Adding Instagram Posts to Your Story: How and Why

Combining your Instagram Feed and your Stories is one of the simplest yet most powerful growth opportunities available on the platform today. We know you put your all into feed posts with high-value visuals, carefully written captions, and strategic hashtags, but they rely on the ever-changing Instagram algorithm to be seen. On the other hand, stories offer a guaranteed visibility channel, thanks to their positioning at the top of the app. Bridging these two formats by using the “add Instagram post to story” feature is a vital strategic move. It will ensure your best content, whether your own or highly relevant material from a partner or customer, gets the views it deserves. This practice amplifies reach, drives engagement, and maximizes the lifespan of your publishing efforts.

We’ll walk you through the process of how to add Instagram posts to your story and explore how this tactic will help you stop the scroll.

Why Add Instagram Posts to Your Story?

The “why” behind regularly sharing feed posts to your Story is simple: funnel management and content optimization. You are moving high-effort, permanent content (your feed) into a high-visibility, temporary format (your Story) to capture maximum attention. Here are some of the benefits of adding Instagram posts to your story:

1. Circumventing the Feed Algorithm

Stories are, by design, non-algorithmic in their display order at the top of the screen (though which people’s stories you see first is still influenced by your engagement). When a user opens Instagram, they see the Story bar right away. So, sharing your new feed content to your Story places it in a guaranteed spot where a high percentage of your active followers will see it.

This is particularly critical for a new post that might otherwise get lost in a busy feed, ensuring that your most engaged community members are alerted to your latest long-form content.

2. Driving High-Intent Traffic to the Original Post

Every feed post shared to a Story acts as a direct, clickable call-to-action. Tapping a shared post in a story takes your followers straight to the original feed item. This action helps Instagram’s algorithm identify the original post as successful and engaging, often leading to a further boost in its distribution across the primary feed and Explorer tabs.

3. Fostering Community and Reciprocity

When you learn how to add someone else’s Instagram post to your story, you unlock the full power of community building:

• Amplifying User-Generated Content (UGC): Sharing a customer’s review, a fan’s photo of your product, or an attendee’s post from your event is powerful social proof. It tells your audience that real people are engaging with your brand, and it rewards the customer with visibility.
• Building Partnerships: Resharing a partner, collaborator, or industry peer’s content is an act of digital courtesy. It fosters goodwill, often leads to reciprocal sharing from them, and introduces your audience to relevant, curated content, positioning your profile as a valuable resource.
• Encouraging Tagging: When you share a post, the original creator is notified. This simple notification strengthens the relationship and encourages them to continue tagging you in future content, creating a flywheel of visibility.

How to Add an Instagram Post to Your Story

Understanding the process of re-sharing is the necessary first step. The good news is that Instagram has made the core function remarkably straightforward, though a few limitations exist, particularly when considering how to add someone else’s Instagram post to your story.

Step-by-Step: Adding Your Own or Someone Else’s Public Post

The process is consistent for both your own feed content and posts from public accounts that permit sharing.

1. Locate the Post: Open the Instagram mobile app and navigate to the post you wish to share. This could be a static image, a carousel, or a Reel.
2. Find the Share Button: Look directly beneath the post for the icons. You’ll see the Heart (Like), the Comment bubble, and the Paper Airplane icon (Share/Send). Tap the Paper Airplane.
3. Select the Story Option: A menu will pop up at the bottom of the screen with a list of users you can DM the post to. At the top of this list, you will see a prominent option: “Add post to your story” (or sometimes, “Add to story”). Tap this option.
4. Enter the Story Editor: The selected post will automatically be imported into the Story creation canvas. It appears as an interactive sticker against a dynamically generated background, often a blurred or solid-color version of the post’s primary color palette.
5. Customize and Contextualize: This is where the post transitions from a simple repost into a strategic call-to-action.
   • Tap the Post Sticker: Tapping the imported post will cycle through a few display styles, primarily switching between showing the full original caption/metadata frame and a cleaner frame that just shows the image and the original poster’s handle. Choose the style that best suits your design.
   • Add Interactive Elements: Use the sticker tray (the square smiley face icon) to include Polls, Questions, Quiz Stickers, or an Emoji Slider. These are crucial for driving immediate engagement.
   • Add Text Context: Use the text tool to add a concise call-to-action. For example: “New Case Study is Live! Tap to Read”, “What do you think? Vote Below! 👇,” or “ICYMI: The most important tip of the week.”
   • Adjust and Publish: Resize and move the post sticker and your other elements to create a clean, intentional layout. When ready, tap “Your Story” to publish.

Understanding the Permissions for Resharing Others’ Content

When learning how to add someone else’s instagram post to your story, two primary rules apply:

1. Public Accounts Only: You can only use the native “Add post to your story” feature for posts originating from an account set to public. Instagram prevents direct resharing from private profiles to protect user privacy.
2. Sharing Must Be Enabled: The original poster must have the sharing setting enabled.
   • To check your own settings: Go to Settings and Privacy > Sharing and Remixes > Allow sharing to Stories. If this is turned off, others cannot directly share your feed posts.

