We’ve all been in that situation before.
We get our hands on an awesome graphic.
It could be a meme, an inspiring post your design team created, a photo from the good old days, or an infographic.
But the problem is we can’t find ourselves posting it because generating a caption is just too difficult.
Well, have no fear.
In today’s guide, we look to create captions with ChatGPT, using our BAMF-engineered prompt.
What is this Prompt For?
This prompt is designed to work on multiple platforms as long as you can fill in the blanks and provide ChatGPT with a good description of the image that you have.
So say you wanted to upload an infographic, you would still to need explain the main points of the infographic for ChatGPT to be able to synthesize the information that you do have.
After that, it’s just a matter of feeding it a couple of examples to work off of and providing it with specific limitations.
As of now, we designed the prompt to be as general as possible, the reason being that we wanted it to “play well” with everything that you have.
Now, you would still have to come in and tweak the final caption, but it provides you with the ability to get virtually unlimited automatically generated captions.
If you don’t feel like having AI write your captions, you may also use it as a springboard to get a couple of examples that you can work from.
As we always say.
If you have the time, ability, and extra creativity to come up with something original, then go for it.
Nothing beats something you’ve written from scratch.
But there’s absolutely nothing wrong with using AI to help you make your job easier.
So feel free to use this prompt and be more efficient!
Read more: Copy that Converts: Creating Landing Pages with ChatGPT
The Prompt to Create Captions with ChatGPT
Our prompt is rather long so bear with us.
I am a *what do you do for a living* and I need to write a caption for an image that I want to post on the *what platform* platform.
My audience has the following characteristics: *demographic details of your audience*
Image description and some context:
– *detail/context 1*
– *detail/context 2*
Craft *number of captions you need* caption variations that captivates my audience on *what platform* a brief, attention-grabbing description that adds meaning, emotion, and context to the visual content. Aim for a caption length of *number*-*number words.
*OPTIONAL Here are examples of captions I have used in the past:*
Guidelines:
– It has to be infused with emotion and create a connection with the visual content
– Try to engage the senses to take the viewer to the scene, and complement the visual image.
– Add to the mood the image
– Align the captions with the essence of the image
– Feel free to experiment as long as you align the captions right
Important Notes:
– The caption has to abide by the rules of the platform.
– It has to be original and related to the visual element described
– Generate *number* variations for me to choose from
– Include hashtags (don’t count these towards the word count)
Calling it long would be a significant understatement, this is one of our more robust prompts that covers all your bases.
We start off with a description of what we do and who our audience is so that ChatGPT can form an image as to who it is you’re writing to. And then, we go on to provide details and context about the visuals so that it can relate that context with its AI “imagination”.
Next, we added an optional field that you can use to “import” your own voice into the captions. All you have to do is add examples of old captions.
Then, we added a robust instruction set that prioritizes emotion.
Why?
Your goal for visuals is emotion.
And by bringing that out in the beginning, you can get more engagement.
Lastly, we cap it all off with a good helping of general guidelines such as following the rules set by the platform so it does not go too far.
The Output
For a quick sample of the prompt in play, we used our basic filler template.
But this time, we imagined we were writing a caption about a red car, and infused a small phrase about its story.
And wow, did we get a couple of great captions.
Let’s check out the prompt and the output.
I am a LinkedIn marketer and I need to write a caption for an image that I want to post on the LinkedIn platform.
My audience has the following characteristics: they are startup founders who are fun loving and in the 21-50 age group.
Image description and some context:
– red car
– first car gifted to me by my grandfather who also taught me about success
Craft 5 caption variations that captivates my audience on LinkedIn a brief, attention-grabbing description that adds meaning, emotion, and context to the visual content. Aim for a caption length of 50-75 words.
Here are examples of captions I have used in the past:
Guidelines:
– It has to be infused with emotion and create a connection with the visual content
– Try to engage the senses to take the viewer to the scene, and complement the visual image.
– Add to the mood the image
– Align the captions with the essence of the image
– Feel free to experiment as long as you align the captions right
Important Notes
– The caption has to abide by the rules of the platform.
– It has to be original and related to the visual element described
– Generate 5 variations for me to choose from
– Include hashtags (don’t count these towards the word count)
But how about if it was for a different platform?
Check out the output if it was written for Instagram.
We decided to have a little fun with it and check how it would write for an audience that was super serious.
Needless to say, the prompt is powerful.
Takeaways
As you can see, this is one of the more powerful prompts we have because of the details that we’ve fed ChatGPT, but as with all prompts, it would help if you added a little more of your personal touches to it.
Adding personalization can mean the difference between making a connection or having a prospect just scroll through your post like any other.
One way to use this prompt is to utilize it for more than just visuals but video as well, and all you have to do is make a couple of minor tweaks to get it to do that.
We suggest that you make as many tweaks as possible to get it to sound apt for your project.
For example:
Another way to use this prompt is for idea generation and as a basis for your original prompts.
Remember, better captions equal better engagements!
Stay golden folks!
Read more: How to Get LinkedIn Top Voice: The Science Behind the Community
