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There are many benefits to incorporating reposting into your social media marketing plan. Reposting is an excellent way to engage with your followers and interact with social media influencers. Reposting is also an easy way to gather user-generated content for your social media platforms. There are, however, dos and don’ts when it comes to reposting. We’ve gathered some of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to reposting, as well as a list of useful tools to help guide you toward incorporating this strategy into your own social media marketing plans.
How to Properly Repost on Social Media
Am I stealing someone else’s ideas if I repost their content?
The internet is considered a public space. If you were walking down the street and overheard something brilliant and then repeated it at lunch, no one would say you were stealing. But, there is a common courtesy you should extend to the original poster, which is to give them credit for their original content. Tag them in a comment, the caption, or use a reposting app in order to give credit where it is due. This helps prevent original posters from feeling like you’re trying to pass their photos or content off as your own handy work.
What should I be reposting?
Consider your own audience when searching for content to repost. It’s tempting to see something you love personally and instantly want to share with your followers—perhaps you’re planning a European vacation and see a breathtaking photo of an ancient castle. Yes! Totally share worthy! Not really. You own a high-end car detailing company that has nothing to do with travel, and while the photo is beautiful, has nothing to do with your own services and has no place on your feed. Another tip is to repost content that had high engagement rates. Try to choose posts that have a healthy number of likes or that sparked good conversation in the comments.
Do I need to ask the content creator to repost?
That’s up to you. Like we mentioned before, the internet is a public space. As long as you give credit to the original poster, you should be good, however, there are benefits to asking permission. If you’re hoping to repost from a popular influencer on social media, it’s not a bad tactic to get on their radar by asking to utilize their content. It could be the beginning of a symbiotic relationship. Also, if the influencer knows you’re going to be reposting their content, ask that they comment on your repost to give you more credit with your followers.
How do I find relevant content to repost?
Do a hashtag search! Search hashtags that are relevant to your business to find posts that will be appropriate for your followers. You should also start promoting your own branded hashtags on social media, online, and in-store to encourage more user-generated content specific to your company. Once you’ve trained your regular followers to include these tags when posting about your company, you’ll end up with a lot more original content to choose from and they’ll serve as free advertising for you as well.
Why should I be reposting content in the first place?
Logistically, it’s a simple way to fill in content gaps in your own social media plan. Someone else has already done the deep thinking required to create a quality post, so why reinvent the wheel? Reposting content from influencers especially ensures you’re using quality visuals you may be lacking otherwise. As it relates to your brand, showing your customers that extra bit of attention makes them feel valued and like you appreciate their promotion of your business. It also encourages them to continue posting on your behalf since you took the time to recognize they’d done so.
How to Repost: Tips and Tools
- Repost for Instagram: This app allows you to post images which include the users handle along with the direct caption from the original post.
- Repostwhiz and Save and Repost for Instagram: These apps are similar as they both provide a reposting function within the app, with the added option of the photo or video to your phone’s library.
- Repost via Instant: For Android users, a standard reposting app much like the above.
- Screenshot: You’ll need to remember to do a few more things if you’re simply going to repost using the screenshot method. Simply take a screenshot and crop the photo to post. Remember to tag the original poster, give them a little shout-out then add your own caption to the post.
- Share: Clicking the share button on something you’d like to repost is super simple and ensures you’re giving credit to the original poster.
- Upload: If you’d like to repost a blog post, you can copy the link into your text. Make sure to delete the URL from your comment block.
- Retweet: Simple as that!
- Uploading: If you’re going to upload someone else’s content, just be sure to tag them since a simple upload won’t do this for you.
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Mallory Adkins
Mallory is a professional fundraiser, writer, and marketer for a non-profit organization based in Phoenix, AZ. She has developed website content for multiple national organizations and focuses most of her energy on fundraising through special events. She is passionate about small business development and the ASU Sun Devils, her alma mater.