If you need to share content from a private account or a post where sharing is disabled, the only workaround is to take a screenshot and upload it as a standard Story image, then manually tag the original creator. This is less effective as it is not clickable, but it ensures proper credit and allows you to share the content legally.

How to Add Multiple Pictures on Instagram Story

While you can’t natively share two feed posts on a single Story slide, you can create a collage using multiple images from your camera roll, which is excellent for combining context with the core message. There are three primary methods for adding multiple pictures to your Instagram story:

Method 1: The Layout Feature (Pre-Set Grids)

1. Open the Story camera.
2. On the left-hand menu, tap the Layout icon (a square divided into quadrants).
3. Choose your desired grid format (e.g., 2-up, 4-up).
4. Capture a new photo or tap the Camera Roll icon in the bottom left of each grid section to import images from your gallery. This creates a single, cohesive photo collage.

Method 2: The Photo Sticker (Freeform Layering)

This method gives you much more freedom to overlap, resize, and position photos.

1. Start a new Story, either by taking a photo for the background or choosing a solid color (using the Draw Tool trick mentioned above).
2. Tap the Sticker icon (square smiley face).
3. Scroll down and tap the Photo Sticker (it looks like a small photo with a circle/plus icon, or a generic gallery icon).
4. Select the first image from your camera roll. It appears as a sticker you can move and resize.
5. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for every subsequent photo you wish to add.
   • Pro Tip: For a clean, borderless look, try the Copy-Paste method. Copy an image directly from your phone’s photo gallery (long-press and select ‘Copy’) and then, in the Story editor, a sticker pop-up will appear, allowing you to paste the image directly onto the canvas. Repeat for up to 10 images.

The Desktop Challenge: Add Posts to Your Story via PC

Instagram’s native web interface remains limited, primarily focused on viewing content rather than creating and publishing complex Story elements. You cannot natively use the “Add post to your story” function directly from Instagram.com on your desktop browser.

For professionals who manage content from a desktop for efficiency, the solution is to use a professional social media management platform like Metricool.

Scheduling Stories on PC with Metricool

1. Preparation: Create your Story content (including the photo of the feed post and all graphical overlays/text) in a desktop design tool (like Photoshop or Canva). Save it in the standard 9:16 vertical Story format.
2. Scheduling: Log into your Metricool account and navigate to the Planning section.
3. Creation: Choose the option to create a Story post for Instagram.
4. Upload: Upload your prepared 9:16 visual.
5. Auto-Publishing: Metricool allows you to auto-publish your stories from your PC, which means the platform will send the Story directly to Instagram at your scheduled time without requiring a mobile app notification.
6. The CTA Sticker: Because third-party tools cannot natively insert the interactive feed post sticker, you will need to add a manual Link Sticker to the Story when scheduling, pointing the audience directly to the URL of the original feed post. This ensures your desktop-created Story still functions as an effective traffic driver.

The use of a scheduling tool centralizes your workflow, allowing you to manage feed content, Reels, and Stories, including those that direct traffic back to your feed, all from one place, ensuring consistency and adherence to a strict publishing calendar.

Styling Your Stories: How to Make Shared Posts Stand Out

A shared post that’s simply left with the default blurred background is a missed opportunity. Your audience scrolls through dozens of these daily. Strategic styling ensures that your re-shared content commands attention.

1. Put The Background at the Forefront of Your Thinking

The first step in styling is taking control of the background color, getting away from the default auto-generated gradient. This simple trick adds polish and brand consistency.

How to Change the Background Color:

1. After importing the post to your Story canvas, tap the Draw Tool (the marker icon at the top).
2. Select the Solid Pen Tool (usually the third icon from the left).
3. Choose a color from the small color selector at the bottom. For a branded look, you can tap and hold any of the color dots to open a full color spectrum or use the Eyedropper Tool to pick a color directly from the shared post itself.
4. Tap and Hold anywhere on the background. The entire screen will instantly fill with the selected color, now providing a clean canvas for your sticker.

• Tip for Contrast: Use a background color that either perfectly matches one of your brand colors or, conversely, provides a high-contrast pop against the image to ensure the post sticker is clearly visible.

2. The Interactive Overlay: Driving Action

The second, and arguably most important, styling tactic is layering interactive stickers right next to or over the shared post.

• Design Focus: Use GIFs (like a blinking arrow or a “NEW POST” banner) to direct the eye to the interactive sticker and the original post. The goal is to make the Story frame look active and inviting.

This simple feature is one of your most effective instruments for optimizing content reach and engagement across the entire Instagram ecosystem. Don’t let a single feed post launch without a Story promotion; your analytics dashboard will thank you.

Kalum , 23 October 2025