This new feature on Instagram was spotted “in the wild” back in December, but then it went a bit under the radar.  A frown appeared on my face when I first read this article as I think that posting the same content to multiple accounts will simply create lazy marketers.

What is the new feature?

Instagram is rolling out the capacity to post a single update across several profiles at once. Simply create your post, then select the accounts underneath that you wish to share that post with.

As you can see from the screenshot on the right, I can create my post, tag people, add the location and then post to the other Instagram accounts that I manage, as well as the Facebook Page that is linked to that account.

This is only available for business accounts and not available for personal profiles.

According to Techcrunch, they will be starting with iOS first and then moving onto Android.

I don’t get it?

Facebook is all about creating unique content that people will engage with.  Instagram has always been the type of platform where you showcase your best work.  They never introduced the ability to re-gram (share) other people’s content as they didn’t want the feed to be flooded with the same posts – but isn’t this what will happen over a period of time?

People who are very sales driven will love this idea.  It is easy to do and a great way to keep accounts alive, but my gut instinct is saying “No! It’s all wrong!”.

Am I a hypocrite?

I automatically post my Instagram stories to my Facebook stories.  So what is the difference between posting to two accounts on Instagram, and sharing your Instagram story with Facebook stories?  Surely that is sending the same information out twice?  Isn’t that spoiling the feed?

In my opinion, the audience on Facebook will be different to the audience on Instagram, so that certainly gives us the green light to post the same content.  Also, stories only last for 24 hours, whereas your regular posts on Instagram become part of your history on the “grid”.  If you have two accounts with exactly the same content/grid, then what is the point of that?

With an Instagram story, you are simply posting an image without any written post.  It is purely visual and therefore acceptable to post to both Instagram and Facebook.

Is it ok to auto-post from Instagram to Twitter?

Twitter is a completely different demographic, so my initial reaction is “no, it’s not ok to post from Instagram to Twitter”.  In addition, we would recommend adding up to 18 hashtags on Instagram for maximum effect, and only two hashtags on Twitter.  They are different platforms, the audience is online at different times of the day and the style of content should be unique.  Twitter is not keen on auto-posting, and we have just seen that it has been removed from YouTube (you can now no longer auto post from YouTube to Twitter).  Twitter also revoked the ability to post from Twitter to Facebook a few months ago, so the whole “lazy tweeting” is certainly frowned upon.

Summary

Some people will absolutely love the idea of posting to multiple accounts on Instagram in one go, but I can not see a situation where this would be beneficial for the consumers of this content.  Perhaps I am missing something?  I have been watching other social media companies who are raving about this feature and think that it is brilliant – am I the only one who thinks that it giving the green light for more crap in our feeds?  What are your thoughts?  Is this a good thing or a bad thing?  I would love to hear your opinion.