How to Link TikTok to Instagram: The Ultimate Guide

In a landscape that’s currently taken over by the short-form video wave, platforms like TikTok and Instagram are undoubtedly a great way for brands to engage their audience. Not only do consumers today prefer this content format, but short-form videos also deliver higher ROI and have a greater chance of going viral compared to other types of content. That said, brands should get smart about how they use these short videos so they can get more out of the time and resources they spend on creating them.

This is why linking TikTok to Instagram is a crucial step if your brand is leveraging both platforms. By doing this, you can easily repurpose your short-form videos for both TikTok and Instagram, giving you the opportunity to expand your reach and drive more engagement. In this guide, we show you how to link TikTok to Instagram and why this makes sense for your brand.

How to Link TikTok to Instagram: The Ultimate Guide:

Why Link TikTok to Instagram?

Although we’ve briefly mentioned this above, you may have more questions about why it’s important to link your TikTok account to Instagram. Let’s break down some of the key benefits of linking the two platforms for your brand.

Save Time and Resources

Creating short-form videos is no easy feat, with brands and creators alike having to spend hours brainstorming ideas and then bringing those ideas to life. Linking your social media accounts helps you get more out of the time that you spend developing new content. So you can keep your feed updated with fresh content to engage your audience without spending as much time generating a new short-form video for each platform. 

When you link TikTok to Instagram, you can seamlessly cross-post content from one platform to the other. You’ll be able to share your TikTok videos to your Instagram account either directly to your feed or temporarily in your Stories. This allows you to save plenty of time in content creation as you don’t need to create new content for each platform every time. Instead, you can easily repurpose the short-form video you create for one platform and share it on the other.

Reach a Bigger Audience

Though cross-platform usage may be huge among certain users, not everyone who’s on Instagram is also on TikTok or vice versa. Not to mention the ban on TikTok in some regions, preventing hundreds of thousands of people from accessing content on the platform. That means when you post on just one platform, you’re leaving out a huge chunk of your target audience that could possibly enjoy your content. 

Linking TikTok and Instagram allows you to share your content effectively across both platforms, which creates an opportunity to engage more users. It leaves more room for new people to discover your brand on these platforms, allowing you to expand your reach. In some cases, it may also bring your Instagram audience to your TikTok account and your TikTok followers to your Instagram account. That way, you can significantly improve your follower growth on both platforms.

Diversify Your Presence

TikTok has often landed in the news for facing a risk of being banned. In fact, the app has been banned on government-owned devices and work phones of government officials across countries such as Australia, Belgium, and Canada. TikTok is completely banned in countries such as India and Somalia. That said, brands can’t afford to avoid it altogether since it’s still widely used across many countries and sees a ton of engagement.

Maintaining a strong presence on both Instagram and TikTok allows you to diversify your social media presence and have a backup in case there’s an issue with the latter. When you’re actively engaging audiences on both platforms, you won’t have to start from scratch in building your Instagram presence even if you have to stop using TikTok.

Linking TikTok to Instagram: Step-by-Step Guide

The process of linking your TikTok account to Instagram is pretty straightforward. Let’s walk you through the simple steps below.

Step 1: Open your TikTok app and go to your profile. From here, tap on the “Edit profile” button to access your settings.

Step 2: From your profile settings, scroll down to the “Social” section. Then tap on the option to “Add Instagram.”

Step 3: The above step will open the login screen for Instagram. All you need to do is enter your credentials to log in and that’s it. Now your Instagram profile and TikTok accounts are linked, which means you’ll be able to seamlessly cross-post content between the two platforms.

Repurposing TikTok Content for Instagram

Now that your TikTok is linked to Instagram, it’s time to get into the main reason why you’ve taken this action–repurposing your TikTok content for Instagram. TikTok gives you the option to share videos you create on the platform directly with your Instagram audience. However, this must be done through a public TikTok account and for content that you haven’t yet published. 

For private TikTok accounts and videos you’ve already published, you need to save the video to your camera roll and then repost them to Instagram either as a Reel or a Story. This doesn’t require linking Instagram and TikTok. 

Option 1: Sharing Your Public TikTok Video to Instagram

If your account is public and you want to cross-post content that you’re just now creating on TikTok, you can do so while publishing the post. Follow the steps below to automatically cross-post content from TikTok to your Instagram.

Step 1: Create your video as usual and make any necessary edits, then tap “Next.” Here, you’ll get the option to customize your video settings by changing the privacy. 

Step 2: Tap on the “Who can watch this video” section and choose “Everyone.” This will enable the option to automatically share to your linked social media accounts.

Step 3: Once the automatic sharing option is enabled, tap on the Instagram icon. Then hit the “Post” button.

Step 4: You’ll get a popup window asking for permission to open Instagram. Tap on the “Open” button.

