Using UGC Don’t Have to Be a Grey Area. Your Social Team’s 2021 Guide to Instagram Regrams
Using UGC - user generated content - is a practice as old as Instagram itself. But is it still best practice and are people doing it well?
When you ask most people, they will say the lines are blurry when it comes to regrams or there’s too much grey area when it comes to the right away to use other people’s content in your marketing.
I say it’s time we define the lines.
Regrams don’t need to be a grey area.
First:
Is it legal to use someone else’s image, screenshot, quote or caption in your own Instagram feed?
According to Instagram’s Community Guidelines, which are parts of their Terms of Use you have to agree to in order to use the platform, you can only post content that you own. That means you can’t post someone else’s content without their written permission, whether you credit them or not.
This does not change whether you have a personal profile, business or creator account on Instagram.
Below is a screenshot of Instagram’s guidelines from the link above:
Instagram is pretty clear: if you don’t own it, don’t post it. No grey area here.
But let’s talk about it into more detail and address the best practices and ethical regrams:
Why I don’t recommend using other people’s images in your posts
I have personally more and more recommended people move away from posting other people’s photos or graphics in their Instagram feeds.
There are many reasons to focus on creating your own content instead of using regrams today:
Your own content will always be more fitting to your brand than someone else’s
When you post other people’s content, not everyone seeing it will be able to tell it’s not your own, no matter how clearly you state it
If someone wants to share your post (with your consent), it can bring you new followers
There are many amazing stock photo options, where you can get photos you will have the rights to use legally
Graphics perform even better than photos these days, and there are so many Canva templates you can get that is affordable and you’re able to speak to your audience through your own voice. We have amazing ones at our Template Shop here
You’re not taking content someone worked hard to create and just use it for your own business’s benefit
To avoid upsetting creators and backlash from being in this grey area (what may be clear credit to you, my not be to others)
But when is it okay to repost someone else’s content in your feed?
However, if you have written authorization from the content owner, you can use it.
But to avoid grey area, this is how I recommend you ask for permission.
Send them a DM with simple, yet detailed information on:
how you want to use their image,
how exactly will you credit them
what the post will be used for.
That way they will know what they are agreeing on, what to expect and it they are okay with you, they will let you use their content.
What we recommend:
Never use it in an paid ad
Never change anything about the image in any way (that includes filters, cropping, adding your brand to it)
Don’t use to sell anything inside your business
Always give credit before the more button
Be as clear as possible in your credit (ie: “image and caption by: @their-handle-here”)
Tag the person in the photo as well, but never only tagging in the photo (most people don’t see this).
But how about captions? Is that a part of a regram?
To me that’s a big NO! I will personally never allow anyone to use my captions and will have them remove a post for this. The reason for that is that people are used to the concept of people regramming images. But most people don’t think the caption was part of the regram.
In my case, I use my captions to add value, educate my audience and sell my products. The thoughts are all my own and there’s no reason why another account should use them.
So as far as I am concerned, no grey area here either. It’s ALWAYS wrong to use someone’s caption as part of your regram.
How about phrases and quotes?
When you see a catchy phrase on Instagram, it’s very common to start seeing people take that phrase and add to a graphic in their own brand colors and font and slap their logos or handles for good measure.
That’s theft, or if I want to be mild about it, content appropriation.
Besides it not being ethical, your audience will notice and will know it’s not yours. So steer clear, no matter how cute that phrase it.
A better way to use that in your content? Ask for permission and use it as a quote, between quotation marks and with the name of the person who said it, loud and clear (and definitely bigger than your handle).
You can also work that into your own caption, again as a quotation and mentioning why that resonated with you.
As for quotes from famous people, it’s okay to use but use it as it such. A quote, with proper credit.
My own regram rules for Your Social Team
Personally, I changed my own regram rules lately. I feel really good about them and recommend it.
I only share someone else’s content on my feed for 3 reasons (and get permission before posting):
When I am featuring the creator or I want to amplify what they are saying, like the post below (left) by one of my favorite content creators, Danielle Coke of @ohhappydani about Black History Month
When they feature my products or services, like this post below (right) by Burden Brand Management, that uses our Canva Templates, Messages IRL.
How about sharing someone’s post or Reels to Instagram Stories?
If you use the share feature, the little paper airplane icon on the bottom of the post, when you share to stories, the original author of the post will be automatically linked.
That’s why sharing to stories is widely acceptable and solves the problem of appropriation. It’s pretty clear you are not using this content as you own, and if people are in doubt, when they click they will be lead to the original post.
But even then, I recommend you go the extra mile and use the text feature in stories to add your own comment about that post and credit the creator again with their clickable handle. The reason for this is that when you share to stories, you have two options of layouts (if you tap you will see the options).
One of them had a faint handle of the original creator that is not that easy to read. So someone that looks at it quckily and doesn’t tap to go to the original poster, may think it’s your own post.
My content was used without my permission. What do I do?
Our advice is that you do the following, in this order:
Save the URL of the post that has your content
Take screenshots of both the post and captions
Send them a polite DM to the account, requesting they add a credit to you in the format you specify OR remove the post (whichever route you want to go)
If they don’t comply, report it.
How do I report copyright infringement on Instagram?
Fist of all, it’s important for you to know that you don’t need to have gone to a trademark lawyer and register your content in order to own the rights to it.
From Instagram’s copyright FAQ section:
“In general, the person who creates an original work owns the copyright. For example, if you create a painting, you likely own the copyright for that painting. Similarly, if you take a photo, you likely own the copyright for that photo.”
Here’s the direct link to the form where you can report.
Note that you can only report if it has happened to you. If it happened to someone else, you need to let them know and they need to. report it themselves.
I have done this several times and Instagram does not joke round when it comes to copyright infringement. They usually respond within a few hours with a resolution.
as you can see here, I filled a report around 10am, got a confirmation right away and a resolution by 1:29pm on the same day.
So my final advice to you is to do your part so this grey area no longer prevails when it comes to regrams. Protect your own content, educate others (feel free to send them to this article) and make your decisions for when a regram is really appropriate in your own account.
And never, ever, use someone else’s content moving forward without asking them first.
You get immediate access to all these classes, plus a new class per month and my unlimited support in our members group — yes, I will help you implement what you learn and answer your every question.
Manu Muraro is the founder of Your Social Team, an Instagram training membership and Done For You content shop to help social media managers and Instagram savvy women entrepreneurs to beat the algorithm and grow their organic engagement (yes, even in 2021). This year she also launched Your Template Club, a Canva Template subscription to provide social media managers and Instagram savvy business owners with content template designed for engagement in their inbox.
Born and raised in Brazil, Manu moved to the U.S. in 2000 right out of college to work for Cartoon Network, where she made an award winning career in creative and strategy. In 2017, Manu started Your Social Team with the mission of helping women entrepreneur and social media managers grow engagement and sales through Instagram without the overwhelm.