Social media isn’t as easy as it should be, mainly due to the corporate battles that exist behind the scenes of the average user.  Facebook and Twitter aren’t exactly friends, they are competing for our time, and our loyalty so when Facebook purchased Instagram a few little things changed, and it’s starting to become more and more problematic as these platforms continue to grow.  Here’s how to solve one of the most common problems – getting your Instagram photos to show on Twitter.

The problem: Your twitter followers want to see those photos you’re sharing.  Instead, they see this:

What they want to see is this:

So what are you doing wrong? Well when you take a photo and share it on Instagram, you’re pressing the “Twitter” button to share it there also. The problem is, between Twitter and Facebook there’s no co-operation, so all your followers on twitter see is a link – to view your photo they have to click that link and load a different app – it seems simple, but it changes the flow of the user experience on Twitter.

Twitter itself has done a lot of research to show that the most engaging “tweets” are those with embedded media – like photos, so to increase your “favourites” and “retweets” you should try to share your photos directly on twitter.

There’s one way of doing that without any need for instruction. Open the Twitter app, and tweet the photo again. But you’re going to need to re-type the caption, or copy/paste it, and frankly, that’s just crazy.

So, here’s how to make sharing photos on Instagram and Twitter a seamless workflow for you, providing the best results for your followers.

1. Create an account at IFTTT.com – IFTTT stands for “If this then that” and it could be the most powerful tool on the internet today – but more on that another time.

Screen Shot 2014-09-17 at 5.15.38 pm2. Load the “recipe” for Instagram to Twitter photos – Just click here and click USE RECIPE.

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3. Activate the Twitter and Instagram “channels” – all this requires is for you to click the button, then enter your username and password for that service.

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4. Go back to your Instagram app – take a photo, and share it – but this time, DON’T click “Twitter”. Just let it all happen.

It may take a few minutes, perhaps longer – but in time it will work. If you want to hurry it along, go back to IFTTT and open “My Recipes” and press the “Check Recipe Now” button (the circular arrow).

Check your twitter account and you’ll see the photo there!

These tweets will also show a link to your Instagram account and photo. Having this reduces your “caption” by another 22 characters, so – if you want to go one step further, try this.

1. After you’ve created your IFTTT account, go over to Tumblr and create an account there. Tumblr is a blogging platform and this little tweak of things will share your Instagram photos onto a Tumblr Blog, then an IFTTT recipe will post those onto Twitter for you.

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2. Back to IFTTT and add the Tumblr to Twitter recipe, which will allow IFTTT to do all the work for you in the background

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3. Take a photo in Instagram, add a caption (keep it short remember – Twitter has limits), then press Tumblr (NOT Twitter).

4. Add your Tumblr account to Instagram – Simply press Tumblr when sharing a photo, it will pop up and ask you for your Tumblr login.

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5. Share that photo, with just Tumblr selected, and the photo will appear on Instagram, and your Tumblr blog.    Once again, in time, the IFTTT recipe will run and your twitter followers will see the photo you originally shared on Instagram.

Look after your followers, they want to hear from you after all, make their life easy.