Update – Unfortunately it seems like Facebook does not support this option right now. Hopefully they will add it back because it was very helpful!
If there’s ANYTHING about social media marketing that drives me absolutely insane, it’s seeing people auto-post across their social media platforms.
ARRRRGH! It’s such a bad idea, for many reasons!
When you automate cross-posting between your accounts, you’re not giving your followers any reason to follow you everywhere! Why would someone follow you on Instagram if they are already seeing your posts on Facebook? You want to post fresh content on all your different channels to keep your followers entertained and interested.
Plus, Facebook and Instagram are very different platforms. You may have different types of audiences! Maybe your Instagram following is mostly industry peers, but your clients follow you on Facebook. You’re going to want to show these two different types of content.
And let’s talk about formatting. When you write an Instagram post, the “@” names you tag and all those hashtags are going to look downright silly on Facebook. You might as well shout to your followers, “Look at me! I’m SUPER lazy!”
Finally there’s the issue of the algorithm. Yes, Facebook owns Instagram, BUT, Facebook favors fresh, original content. So those auto-posts you’re sending to your Facebook Page? Facebook is going to limit their reach.
Now, that’s not to say you can’t utilize that amazing Instagram photo for Facebook, because you totally can! Your caption just has to be different. Luckily, Facebook and Instagram have given us a tool to make this VERY easy! I’m going to teach you how to set it up, and also give you an example of how I recently used this to great results.
How to Share Your Instagram Photos to Your Facebook Page without Auto-Posting
First, you’ll need to make sure your Instagram account and your Facebook Page (business page, not personal profile) are connected. If you are already set up for auto-posting, then you can probably skip this step.
If you aren’t, here’s what to do:
(Note – you’ll need to have an Instagram business account for this.)
1) Open the Instagram app and go to your settings (the gear icon on your profile).
2) Scroll down to “Linked Accounts” and tap.
3) Click on “Facebook” and follow the instructions to link your Facebook Page. Make sure “Share Your Posts to Facebook” is NOT selected.
Once your accounts are linked, you’ll see your Instagram photos will start showing up on your Facebook Page on your desktop. But only YOU can see them!
Click one of the photos and it will populate into a new post. All you have to do is add a caption and hit “Publish!”
So easy! What I generally do is share an Instagram photo that’s a couple days old … or a couple months old! Chances are my Facebook followers didn’t see the same picture on Instagram, but even if they did, I’ll post it with a different comment so it will be a unique post!
Real quick, I want to share a success story that happened when using this method.
A few days ago I posted this photo taken of me during a very hot summer day at Disneyland to Instagram with the caption: “I’m wishing …. I’m wishing … for less heat and humidity, please and thank you.” It did pretty well on Instagram!
The next day, I used this method to share the same photo on Facebook, but with a much different caption. I like to keep things happy and light on my Instagram because a lot of people follow me for my happy Disneyland photos. But on Facebook, I have a smaller, more intimate following and I can be a little more real. So I posted this photo with a caption expressing I was feeling self-conscious of my tummy and my weight, and spoke a little bit about body image and how hard women are on ourselves.
I wasn’t expecting it but this Facebook post BLEW UP. I had tons of comments from women saying they related to my post. In fact, I had such a good response that I turned the whole conversation into a blog post.
If I had swapped those captions, and posted the “happy” one to Facebook and the more serious caption on Instagram, I would not have had the same engagement. Because I have different types of audiences on each platform.
I highly, highly recommend turning off your auto-posting and using this method instead. It takes just a couple minutes to pull up your Facebook Page and share one of your Instagram photos with a fresh new caption. The results will be worth it!
