David Bridges
Discover a simple yet powerful enhancement that could significantly boost your engagement on Instagram (IG). Recent updates reveal that content you choose to re-share within the app may now be displayed directly in your followers’ feeds, potentially increasing your visibility and interaction.
As illustrated in an overview from the Instagram help guide, shared by social media strategist Sarah Roizman, Instagram has introduced a new feature that allows:
“When you repost, your followers may see what you reposted in their feeds.”
This new functionality opens up exciting possibilities for enhancing your Instagram engagement and fostering deeper interactions with your audience.
According to Roizman:
“Previously, users could only share content from others to their stories. Now, by tapping the repost icon beneath any post or reel, you can add your own commentary, allowing it to appear in your followers’ feeds just like a standard post.
This functionality mirrors the concept of retweeting on Twitter, offering a fresh way for users to engage with the content they love while promoting it to their own followers. Instagram has been hinting at this feature for some time, and it seems they are finally ready to roll it out.
Back in 2022, Instagram experimented with a similar ‘Repost’ feature, allowing users to amplify any post by re-sharing it directly to their followers, complete with a dedicated “Re-posts” tab on their profiles.
Although that initial test phase didn’t lead to a full rollout, it appears that Instagram is now more confident about this feature’s potential effectiveness. With the growing dominance of AI-driven content recommendations in user feeds—over half of what users see is influenced by algorithms—this could seamlessly fit into the existing content landscape.
Consequently, many posts displayed in the app already stem from recommendations, whether from friends or algorithmic suggestions. Thus, incorporating reposts into this mix could enrich the overall user experience, provided they are utilized judiciously.
However, one might question the rationale behind Instagram’s feed algorithm if the platform continues to inundate users with external recommendations. Originally, the algorithm was designed to streamline the content flow, ensuring users could focus on the most relevant updates from their chosen connections.
Instagram established the algorithm to manage the overwhelming amount of connections users had, which resulted in them missing out on important posts. The goal was to prioritize and highlight the most pertinent updates, ensuring users remain engaged with their preferred accounts.
Now, however, the platform is increasingly adding more diverse content to the user experience. This shift raises questions about whether the foundational rationale—that users can’t see every update from the accounts they follow—still holds true.
It’s clear that Instagram likely benefits from heightened engagement by showcasing AI-recommended posts alongside content that friends have liked, with reposts contributing to this dynamic mix.
Ultimately, Instagram should ideally provide users with a feed comprised solely of updates from their selected profiles, allowing for a more controlled and tailored experience. This would reinforce the value of following accounts as a means of curating one’s content exposure.
Nevertheless, it seems users are becoming more accustomed to allowing algorithms to dictate their viewing preferences, which may render a more personalized feed less effective in today’s digital landscape.
Importantly, the initial justification for implementing an algorithm—namely, the sheer volume of daily content—has become less relevant in light of these changes.
Regardless, if you’re looking to amplify the reach of specific posts within the app, utilizing the new repost feature could be an effective strategy. While Instagram has not disclosed the exact reach enhancement that reposts will provide, it does indicate that your followers “may” see your shared content.
We have reached out to Instagram for more detailed information regarding the repost feature and its rollout plans, but we have not received a response as of the time of this publication.
