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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.