If I see something I really like on Instagram, is there a way to post or share it to my Twitter followers? I’m talking about a shortcut or something, not having to copy and paste a URL.
Ah, the crossover between social media worlds, it’s a never ending source of challenges and solutions, some elegant, some more kludgy. Instagram in general seems to be its own world and there’s not a huge amount of overlap with other social media sites like Facebook or LinkedIn, but it does have a basic Twitter capability if you’ve set things up properly. At least, it does if you’re on an iPhone, I haven’t checked to see what happens if you’re using the Android or Windows Phone version of the program!
As with the third-party apps that let you share Instagram photos on your Facebook page, the built-in connection between Instagram and Twitter is a one-way road: You can share Instagram content on Twitter, but not vice-versa. You can draw your own conclusions from that oddity!
Let me take you through the steps with the iPhone iOS 8 Instagram application. First off, here’s an Instagram post I found that I wanted to share, from my friend CC Chapman:
The important spot to notice is not the Like or Comment button, but the ellipses button, with the three “…” sequence.
Tap on it to reveal additional menu items:
If you’re guessing “Ah! Tap on Twitter” you’re right.
Tap on the “Twitter” button.
Odds are good that, like me, you’ll want to tweak the tweet text just a bit to make it more interesting.
I did so, and here’s my result:
Ready to go? Before you do, note you can tag your location (confusingly, not the location of the original Instagram pic) by tapping on “Location”.
Done? Good. Tap on “Post” on the top right and here’s what shows up on Twitter:
You can see it on the top. No embedded photo, unfortunately, but still, quite functional and definitely better than copying and pasting a URL!