Another great question from a reader via my contact form. This one continues on my previous posts where I explain how to share a tweet to Facebook and how to share a Facebook post to Twitter.
Hey Sean,
Thanks for the great tip on sharing a tweet directly to Facebook. Along that topic, is there a good way to share a tweet to Instagram? I see quite a few Instagram tweets (usually humorous ones), but it looks like they are images. Is there a better way to link Twitter to Instagram so I can share my tweets? I would like to be able to share memes from Twitter to Instagram when I find ones I like.
Thanks!
Mike
As always, I appreciate the questions from my readers. Rather than just respond via email or in a comment, I find it helpful to others to turn the response into a blog post.
So, here are my thoughts on how to share a post to Instagram that contains a tweet.
Please note: Some of the links in my posts are affiliate links. I get commissions for purchases made through those links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases when you buy something from those links.
Table Of Contents - Click To Expand Or Hide -->
- Why ShareTweet To Instagram?
- One Note Before You Start Sharing Other People’s Tweets To Instagram
- Steps To Share A Tweet From Twitter To Instagram
- Option 1 – Save It As An Image To Your Mobile Device And Then Share It To Instagram
- Option 2 – Screen Capture The Tweet And Post It As An Image To Instagram
- Remember To Add Those Hashtags In Order To Maximize Your Reach
- Can Sharing Tweets To Instagram Help Drive Traffic To Your Blog?
- Option 1 – Customize your profile link and drive traffic through it
- Option 2 – Use “Swipe Up” in Instagram Stories to drive traffic
- Share This Post With A Pin!
Why ShareTweet To Instagram?
I have been asked on numerous occasions whether there is an easy way to cross-post content from Twitter to Instagram.
To be honest, my response is usually with the question “why?”. With Tweets often being text and Instagram being a much more image-focused social network, it seems (at first glance) that the two networks aren’t really sympatico.
The responses, to my question, however, often shed light on why people find it useful to share a tweet. The responses often include replies like:
- I like to share funny images and memes with my Instagram audience and Twitter is a good source for humor.
- Sometimes a great quote is shared on Twitter and I want to share the tweet to my Instagram account.
- There’s a lot of humor on Twitter, but it’s hard to sift through. So, I’d rather download the tweet and share it to Instagram where I feel like I’ll get more engagement.
- Sometimes, a quote is a fun thing to share on Instagram. Even though it’s text, it still resonates with an Instagram audience.
- I don’t have a Twitter account, but I do browse Twitter and find some valuable content there that my Instagram audience would probably like so I’d like to find a way to be able to Instagram twitter posts.
All valid reasons…especially considering that there appear to be a lot of users who love to see tweets as part of their Instagram content.
While I’m not a huge ‘grammer, I do post occasionally on Instagram and have been known to post text-based images such as the one below that I posted on #NationalCoffeeDay.
View this post on Instagram
#livingthedream #coffee #nationalcoffeeday
A post shared by Sean R. Nicholson (@socmedsean) on Sep 29, 2017 at 5:11pm PDT
So, let’s dig in to the process of downloading a tweet and then sharing it to Instagram.
NOTE: If you are looking for a way to automatically connect Twitter to Instagram, so your tweets are posted to Instagram…it’s not an option right now. While Instagram does offer the ability to connect to Twitter and automatically post your new Instagram posts to Twitter, the reverse isn’t true. Twitter doesn’t have an option to connect to Instagram and then retweet on Instagram.
One Note Before You Start Sharing Other People’s Tweets To Instagram
Before we get into the steps to share a tweet to Instagram, I feel obligated to remind folks that grabbing other people’s tweets and posting them to your Instagram account can get you into hot water. Copyright laws may apply to the content that was originally tweeted and you don’t want to expose yourself to legal issues by just copying and pasting content that others have created.
Even if legal issues aren’t a problem, if you are swiping other people’s tweets and posting them, you might run into a public PR issue. Just ask the folks who run the @FuckJerry account on Instagram, a popular account with more than 14 million fans and is running into a PR crisis because they repeatedly screen capture tweets from popular comedians and post them as their own content.
The growing #FuckFuckJerry hashtag movement is raising awareness about the fact that they are essentially “pirating” content from sources with attributing them or seeking their permission and sometimes using them in promoted content (aka ads) to sell their card game or their tequila. As you can imagine, comedians are a bit upset at the fact the account is appropriating their content, profile picture, and name to sell merchandise.
So…a word the wise, don’t just start copying images from Twitter and posting them to Instagram. Instead, focus on re-posting your own content, unless you have permission from the original author and/or attribute them accordingly. The last thing you want is for your account to be shadow-banned or even fully banned based on your activity. If that happens, getting help from Instagram can be tough!
Steps To Share A Tweet From Twitter To Instagram
Option 1 – Save It As An Image To Your Mobile Device And Then Share It To Instagram
This one can vary slightly, depending on whether you want to share just an image that was tweeted or whether you want to share the tweet itself.
