How to Repost a Reel on Facebook

Looking to get your Instagram Reel in front of your Facebook audience? You're in the right place. Sharing a reel from Instagram to Facebook can double your content's reach, save you a ton of time, and help you understand what resonates with different communities. This guide will walk you through exactly how to do it, from the simple automatic share feature to manual methods that give you more control, plus strategies to make your reposted content actually perform well.

Why Repost Your Instagram Reels to Facebook?

Before jumping into the step-by-step instructions, it's worth understanding why this is a smart move for any creator, brand, or social media manager. It’s not just about saving time, it's a strategic way to grow your presence across Meta's ecosystem.

Maximize Your Reach and Exposure

The most obvious benefit is reach. Your followers on Instagram and your friends or followers on Facebook are often two distinct, though sometimes overlapping, groups. By sharing your Reel on both platforms, you’re instantly tapping into a wider audience without having to create a brand-new piece of content. This is low-hanging fruit for increasing your video’s overall views, engagement, and potential to go viral.

Save Time and Content Creation Energy

Content creation is demanding. Coming up with unique, high-quality ideas for multiple platforms can lead to burnout. Repurposing your best Instagram Reels for Facebook is an efficient way to maintain a consistent posting schedule. You've already done the hard work of conceptualizing, filming, and editing, reposting lets you get maximum value from that initial effort.

Test Content Across Different Audiences

What performs well on Instagram might not hit the same way on Facebook, and vice-versa. The userbases have different demographics and content consumption habits. Reposting allows you to A/B test your content in a natural way. You might discover that a certain style of Reel resonates incredibly well with your Facebook audience, giving you valuable data to inform your future content strategy for that platform.

Method 1: The Automatic "Share to Facebook" Feature

The easiest way to get your Instagram Reels onto Facebook is by using Meta’s built-in feature that does it for you. This "set it and forget it" method is perfect if you want a seamless workflow and don’t need to customize the post for each platform.

How to Set It Up for Future Reels

You can turn this setting on so that every Reel you post on Instagram in the future is automatically shared to your Facebook profile or Page. Here’s how:

• Open your Instagram app and go to your profile.
• Tap the three horizontal lines in the top-right corner to open the menu.
• Select Settings and privacy.
• Tap on Accounts Center (it should be at the very top).
• Under "Accounts settings," tap on Sharing across profiles.
• Select your Instagram account.
• Under "Automatically share," you will see options for "Your Instagram stories" and "Your Instagram posts." Note: "Posts" in this context now includes Reels.
• Toggle on Your Instagram Reels. If you haven't connected your Facebook account yet, you'll be prompted to do so. You can choose whether to share to your personal Facebook profile or a Facebook Page that you manage.

Once enabled, any new Reel you publish on Instagram will automatically appear as a Reel on your chosen Facebook destination.

Pros and Cons of Automatic Sharing

• Pros:
  • Effortless: You only have to post once.
  • Instantaneous: The Reel goes live on Facebook at the same time as Instagram.
  • Consistent: Maintains a steady flow of content on your Facebook profile or Page.
• Cons:
  • No Customization: Your Instagram caption, hashtags, and mentions are directly copied over. You can’t tailor the message specifically for your Facebook audience.
  • Audio Licensing Issues: If you use a trending audio clip from Instagram’s music library, it might not have the same licensing rights on Facebook. This can cause your Reel to be muted on Facebook or not share at all.
  • Audience Mismatch: Sometimes, the punchy, short captions and dense hashtag blocks popular on Instagram feel out of place on Facebook, where longer, more context-rich descriptions can perform better.

Method 2: Manually Reposting an Existing Reel

If you need more control - or if you want to share a Reel you've already posted without the automatic feature enabled - the manual approach is your best bet. This method takes a few extra steps but allows you to fully optimize the Reel for Facebook.

Step-by-Step Guide to Manual Reposting

The key here is to get a clean version of your video file, without the Instagram watermark.

