27. Instagram’s New Repost & Location Features: What They Mean for Your Reach and Safety

[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to Social Content Made Easy, the podcast that helps you simplify content creation, grow your audience, and make sales on Instagram without spending hours glued to your phone. I'm your host, Nicole Iologio. And each week, I'll bring you bite-sized actionable strategies to help you confidently create scroll-stopping content that actually grows your business. So if you're sick of wasting hours creating content that no one sees and just want a simple proven way to show up while having some fun, you're in the right place. Let's go. [MUSIC PLAYING] Two major updates happened last week. I am recording this episode a day and a half after they released. And I am trying to get this out quickly before the Tuesday drop of the episode, because you need to know as much as possible about these two huge updates that just happened to Instagram. I was so excited to talk to you about them. So let's go through it. The first was a brand new reshare button that is perfect for boosting reach in a really big way, and then a new location sharing feature that people are freaking out about. But you probably don't need to be. So today, we're going to be breaking down exactly what these changes mean, how to stay safe, and how to use them to your advantage without overwhelming you with a bunch of new features. Let's get right into it and start with update number one, which is the reshare button, the thing I'm most excited about. So it's a new button on posts and reels that looks like two arrows going around in a small circle. If you tap it, you can reshare someone else's content to your feed, but it goes into a special section on your profile. You can also add a note, like a hot take, a funny thought, or add more context to it to really make it more about you. And the separate tab, if you go to your profile, just make sure your app is updated. So right above where your pin to post are, you're going to see the thing that looks like a grid, which is your main grid, then next to it will be the reels button where it goes to only your reels that you have. Then you'll see that two arrows going around in a circle. That is your reshairs. And you can see all of your reshairs, or if you go to someone else's profile, you can see all of their reshairs there as well. OK, now why does this even matter? Instagram is finally embracing social sharing more. They always had that share/send button, but you had to actually like share it to your stories. So that way, some of your followers are sent to a friend in a text message. Well, now they kind of hopped on the bandwagon, kind of like TikTok or Twitter X. And it's huge for reach and for virality. So now other people's content is content that you can also ride the wave of. So it makes collaboration, commentary, showing support for others so much easier, and it's way more powerful. So how do we use reshairs in a smart way? So what I want you to do is when you go to reshare something, don't just reshare it, but add your own voice in the note section. The note-- I'm not exactly sure how long it can be, but I've just been doing like one sentence so people can quickly read it. You can do something like, yes, this is what I tell my clients every week, too. Or I really needed this reminder today. What's really cool about it as well is that once you reshare something, that post will then show up in your followers' feed. It will show up though with your note. So you're still staying top of mind while sharing a piece of content that was relatable, silly, funny, helpful, educational. And you're staying top of mind way easier. The other cool thing about it is if your audience starts resharing your content, then you are getting seen by way more eyeballs because then your content is going out to all of their followers. How do we create content that your audience is going to want to reshare? Reshairs aren't just going to happen by accident. They're going to happen when your content makes someone feel like, oh my god, I need my audience to see this right now. And then they're going to press that button. So here is some tips on how to make that kind of content. Think about what would someone repost and say, this? I couldn't have said it any better myself. Think about that. One of my favorite ways to do this would be to use humor or emotion because three out of the four reels that I reshared already were funny ones. So remember that people reshare what makes them laugh, what makes them cry, what makes them feel seen. Think about like a silly real that's about moms procrastinating or something or something that makes them reminisce on a time period, like something from 2010s era. And you're like, yes, this was me. I need to totally repost it. A different strategy is do something that makes them look super helpful for. So you could like teach something that's very simple, very clear, like one liner tips, like a checklist. They work because it makes the person that's resharing look like an expert. And then at the end of your caption, you can say something like save and share this with someone that needs it. And then you could do like the relatable ones, which I love. Like, yes, totally. That's me. So think about like pain points, many rants, oddly specific situations that happen to you that maybe only your audience would understand. Like something that I would do is point of view. You finally open Instagram to post and then your brain goes blank, where you had like 30 ideas last night or something like that. People will reshare that to be like, oh my god, this was so me as well. So think about what could be relatable for your audience. And then if you design your posts specifically for reshairs, that is going to be helpful as well. So how do we do this? I want you to try to keep your captions tighter. So they're super skimmable. So you're not using the full amount of letters that you're allowed to use in carousels. You can use super bold text. So that way that first slide is a really shareable hook that people will be able to read right away. For carousels or a graphic post, make sure that your name or handle is on the post somewhere if possible because that will entice people to go check out your profile. And that's really it. Just start testing it out. See what posts are getting reshairs and double down on the ones that are making people reshare it. Okay, update number two is all about location sharing. So we woke up, we logged in Instagram and gotten a little on our phones that said, "Maps is now available." And we clicked into it and some people per weeked out because they saw that their location was on it without turning their location on. The reason this happened was because there are tag locations. So let's say you have a story and your story, you tagged a specific