If you want to save a Twitter picture and then add it to Instagram, then you have to download a copy of the image from Twitter and then upload it to Instagram:
Step 1 – Navigate to the tweet that contains the image. So, for example, this tweet by me sharing 10 ways to justify the use of social media for business.
Step 2 – If you are using a desktop browser like Chrome, Firefox, or Safari then right-click on the image and choose Save Image As….
Step 3 – Save the image to your desktop and remember where you save it, like your desktop.
Step 4 – If you are posting from your desktop, then you’ll need to follow the instructions in this post to share your image to Instagram from your desktop.
Step 5 – If you are saving the image from a mobile device, then long-press on the image and save it to your device.
To save a Twitter image to your mobile device, try long-pressing on the image and choosing to save it.
Step 1 – Open the Instagram app and share the image from the location on your mobile device.
Step 2 – BE SURE to attribute the source of the image in your Instagram post. That ensures that the original author gets some credit for the image.
There are ways to share Tweets to Instagram...they just aren't as easy as sharing to other social media platforms. Here are some tips. Click To TweetNOTE: Some Twitter clients have disabled the ability to long-press and save the image to your local device. If you run into this, try opening the tweet in a browser like Chrome. You should be able to long-press and save the image from there.
Option 2 – Screen Capture The Tweet And Post It As An Image To Instagram
If, on the other hand, you want to share the tweet and the image, you will need to screen capture the image and then share it.
Step 1 – If you’re using a desktop browser, you can screen capture by pressing Alt + PrtScr on your desktop for Windows or Shift-Command-5 on a Mac.
Step 2 – On a mobile device, there is a combination of buttons or motions that you can use to capture the screen. Since mobile devices vary, I’ll let you look up how to capture the screen for your specific device.NOTE: If you captured the entire screen, then you need to crop the image down to only show the tweet prior to posting it. You can do that with a simple photo editor like Paint.NET (not Microsoft Paint).
Step 3 – Once you have the tweet captured and cropped, you can either post it from your desktop using the process outlined in step 4 above, or you can post it to Instagram using the mobile app if you captured it on your mobile device.
Step 4 – AGAIN, BE SURE to attribute the source of the image in your Instagram post. That ensures that the original author gets some credit for the image.
Remember To Add Those Hashtags In Order To Maximize Your Reach
The best way to expand the reach of your Instagram post beyond your followers is to leverage hashtags. Not one hashtag…not two hashtags…but up to 30 hashtags per post. The more, popular hashtags you use, the more likely your post will be seen across the vast Instagram ecosystem.
If you need a better understanding of how the Instagram hashtag game is played and how to make it easier to leverage, check out this post all about Instagram hashtags.
Can Sharing Tweets To Instagram Help Drive Traffic To Your Blog?
One more question that I hear quite a bit related to Instagram is whether the channel can actually drive any traffic to a blog or website. Unlike channels like Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, and Twitter, Instagram doesn’t allow any clickable hyperlinks in their images (other than tags to other Instagram users) and hyperlinks aren’t even allowed in the description of the image or comments.
As a result, finding ways to drive traffic to a Web destination can be tough.
There are two primary ways to generate clicks from your Instagram photo to your Web site:
Option 1 – Customize your profile link and drive traffic through it
While Instagram doesn’t allow for hyperlinks in the posts/photos, each member is provided with the ability have one URL in your profile. As a result, you can post a photo to Instagram and add a note in your photo description to “click the link in bio to learn more”. So, basically you are just using the URL profile link to put a twitter link in your Instagram bio.
You can use the website link in your Instagram profile to drive traffic to your blog or website or you can add a link to Twitter.
The upside to this is that people can click through to your site. It’s handy in those cases where the URL doesn’t ever need to change.
For instance, when I publish a new blog post, I could post an Instagram photo and ask people to “check out my posts by clicking the link in my profile”. I would then link to the homepage of SocMedSean.com where they could browse through the posts.
The downside is that you can’t change the link. If you updated the link to your newest post every time you publish something, then the links in your previous Instagram posts wouldn’t make sense anymore.
One of your followers might see the old post and click through the link, expecting to see that old post. What they get, instead, is your newest post.
Not the greatest user experience.
Option 2 – Use “Swipe Up” in Instagram Stories to drive traffic
The other option to drive Instagram traffic to your blog is to use the “Swipe Up” feature in Instagram stories. When a user views the story and swipes up, they are directed to your URL.
The upside is it’s a great way to grab traffic from your diehard followers….those who watch your Instagram stories. Arguably, these are your most devoted fans.
The downside is you have to have access to the “Swipe Up” feature. To get access to that feature, you have to either have a verified account OR have 10,000 followers of your business account. Not really an option for 99% of the Instagram community.
The other downside is that the story only lives for a short period of time. After 24 hours, the story, and the associated link, will begin to disappear from Instagram.
Not exactly a way to create ongoing, long-tail traffic links to your blog or Website.
So, there you have it. Some options and reasons for posting a tweet to Instagram.
I hope that helps some folks who want to share a post from Twitter to Instagram. If you have a better way or have had an experience with sharing tweets on Instagram, be sure to share your thoughts in the comments. Those comments are often really helpful to other folks out there.