How to repost and share other peoples content without being a jerk.

You might have seen people online “repost” or “regram” other people’s photos on their own feed and be wondering what the best way to go about doing this yourself is.

First and foremost, it’s important to know that it’s technically against the Instagram terms of service to use content that you don’t have the legal rights to use. As a user, when you upload a photo to Instagram, you own the intellectual property rights to the image and you grant Instagram a license to use that image. You don’t however grant everyone on Instagram a license to use your image. This means, images on Instagram are not just up for grabs for you to pick up and use how you like.

It’s important to know this so you can make an educated decision about the risks you’re willing to take when using other people’s content. You might decide to only upload content that you own, to ask people for permission to republish their content, you might credit them or you might simply steal them (this is not recommended, and is very poor form).

You can find the terms of service here and Intellectual property information here.

Despite it being against the terms of service to use content to which you’re not licensed it’s very common practice to repost other people’s (public) content as long as you tag them and credit them with the image. Typically, people are okay with this as it allows them to get more reach on their content than they would have got if it had never been reposted.

With that in mind, best practice etiquette is:

1. Don’t share posts that are from a private account, make sure the user has a public account before you repost.

2.  Credit the photo appropriately. Write “photo by: @...” or use the camera emoji then tag the original poster. Check that you’re not crediting someone else who has also resposted the image by tapping on the image to check the tags and reading the full caption of the post to check for any photo credits.

3. Ensure the photo credit is easily visible. At the top of the caption or directly at the end of the caption. Do not do a whole lot of spaces and put it way down the bottom as you might do with hashtags, or insert the credit in the first comment. You can also tag the original poster directly in the image.

4. Add to the story, tell your followers what you like about the image, what the original poster inspired in you and why you chose to repost it. Even if you just liked the image, make note about what you liked about the image.

When it comes to reposting the key things to remember are, being transparent about where the image came from, giving the original creator full credit, and adding to the story, telling your users why it’s a relevant post for your feed.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to DM us on Instagram @promotesocial.media

P.S. Photo credit: @Pinterest or Photo Source: Pinterest, is not acceptable! Always locate the original creator, or don’t publish!