location that maybe you were at at one point or a post or a carousel that you posted that you added the location to that showing up. What is not showing up is your live where you are right this second. I promise that is not the case. I actually really like this map style feature because if you zoom out and look at, let's say the whole US, you can show tag locations on your content. So like if I'm thinking maybe I'm looking up like travel and I wanna go travel to the West Coast of Florida and I zoom out and I see anyone that I'm following that has posted there, I'm gonna click on that and then it will take me to that content that they created in that area, which I think is really, really cool. Everyone freaked out thinking Instagram was tracking your real time location and they are not. You can turn on live tracking location, but it is off by default. I really want you to know that. So actually I'm gonna go into my Instagram right now and talk you through how to find it. So open up your Instagram, go to the top right hand messages and then you're going to see map. Right across the top it's gonna look like a globe. If you haven't seen this yet, you're probably gonna get the pop up that talks you through it. So you click on the map, go into it and then you're going to see not sharing location, but if you go to the top right where it says settings, you're gonna see four different options of who can share your live location. So you can do it for friends, which means followers that you follow back, you can turn it on for only close friends and you would choose those people or you can turn it on for only these friends. You literally pick like, these are the five people I wanna share my location with or you don't share it with anybody. And that's what I have it. I have it as off, I don't share my location with anybody, but if I share a roundabout location in Virginia, then it's going to just show up in that area. It's not going to show where my person is right now. I think that's a very important distinction. I actually think this is a great idea that's taking a ticket from Snapchat kind of, but I don't think it's necessary. Honestly, if you have an iPhone, you're probably sharing your location with a few people anyway. So I would just keep using that. I wouldn't use Instagram in order to track where your friends are, but maybe if people are only using it for personal, then that would be a helpful thing to do. But remember, live location is off by default, but you can choose who wants to see your live location. And remember, if you see your posts on the map, it is because you tag that location yourself. Like you can't really be mad at Instagram for showing a location that you tagged, but if you do not want to tag any locations, you do don't have to. And for safety, what I like to do is I will post, like what I do on a normal day, if I go out somewhere or on a weekend, if I'm out at a restaurant and I tag it, I wait until I leave the restaurant, and then I tag it, it just adds like a little extra layer of security. And I want you to think of this like a content discovery tool, not like a privacy invasion. I really don't think that Instagram was out there trying to scare people into making them know where we are 24/7. Instagram is just trying to help users find local content and local businesses to be able to connect with each other a little bit better. Okay, so how do we use location sharing? Now, if you're a local business or if you work with local clients, this is fantastic. I would add strategic locations to your Reels or Post, which I already recommend people have done in the past and I do with my clients. If you're a Philadelphia small business, you would tag places in and around Philadelphia, or you would tag your actual shop if you're in a shop, or if you work with local businesses, you're going to tag a few maybe random spots, around the area or just Philadelphia in general. Like if you're a Los Angeles coffee shop, you're going to want to tag your coffee shop location a lot. Also, you would probably want to tag Los Angeles in general and some smaller sub towns around that as well. That's going to help you shop on the map and it's going to boost your local discovery. So people are going to be like, "Ooh, what's this place I've never seen it before?" If they're fiddling around on the map. Now, if you do not want your stuff tied to a location, just don't tag it. If you're worried about people finding you, remember just to tag general areas, not exact locations. Obviously, if you're a store, though, you are going to want to tag your exact location. Now, if you're still nervous, just check your account settings under location sharing and set it to none. That way, no one will ever see where you are at any time. Okay, so I always, even with something like this, I want to end with a quick recap and an action challenge for you. So our recap for today is that the ReShare button is new. It's going to boost your reach. I want you to use it to connect, to comment, to add your own flare to what people are already posting and to get your stuff seen by even more people. And then location sharing is just basically a map for content discovery. I feel it's safe, it's optional, and it's great for local visibility if that's what you're looking for. So the challenge for you this week is to try out the new ReShare button. I want you to reach at least one piece of content and then add a thoughtful or a silly note alongside of it. Feel free to check out mine at incident amplified to see what I've re-shared and the notes that I left and you can try to do the same thing. Then I want you to audit your profile location settings and make sure they're set to your comfort level. I never want you to feel unsafe on this app. So just turn it all off if you're super scared about it. And then an optional bonus is on your next post or real or story tag a local location and see if you notice more engagement if that's something you want to do. It might be fun to test that out. Now if you're trying any of these out this week, please DM me at incident amplified and tell me how it goes. I love hearing about how people are using new features. Sometimes the ways people use it is something that I haven't thought of and it's just so fun. As always, you can expect all the updates here. If you are liking this podcast, please review it, share it on your social media. I would be forever grateful. I hope you have an absolutely fantastic rest of your day. Thanks for hanging out with me today. I hope you're walking away with at least one actionable takeaway to make creating content easier. If you love today's episode, it would mean the world if you could take 10 seconds, leave a review or screenshot this episode and tag me on Instagram @insta.amplified. I'd love to connect and see your new content. Always cheering for you. See you next time.