A few months after releasing Buffer for Instagram, the social media dashboard today introduced Reposting by Buffer.
Scheduling posts on Instagram via Buffer is seamless. This new reposting feature takes it to the next level by allowing users to repost any content they come across on Instagram and add it to their Buffer or repost it immediately.
The Art of Reposting
One of the best aspects of social media is being able to share something with your followers.
On Twitter, you can retweet. On Facebook, there’s the option to share a post.
On Instagram, you can repost, which is essentially a way to share a picture from another Instagram user with your followers. Though reposting isn’t an official feature of Instagram’s apps or website, many brands and users have been doing it for a while now via third-party apps.
The Buffer team has been using reposting as a tool to grow its audience, which resulted in a 60% increase in under three months.
Why is Reposting Useful for Brands?
Instagram is used by nearly half of all brands and generates engagement rates that are 10 times higher than Facebook.
Instagram has become a critical network for brands.
In fact, 48.8% of brands are on Instagram. This figure is predicted to rise to 70.7% by 2017.
What’s more, those brands already using Instagram are seeing great engagement. A Forrester study showed engagement with brands on Instagram is 10x higher than Facebook, 54x higher than Pinterest, and 84x higher than Twitter.
Instagram Etiquette 101: Permission
Learning how to repost on Instagram is the key to advancing your marketing strategy on the photo-sharing platform.
Before you repost, it is best to request permission from the original poster to repost their work.
You can do this in a few ways:
- Send the original poster a direct message in Instagram
- Comment on their photo to start the conversation
- Connect via email to iron out the details and get explicit permission
Reposting By Buffer
To repost on Instagram through Buffer, find the picture you’d like to repost within the Instagram app, then tap on the three dots ‘…’ icon next to the image, and then tap ‘Copy Share URL.’
Then, open Buffer for Android or iOS on your phone and tap the ‘Tap here to repost your image from Instagram’ notification.
This eliminates the need for a third-party app to re-share another person’s content.
One of the biggest differences between using Buffer and another social dashboard for Instagram is that Buffer allows users to take an Instagram photo they’d like to repost and share it on other platforms connected to their Buffer account as well, such as Twitter, Facebook, and others.
Another big difference is that, as they released Reminders for Instagram, users don’t need to immediately repost the photo. They can add it to their Buffer queue or set it to go out at a later time and be reminded of it then.