How to Get Your Instagram Photos to Show Up on Twitter

I'm publishing this post with the risk you may very well know this by now as it's old news! I've known about this little trick for about a year or so myself, but like so many things blogging, I keep forgetting to implement.

Until recently. *checks box off really long to-do list*

Now it's your turn.

The 10-Minute Touch Up is a quick, weekly challenge to get you DOING, not just reading about doing. Consider it a way to touch up your blogging just 10 minutes at a time!

Challenge: Set up a “recipe” so that when you share a picture on Instagram, it automatically publishes on Twitter… and shows the image!

Why: Twitter took this ability away years ago and it's time to add it back (Instagram IS owned by Facebook ya know). So we just have to set it up ourselves. Few people click Instagram links on Twitter. After all, they're on Twitter at the moment and want to stay there. By showing your Instagram image on Twitter instead of trying to send them away to see it, you'll get better engagement. I know I saw the change instantly.

How to Do It

There's a little program called IFTTT that just might rock your world. I've been using it for ages for various “recipes” and even teach a lesson on it in my Content Brew course. Basically you create a recipe that says when you do X in an app, it triggers an action in that app or a different app.

Once you walk through this, it'll all make sense. Promise.

There is a potential downside, depending on how you look at it. When you do this the tweet doesn't actually show the Instagram link too. So if your Instagram post is pretty long, it'll get cut off on Twitter. When I think my Instagram post is too long for Twitter, I'll sometimes ALSO click Twitter in Instagram to share it the normal way too. They both show up in my feed, but it hasn't bothered me when I see others do it. I also use most hashtags on Instagram in my first comment, saving important ones for my actual image description since those do show up on Twitter.

If you're cool with all that, then mosey along and get this set up!

1. Sign up for IFTTT.

2. Click Create Recipe.

You'll see these words.

3. Click Then.

Scroll down to the Instagram icon. If you've never used IFTTT before, you'll have to authenticate so IFTTT has permission to access your account. Once that's done, you'll see lots of options, but go with the first one: “Any new photo by you.”

4. Click Create Trigger, then click That.

Find the Twitter icon in the list. Again, authenticate if needed. Then select “Post a tweet with Image.”

Leave the action fields that show up next as is.

5. Save and let it go to work!

If you ever want to turn it off for a while, you can go back to IFTTT and pause it. Isn't it the coolest?

Plus, if you want to use IFTTT to help with content planning and idea saving, I share some great recipes in Content Brew in the bonus lesson.

Your Turn

Have you set this up? Noticing more engagement?