Step 5: On the next screen, you’ll see a preview of the video and the option to post to Story or Feed. Select the option you want to finish posting your TikTok video to Instagram.

Option 2: Sharing Your Private/Published TikTok Video to Instagram

The second option allows you to share videos you’ve already published on TikTok with your Instagram audience. It involves saving the video to your camera roll and then reposting it to Instagram. This is a great option for repurposing TikTok videos that performed really well with your audience as it allows you to share something that’s proven to be successful. 

Saving the video also allows you to make some tweaks to repurpose it specifically for Instagram. Additionally, this option works if you want to maintain your account privacy on TikTok. Keep in mind that your Instagram and TikTok accounts don’t have to be linked if you want to use this option.

Step 1: Go to your TikTok profile and open the video you want to repurpose for Instagram. Tap on the three-dot menu button from the side panel of the video.

Step 2: This will open several options to reuse the video. Tap on the option to “Save video.” This will automatically download the video to your camera roll.

Step 3: Open your Instagram app and follow the usual steps to create a new post or Story. Then upload the saved video from your camera roll. Add any additional text, caption, or hashtag that you want to include and share the video. 

Repurposing Instagram Reels for TikTok

At the time of writing this post, Instagram hasn’t yet introduced the option to cross-post Reels directly to TikTok. You have to save the video you created on Reels and repost it to TikTok. However, this also means that certain audio tracks might be removed, so you’ll need to add your chosen music again while reposting the video on TikTok.

Step 1: Go to your Instagram account and select the Reel you want to reuse for TikTok. Then tap on the arrow button from the right-hand panel of the video.

Step 2: The above step will open up several options for sharing the video. Select the option to “Download” the video. This action will save the video to your camera roll.

Step 3: Open your TikTok app and select the option to create a new TikTok. Choose the “upload” option and select the video you saved from Instagram. Follow the usual steps of customizing the video by tagging accounts, adding a caption, etc. Then post the video to your TikTok account.

Best Practices on Cross-Posting between TikTok and Instagram

You now have a clear idea of how you can cross-post between TikTok and Instagram. To ramp up your efforts and ensure greater success, here are a few best practices and tips.

Know What to Cross-Post

It’s crucial to be strategic with what content you decide to post on both Instagram and TikTok. While you want to improve the reach for your content across the two platforms, posting the exact same video with the same old caption to both platforms can get boring at some point. You should still ensure that there’s something fresh for each platform’s audience to enjoy. This will help you retain their engagement and keep them entertained.

For example, you may decide to limit your brand challenge videos within TikTok whereas your behind-the-scenes short videos remain within Instagram. At the same time, it will make sense to share product teaser videos on both Instagram and TikTok. In some cases, you may decide to repost TikTok videos only after they’ve proven to be highly successful on the platform. 

Similarly, make sure to design a strategy for cross-posting between Instagram and TikTok instead of cross-posting each and every video. This will ensure that there’s something unique for your audience to enjoy on each platform. So it will give them a reason to follow your brand on both TikTok and Instagram if they use both platforms. 

Create Videos with Both Platforms in Mind

Based on the above suggestion, you may start creating videos intended for both TikTok and Instagram. During the creation process, make sure to keep both platforms in mind so there are no issues with videos being awkwardly cropped or cut in the middle. Each platform has different guidelines on what ratio your video should be and how long they can be. So these guidelines should be followed if you want to post videos that look great on both TikTok and Instagram.

For example, according to the latest TikTok video size guide, you can record up to 3 minutes of video and upload up to 10 minutes of video. Meanwhile, on Instagram Reels, you can only have up to 90 seconds of video. So if you decide to create a 3-minute video on TikTok and repost it on Instagram, the video will cut off in the middle, leaving your audience confused and frustrated.

Perfect Your Timing

Whether it’s on Instagram or TikTok, post timing is an important factor that determines the success of your post. So before you randomly create a new video to cross-post on these platforms, make sure to get your timing right. This will ensure that you drive tons of engagement on both platforms, giving you a better chance of boosting your reach.

Look into existing studies on the best time to post on Instagram Reels, the best time to post on Instagram, and the best time to post on TikTok. Then experiment with those timings to see what works for your brand. See which time of day gets you the most engagement and replicate that for your strategy.

Build a Powerful Cross-Platform Strategy

Linking your TikTok to Instagram allows for seamless cross-posting, which helps you save time and resources, so you don’t have to create a new video for each platform every time. Make the most of the steps and best practices outlined above to use the two platforms together for a powerful cross-platform strategy. 

About the Author

Jacqueline Zote

Writer

Jacqueline Zote is a freelance writer and content producer. She writes for leading blogs in the digital marketing space. Her areas of expertise include influencer marketing, social media marketing, social media management, and content marketing.