people talking about their latest outfit, their latest meal, or their latest vacation.
What makes Instagram post captions feel like a flood? This feeling can be attributed to how people and companies use personal pronouns—I, you, we—in their Instagram captions. With captions like “I went to” and “I had the best,” readers can feel overwhelmed by opinions and advice.
So do personal pronouns really matter in a business’s Instagram post captions?
According to Social Media Today, the personal pronouns a company uses does matter, and according to research done by Ryan E Cruz et al., using second person pronouns—you—increases company social media engagement.
Clearly, then, there is motivation to use personal pronouns, but how are book publishers using them in their Instagram posts to help their companies stand out? I decided to gather some data to find out.
I collected data from five different book publishing companies: Harper Collins, Penguin Random House, Hachette, Scholastic, and Macmillan. After searching through the publishing companies’ Instagram pages, I randomly selected 5 Instagram post captions from each company. I then counted the number of times each post used different personal pronounces such as you, we, and I. After counting the number of personal pronouns used in the randomized sample of posts, here are three ways that book publishing companies use personal pronouns in their Instagram post captions:
- Use you in questions to address and engage with readers. The most commonly used personal pronoun among publishing companies in their Instagram captions is you. Book publishers use you in questions to ask readers things like, “What book are you most happy you read this year?” This gives Instagram users a chance to voice their thoughts and opinions.
- Use we to refer to the publishing team. Within their Instagram captions, publishers use we most often in reference to a publishing team. We shows community.
- Use I when a guest author is shared on a post. The least-used personal pronoun in publisher’s Instagram captions was I. However, publishers occasionally used I when quoting an author.
So, as a book publishing company mixing in the flood of businesses on Instagram, maybe you don’t need to be the loudest person on Instagram—you just need to be the one who wants to listen. To do this, use you in most of your Instagram post captions and ask your readers for their opinions.