Incorporating others’ content into your Instagram feed is a common and effective Instagram strategy. User-generated content (UGC) is often used by brands to showcase their customers and influencers. To find UGC, read up on how to listen and monitor on Instagram.
To use UGC, you’ll need to know how to regram on Instagram. In this article, we’ll walk you through a few of your regramming options. Options vary from free to paid tools and apps.
Can I regram without leaving Instagram?
No – unlike Twitter and Facebook with their easy Retweet and Share features, Instagram does not have a repost button. Since its inception, Instagram has maintained a preference for original content. But that certainly doesn’t stop its users for finding creative ways to regram.
As you can see above, sharing to other networks is easy but it is not possible to regram without the help of another app or program. Later on in this article, we’ll provide you with several different ways to regram.
When it comes to directly publishing to Instagram with an app, it’s important to note that it’s offered for business accounts and official Instagram Partners. Be wary of apps that are not part of the official program but still offer the service.
How to regram manually with a screenshot
Without the use of another app, you always have the screenshot option.
Here’s how to regram with a screenshot:
- Find the post that you want to regram.
- Screenshot on your phone.
- Crop the photo to take out all extra materials.
- Create a new Instagram post with the fresh photo.
User beware, though, this method is limited by your phone model’s resolution. If you have an older model, your photo may display a little blurrier to someone using a new model.
How to regram with Sprout Social
Because Sprout Social is an official Instagram Partner, we can offer both the repost function and the auto-publishing function via our mobile app.
Here’s how to regram with Sprout Social:
- Find the post you want to repost.
- Click on the three dots in the upper right corner of the post.
- Click copy link.
- Open the Sprout Social app
- Click the in-app notification “Found Instagram Share Link! Tap to Reshare.”
- It’ll open up a prompt. Choose “Schedule or Queue” or “Repost Now.”
- The account’s name, username and first few caption lines will be copied over. Edit to suit your brand’s voice.
- The Instagram post will be automatically published.
The beauty of using Sprout for your regramming efforts is that you can save posts as drafts. There’s no need for you immediately repost the photo. Secondly, the photo that’s reposted does not have a watermark. This is important if you want to keep your feed looking seamless.
In addition to this method of regramming through Sprout, you can also republish posts found with your monitored hashtags through the Feeds tab on the iOS app.
How to regram using Repost for Instagram +
There are many regramming apps out there. Many of these apps are free with paid features, such as removing a watermark. You may also need to contend with watching ads or having them in corners of the apps. Repost for Instagram + is one such app that is free to use.
Here’s how to regram with Repost for Instagram +:
- Find the post you want to regram.
- Click on the three dots in the upper right corner of the post.
- Open up the Repost for Instagram + app.
- The post will appear. You’ll have a choice on which corner to place the repost overlay. You can also have no overlay.
- Choose if you want to copy the caption or not. Click repost. If you do choose to copy the caption, the app will add “Posted @withrepost •”.
- The app will request to open up Instagram.
There are a few pros to using this app. If you aren’t able to invest in a social media management solution yet, a free app is an easy choice. You’re also able to keep potential reposts in the app without publishing them immediately. When you copy a link over to the app, the post will appear in the app along with previously reposted photos. When it comes time to repost, select the one you want and publish it.
Finally, if you only want to only save the images and upload to a social media publisher, go through the motions for reposting. After you click on repost, the image will be saved to your photos.
How to repost with Later
Another free service with paid plans, Later offers a “Search & Repost” feature. You’ll need hashtags to find the post.
Here’s how to regram with Later:
- Find the post you want to repost. Look at its hashtags and identify one to use to search by (the least commonly used would be the easiest).
- Open up Later online.
- Navigate to the left sidebar and find “Search & Repost”.
- Enter one of the hashtags used on the post.
- Find the post and click “Add to Library”.
- The first few lines of the caption and hashtags the user used will be copied over.
- In your library, find the post to schedule it.
Later’s Instagram publishing features are robust. You’re able to upload photos and videos, schedule them as you’d like and preview your Instagram grid. Its free plan limits you on the number of posts you can make in one month.
