Instagram has rolled out a new way for users to share Stories content, with the option to immediately re-share posts in which they’ve been tagged.
As explained by Instagram:
“When someone mentions you in their story, you receive a notification in your Direct message thread with that person – now, you’ll see an option to add that content to your own story. Tap it to see that story as a sticker – you can scale, rotate and position it and add creative tools like text or stickers on to it as well.”
Really, it’s not a heap different from their recently announced update which enables users to share any Insta post within their own Story, though this one is more aimed at direct interaction and engagement between friends, as opposed to sharing random posts.
When you do re-share a post in your Story, the original poster’s username will be shown at the top of the image panel (you can see this in the last two images in the above sequence). Their username will also be tappable, helping to generate exposure for that profile.
This could come in handy for brand use – with brand pages are alerted to Stories tags, they could use that as an impetus to run competitions or gather UGC. You could, for example, call on your followers to @mention your brand profile for a chance to appear in your official brand story. If you have a large enough following, the lure of the extra exposure they could get by doing this may be enough, in itself, to inspire extra engagement and interaction.
It may also make it easier to conduct influencer marketing partnerships, with the influencer able to tag the brand they’re working with, enabling the brand to then easily add that content to their own story.
The only proviso on the new option is that only public accounts can have their stories shared. But you’d kind of assume that, right? If you’re posting privately, you’re obviously doing so for a reason.
While it is a relatively small addition, it does have a range of potential uses, particularly for brands.
And on the brand front, Instagram also recently announced that more image sizes are now supported in Stories ads.
The options for brand reach on Instagram are growing, and with the recent change in management at the platform, it’ll be interesting to see what direction the app heads in next.