Facebook’s Testing a New Option to Cross-Post Facebook Stories to Instagram
While you’ve been able to cross-post your Instagram Story to Facebook for some time, you haven’t had the option to do the opposite, and post your Facebook Story direct to Insta.
That could be about to change, with Facebook now testing a new option to share your Facebook Story to Instagram in your send settings, which could make it easier to maintain activity on both platforms, and expand your stories’ reach.
As you can see in this example, shared by app reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong, the new option would appear in your Facebook Stories visibility options, with a simple toggle to switch on cross-posting of Facebook Stories to Instagram. There are also icons on the ‘Share to Story’ button indicating that it will be posted to both.
Facebook has confirmed the test to TechCrunch, noting that it’s always looking for new ways to “make it easier to share moments with the people who matter to you”.
The option could make it easier to share Stories content quickly, but cross-posting should also be done cautiously, with results sometimes varying from platform to platform. Your frames may not look the same on both apps, and polls and similar tools will have different formats.
Case in point – initially, swipe up links on Instagram didn’t work on Facebook, so when you cross-posted your Instagram Story, your Facebook viewers would not be able to swipe up, despite the prompt on screen. That issue has since been corrected, but it illustrates the need for diligence around the content you post on each, and how it translates (or doesn’t).
Facebook has repeatedly noted that Stories are the future, that Stories are on track to overtake the news feed as the primary social sharing surface, and Stories are where the next generation of consumers is most comfortable participating.
These trends are what’s also lead to LinkedIn and Twitter introducing their own variations of the same – and while it may seem that they’re all copying each other, that each platform is getting more and more “same-y”, the fact of the matter is that the next generation of users is growing up on Stories, not on News Feeds. If other platforms want to align with usage trends, they also need a Stories option.
As such, it also makes sense that Facebook looks to provide options to cross-post, and align with those behavioral shifts. Again, brands and marketers need to be careful when utilizing any form of cross-posting, but it could be another option to consider to maximize reach and response.