How to repost in Stories
We’ve been discussing a lot about how to regram in the Instagram feed, but what about Stories? You may find yourself with lots of potential content but it might not fit into your feed for a number of reasons. The post could be too visually off brand for you. Or you want to reshare someone’s Story that mentioned you. Here’s how to repost with Stories.
Reshare from feed to Story
It’s easy to reshare an in-feed post to your Story. Keep in mind that if you are sharing from a private account and you have a public one, you will only be able to share the post in DMs and not in your Story. If you’re unsure if the account is private, a warning will appear when you try and reshare.
- Find the post you want to share.
- Click the airplane share icon.
- Select “Add post to story”.
- Instagram Story will appear in edit mode with the post’s photo embedded in the center.
- If you tap the post, it will change the design and offer the first few words from the caption.
- Add what you’d like to the Story and then click “Your Story” to post it.
When someone sees your Story, they can click the embedded item and it’ll take them directly to the original post.
One fun twist on this is to place the UGC in the Story itself. Converse created a roundup of posts that mentioned them and the result is an entertaining recap.
Repost from Story to Story
Maybe someone’s Story is so good that you want to repost it into your own. Or maybe they mentioned you and you’d like to repost that. For the former, we recommend asking permission to repost and then taking a screenshot. For the latter, it’s easy to do.
- If they mention you, the Story will appear in your DMs.
- Find the DM. Click the “Add this to Your Story” prompt that appears on Stories that can be shared.
- It’ll take you to the Story creation screen where you can resize the Story and add items to the background.
A good example of this tactic in use is Whole Foods’ recap of the best Story mentions they’ve had. See the above video to see how this was put into action.
Reshare from Story to feed
Maybe your Instagram Story had a lot of traction and you think it’d do well in your feed. It’s possible to repurpose your Instagram Story into a feed post.
- Open up the Instagram Story you want to post. It can be a current Story or one in your Archive.
- Select “Share as Post…”
- This will take you to the screen where you can start a new post.
4 Best practices for regramming
Now that you know how to regram, you need to learn about best practices. We do not recommend reposting whatever you want. Be thoughtful and be kind.
1. Ask for permission and give credit
Instagram policy states that the original photographer owns the right of the photo. Using their photo without permission is a violation of this policy. Original photographers can file an intellectual property violation against you, which may lead to post deletion or account disablement with repeat offenses. For more information on what copyright on Instagram means, review their help page.
There are a couple of ways to ask for permission:
- In a comment: post under the photo and ask if you can repost with credit.
- Send the post as a DM to the account and ask for permission.
- Go a step further and add a link to your terms of use like Airbnb does.
2. Keep true to the original photographer
This means you should keep edits at a minimum. Try not to crop or add filters in a way that would take from the original work. Additionally, pay attention to the original caption. If there’s a caption that was written to emotionally match the photo, don’t just take the photo and write about your upcoming sale.
A simple credit line like Girlboss does above is a great way to give credit to the original post.
3. Mix up original and regrammed content
A feed that features only regrammed content is really just a repost account. If you’re a brand with services and products, content is still king and original content still performs well. Using UGC in your strategy should be more about highlighting your customers’ feedback and uses of your product.
4. Keep it on brand
Visually and in writing, you want the items you repost to still be relatively on brand. For example, if you have a brand color of green and it shows up throughout your account’s feed, then you wouldn’t want to repost something that is mostly bright pink.
For captions, if you’re quoting the original post, you’ll want to make sure that it still positively reflects your brand and the brand voice. Check out the user profile to ensure that they’re also a good account to repost from. While it’s not a formal endorsement, reposts still work as a boost for the creator.
Topshop uses a mix of original and regrammed content. You’ll notice that the visual feel of their feed is still relatively the same, though.
Conclusion
Regramming on Instagram is pretty simple now with a variety of apps available to you. The strategy is not only great at creating stronger bonds between you and your customer, it gives you additional content. With this guide, we hope you learned the basics of how to regram and the best practices to use when doing so.