Stop Doing This: Instagram Caption Links

Ok people, consider this your friendly reminder that LINKS INSIDE INSTAGRAM PHOTO CAPTIONS ARE NOT CLICKABLE. It frustrates the shit out of people like me when I see them being used, and I’m not the only one. It’s like showing something off and saying look, but don’t touch. So why in the hell are you still sticking them in there?

Here’s why some of you may still be doing this.

• You’re wishing on a shooting star that one day the geeks at Instagram will enable photo caption links. So all the hard work you’ve done to cut / paste these them into your photo captions will bring you some clicks and SEO value.
  
  
• You’ve got a bit.ly account and want to track every fucking link you’ve ever made.
  
  
• You know they don’t work in the app, but think they work on the website. Newsflash, they don’t work there either.
  
  
• You think that people are actually going to copy the link from your comment, open a browser and paste it into the address bar? Likelihood? About a snowball’s chance in hell. 
  

So, what CAN you do? 

• Use a unique fucking hashtag. No, #TBT is not a unique hashtag. Group your content with unique and relevant hashtags so you can encourage people to explore related content. The wonderful thing about this is that your followers begin to pick up on the hashtags and tag their photos/videos with it. Tell your old, and out of touch boss, that you’re “crowdsourcing” content… he/she will think you’re a fucking genius. Hell, if you really want to go the extra mile you could drop a hashtag contest. Hit up the folks at Pixlee if you’re interested in that. 
  
  
• Go to the profile editor and stick a link in there. You’re only allowed one, but you can change it whenever the fuck you want. Yes, your bit.ly / goo.gl / hit.ly link will work there as well - if you’re the type of analytics whore that wants to know exactly how many clicks you’re driving from your Instagram profile.
  
  
  
• You know who does a good job with this? Freeskier. They’re running a subscription promotion right now, and actually tell people that the link is in their profile. Good work, Hank. *

  

Here’s a short video that illustrates how I feel about people that use links in captions.

* Freeskier also places links inside their Instagram captions, but at least they indicate that you can visit their profile to click the link.