You will be able to write a post caption that supports the video and invites a response.
You finish a video you are proud of, open the app to post it, and reach the caption box. It is late and you are tired, so you type what the video is about, add a few emojis and a string of hashtags, and post. The caption repeats the video, word for word in places, and gives a viewer nothing new.
The post caption is the text that sits under or beside your video in the feed. It is a different thing from the captions on screen, which you added in lesson 5.4. A good post caption does a job the video cannot do, and it takes ten minutes to write well.
Most apps show only the first line or two of a caption in the feed, then cut it off with a "more" link. Where exactly the cut-off falls depends on the platform, the device and the length of the words, and it changes, so do not plan around a character count. Plan around the fact that most viewers will read only the start.
Put the most useful words at the very beginning. That might be the main point of the video in a sentence, a question, or a detail that makes someone want to tap "more". Avoid wasting the first line on "New video" or "Happy Friday everyone" or a row of emojis.
Mei Ling's first caption for her hot car video began: "New video. Hope you like it." Her rewrite began: "We tested this in a car parked in the sun for 40 minutes." The second version gives a reason to keep reading, and it adds information the video did not have.
A caption that repeats the video is wasted space. The viewer has just watched it. Use the caption for one of three things instead.
Context. Why you made the video, who it is for or what prompted it. "A parent messaged us last week after her son's cake slid off the seat on the way to a party in Jurong. This is what we now tell everyone."
A detail you left out. Short videos have room for one idea, as lesson 4.2 said, and the caption is where the extra detail goes. The exact cooler bag size, the second fabric option, the topic the worksheet came from, the one exception to the tip.
A question that invites comments. "What is the furthest you have driven with a birthday cake?" "Which school topic does your child find hardest to explain at home?" A real question, specific enough to answer, gets replies. A generic "Thoughts?" rarely does.
Pick one or two of these for each post. A caption that tries to do all three at length becomes something people skip.
People increasingly search inside social apps the way they search on Google: "birthday cake delivery Punggol", "P5 maths tips", "office blouse that doesn't gap". Platforms use the words in your caption, your on-screen text and sometimes your spoken audio to work out what a video is about and who it might suit when someone searches.
So write the plain words a buyer would type. If your video is about cake delivery in Punggol, say "cake delivery" and "Punggol" in the caption, in a natural sentence. Do not cram in keywords one after another, which reads badly and helps no one. One clear sentence containing the right words does the job.
If you took SEO and AI search, this is the same idea as matching the words on a page to the search, applied inside an app. The details of how each platform's search works are not published in full and change often, so treat it as good practice rather than a guaranteed result.
The end of the caption is where you can repeat or add a single next step. Lesson 4.1 made the case for one action rather than many, and the same applies here.
Choose the step that fits the video. "Save this for your next party." "Message us your date and we will tell you if we can make it." "Follow for a new parent tip every Thursday." One line, plainly said.
Avoid a list: "Like, share, comment, follow, tag a friend, link in bio, DM us." A viewer who reads that does none of it. One clear ask is more likely to be acted on.
Here is Mei Ling's finished caption, as an example.
"We tested this in a car parked in the sun for 40 minutes. The cooler bag in the video is the medium size, and the ice packs go under the box, not on top. If you are driving to a party with a cream cake this weekend, what is the longest drive you have to make? Message us your date if you need a cake that travels."
The first line hooks. The second sentence adds two details the video did not have. The question invites a comment from exactly the right people, and the last line is the one next step. Her searchable words, cream cake, cooler bag and party, are there naturally.
Now write one for your own finished video from lesson 5.5: a strong first line, one added detail, and one question.
Write a post caption for your finished video with a strong first line, one added detail and one question.
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