Being able to share an Instagram post to your story is a great way to boost engagement on your posts and easily share user-generated content.
But the tricky part is making sure your repost is aligned with your Instagram Stories aesthetic.
Fear not! We’re covering how you can share an Instagram post to your story with a generous side order of design hacks to keep your aesthetic at the top of its game:
How to Share an Instagram Post to Your Story
Sharing an Instagram post to your story is a great way to gain valuable extra exposure for your content.
Whether you want to share your own post to your stories feed, or you’re reposting a cool piece of user-generated content, it’s super-simple to share:
- Tap the paper airplane icon (share button) underneath a feed post.
- Select “Add Post to Your Story”.
- Edit the post in your Instagram Story — you can move, rotate, scale, and tap to explore other sticker styles.
Posts shared to stories become clickable stickers — creating a direct link back to the original Instagram post.
Plus, the original poster’s username will be clearly displayed, which is great for fairly crediting the contributors of user-generated content (UGC).
The whole process, end-to-end, takes less than 10 seconds!
Storyluxe regularly uses this quick and easy method to share UGC on their stories:
PSA: Did you know that you can easily search for posts to share to your Instagram Stories right from Later?
You can search by hashtags in Later to find user-generated content in seconds, making your UGC collection process easier than ever!
6 Design Hacks to Share an Instagram Post to Your Story
Searching for and sharing an Instagram post to your story may be quick and easy, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best thing for your brand aesthetic on Instagram Stories.
Thanks to the rise in easy-to-use design apps — such as Storyluxe, Unfold, StoryBoost, and Over — high-quality and on-brand Instagram Stories are rapidly becoming the norm.
For example, Mr Porter always creates aesthetically-pleasing stories in their trademark editorial designs.
User-generated content is both on-trend and an extremely useful marketing strategy for brands, so being able to share an Instagram post that fits in with your aesthetic is a recipe for success!
Thankfully, we’ve got several design hacks to make sure your Instagram Stories are always looking their best when you repost UGC.
Hack #1 to Share an Instagram Post to Your Story: Use the Brush Tool for a Quick Fix
One of the easiest ways to make your Instagram Stories feel more on brand is by integrating your brand’s color palette — and this little known hack is one of the quickest ways to do it!
Simply select the brush tool, pick any color (or use the color picker to sample a color from the feed post) and then tap and hold the background for 1-3 seconds.
This is a great way to quickly make your repost stickers look more uniform and on brand.
For example, coffee-based skin care brand Frank Body uses their signature swatches of pink to frame all of their reposts on stories.
TIP: If your brand colors aren’t readily available in the stories color menu, tap and long-hold any of the default color options at the bottom of the screen to open the color slider.
Hack #2 to Share an Instagram Post to Your Story: Copy and Paste a Design Overlay
Imagine if you could create a totally on-brand Instagram Story slide, and still be able to click through to the original Instagram post.
Well with this design hack, you can!
Here are just a few examples of this hack in action on the Later Instagram account:
Here’s how to do it!
Step #1: Take a screenshot of the Instagram post you want to share on your story.
Step #2: Using an editing app (like Over, StoryBoost, Unfold, Mojo, or Storyluxe) create an Instagram Story design to sit on top of the repost sticker. You may want to use the screenshot of the original post in this design. Once completed, save this design to your Camera Roll.
Here’s an example of a quick Instagram Story design template from Unfold:
Step #3: Open the design in your Camera Roll, select the “Share” icon, and tap “Copy”.
Step #4: Now, go back into the Instagram app, and follow the steps to share a feed post to your story.
TRAFFIC-BOOSTING TIP: Make the repost sticker as big as possible — so there is more “clickable” surface area behind your design!
Step #5: Tap on the story to open a text editor, and then hold down for a second until the “Paste” button pops up. Click “Paste” to import your design.
Step #6: Move and scale your design to fit the screen (covering the repost sticker) and add extra text or GIFs to really bring the post to life.
The finished story will still contain a link back to the original feed post — even if it’s hidden from view by the design you’ve pasted over it!
UGC TIP: Always credit the original poster in your design overlay (especially when it comes to user-generated content) and include text or a GIF to encourage more click-throughs, such as “Tap Here”!
Looking to get started with using Instagram Stories for your business? Check out our free 45-minute video course on how to design beautiful Instagram Stories that will help you get more followers, traffic, and sales!
Hack #3 to Share an Instagram Post to Your Story: Use Cute Instagram Overlay Stickers
Now you’re up to speed with the copy and paste hack, you can use it to add all sorts of cool design elements to your Instagram Stories.
Instagram overlay stickers are one of the biggest trends of 2019 — and they’re a quick and easy way to add a pop of personality to your content!
Influencers and designers, like Mallory Joy, regularly add Instagram overlay stickers to their stories for an extra creative touch.
Once you’ve found overlay stickers that suit your brand style (check out this blog post for some killer examples!) simply download a pack of Instagram overlay stickers (a PNG file) to your Camera Roll, and use the copy and paste trick to add them to a story.
Ready to get creative with Instagram overlay stickers? We created our own FREE Instagram Overlay Sticker Pack!
Hack #4 to Share an Instagram Post to Your Story: Create a Collage Effect by Copy and Pasting Images
And you can use the same copy and paste trick to layer up images, too!
Creating a picture collage on Instagram is already a popular trend, with brands such as Summer Fridays regularly sharing them on their stories.
To create a similar effect on a repost sticker story, simply copy and paste several images around the post — making sure that the original post is still easily clickable and clearly credited.
Layering up images in this way is a quick and fun way to make repost stickers look more curated and on-brand — and you can also edit the background color (using Hack #1) once you’re happy with the layout!
Hack #5 to Share an Instagram Post to Your Story: Add Text, Brush Strokes, GIFs and Instagram Stickers
Even without any secret design hacks, you can still get super creative with the tools available in the Instagram Stories editor!
Text, brush strokes, GIFs, and stickers can transform a simple post — making it more engaging and better aligned with your brand.
And you can even create custom Instagram Stories GIFs to add to your stories — making your GIFs even more on-brand.
At Later, we design custom Instagram Stories GIFs for different events and campaigns, making it really easy to make our stories more branded.
Looking to level-up your Instagram Stories? Find out how to create custom Instagram Stories GIFs for your brand!
Design Hack #6: Fill the Whole Screen With the Repost Sticker
Last but not least, you can fill the whole screen with a repost sticker — removing the background element altogether!
This may seem like a quick and easy fix, but there are some things to keep in mind.
First off, it’s important to make sure the repost sticker looks good at a bigger scale — as low quality images can easily look grainy or distorted.
Take note of how Memobottle uses this hack with super high-quality UGC:
And for user-generated content, it’s a good idea to make sure the original poster is still clearly credited — even if it’s through a text overlay!
Sharing Instagram posts to stories is a great way to integrate more user-generated content into your content strategy — which can be a powerful tool for strengthening the sense of community on your channel.
Plus, by sharing your own posts as repost stickers on stories, you can drive even more traffic to your feed.
With these top design hacks, you’ll never have to compromise the aesthetic of your Instagram Stores again!
Ready to elevate your Instagram Stories strategy? Start planning and scheduling your Instagram Stories with Later — available on all paid plans, starting at just $9/month!
