Recently I noticed that although the images I was sharing across the web were getting a lot of likes and comments on Instagram, Facebook, and Google+, they weren’t really being noticed on Twitter. It seemed strange to me as these were the same pictures and some of the same people followed me across different networks. So why was Twitter the aberration of low recognition?
I had a few theories such as the Twitter feed being worse for noticing picture or if people just preferred to comment on other platforms, but as I listened to a podcast where they mentioned “Twitter cards” I realised it was something else. Twitter stopped Instagram from having Twitter card support, meaning that for most Twitter users they just saw a HTML link and not the image itself. No wonder they weren’t commenting, they couldn’t see them!
Step in IFTTT to the Rescue
The solution was a simple one.
You see IFTTT can instantly share your Instagram images to Twitter with native image support, meaning that they will show up on every device as a preview of the image. I decided to give it a go and see if it lead to a dramatic change and I instantly saw results.
I didn’t set up an IFTTT recipe where every photo is shared, but instead only pictures from my account with the hashtag #tweet get shared on twitter. This means I can control what goes out to Twitter if I want. As soon as I switched methods, I started getting retweets and likes on my photos. No where near as many as on other networks, but still I went from literally nothing to a handful with each post.
Alternative IFTTT Recipes
For extra potential you could use IFTTT to add your posts into Buffer and schedule when they are shown on Twitter for extra effect. Also ,you can use IFTTT to save a backup of every photo to dropbox or something similar, with a certain hashtag (I use this to save my favourite photos).
The only downside is you have to have “#Tweet” (or whatever hashtag you choose) in your caption and this will be shared across any other network you share your post to. It doesn’t look as polished, but there you go.
Do you know of any other great IFTTT recipes to use with Instagram?
You can find more recipes from IFTTT.
[Want more tips on how to use Instagram for your church? Check out 30 Days of Instagram for Churches!]
Eric Dye says
Cool! 😀
Chris Wilson says
I try 🙂 I’m wondering what other ways I can use IFTTT to automate my photos though. I’m sure there are some more creative ways of using it (and not just setting your Android phone’s wallpaper to your last Instagram pic).