1. Save Your Reel Video (Watermark-Free)

Instagram makes it tricky to download your own Reel without their logo plastered on it. Here are two effective workarounds:

• The Best Method: Save Before Posting. The easiest way to get the original, high-quality video file is to save it to your phone's camera roll from your editing app before you upload it to Instagram.
• The Story Download Trick: If you’ve already posted the Reel, find it on your Instagram profile and tap the 'Share' icon (the paper plane). Then tap "Add to story." Don't actually post it as a story. Instead, pinch and zoom the Reel so it fills the entire screen. Then, tap the three dots in the upper right corner and select Save. This saves the video to your camera roll without the Reel watermark.

2. Create a New Reel on Facebook

Open the Facebook app (this works best on mobile) and navigate to where you’d create a new post.

• From your news feed, tap the "+" Create button and select Reel.
• Alternatively, go to your profile or Page and find the "Reels" section, where you should see a "Create Reel" option.

3. Upload Your Video

The app will open your phone’s photo gallery. Select the video file you just saved. You can trim the clip if needed, but since it was already a Reel, it should fit the 9:16 vertical format perfectly.

4. Optimize and Edit

Now comes the important part where this method shines. You can add audio, text, stickers, and effects directly within Facebook’s Reels editor. Crucially, this is your chance to:

• Add Facebook-Friendly Audio: Ditch the potentially problematic Instagram audio. Search Facebook’s own music library for a trending song or sound that works with your video. This dramatically reduces the risk of your audio getting muted.
• Write a Fresh Caption: This is your chance to speak directly to your Facebook audience. More on this below.

5. Publish It

Once you’re happy with the edits and the new caption, hit the "Share Now" button to publish your Reel on Facebook.

How to Optimize Your Reposted Reels for Better Performance

Simply putting your Reel on Facebook isn't enough. To get the best results, you need to treat it like a native Facebook post. Customizing it for the platform can be the difference between a few dozen views and massive engagement.

Tweak Your Caption for the Facebook Crowd

Audiences on Facebook often appreciate more context. While Instagram rewards short, snappy captions, Facebook is a space where you can elaborate a bit more.

• Ask Questions: Encourage conversation by ending your caption with a question related to the video.
• Tell a Story: Provide a little backstory. If your Reel is a "how-to," you could add a short paragraph about why this trick is so useful.
• Be More Direct: A call-to-action like "Visit the link in our bio!" doesn't work on Facebook posts the same way it does on Instagram. Instead, point users to a link in the comments or tell them to visit your Page's bio.

Use a Different Hashtag Strategy

Hashtag usage differs between the two platforms. While a cluster of 15-20 hashtags is common on Instagram, it can look spammy on Facebook. For Facebook, stick to just a few (3-5) highly relevant and broad hashtags that categorize your content. Think #homedecor or #quickrecipes rather than super-niche, community-specific tags.

Engage With Your Facebook Comments

This seems obvious, but it's easy to forget. If you're used to managing comments on Instagram, make a mental note to check your notifications on your Facebook Page. Replying to a few comments shortly after your Reel goes live can signal to the algorithm that your content is engaging, which may boost its visibility in the feed.

Final Thoughts

Reposting your Instagram Reels to Facebook is a powerful strategy for expanding your reach and making your content work harder for you. Whether you choose the frictionless automatic sharing feature or the more controlled manual method, the key is to remember that you're serving two potentially different audiences. Taking just a few extra minutes to optimize your caption and audio for Facebook can make a huge impact on your results.

As you scale your content strategy, manually downloading and re-uploading videos across platforms can become a real drag on your time. At Postbase, we designed our platform specifically to solve this problem. We are built for short-form video first, allowing you to upload your video once and schedule it across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts from a single, intuitive calendar. We make sure everything, including your custom captions for each platform, goes live exactly when planned, so you can stop juggling apps and start focusing on creating your next great video.