Here’s How To See Who Shared Your Posts To Their Instagram Story

You open Instagram to find you have a bazillion new followers and have no idea why. Did you just wake up famous? Are you making headlines somewhere? Or, perhaps more likely, did someone with a large following share one of your posts to their Instagram story and score you some new internet friends?

If you’re curious about your surprise fame or just how fire your followers actually think your Instagram posts are, there’s a hack that allows you to see who reshared your posts so you can keep tabs on who’s giving you free publicity. (Or just how proud your mother is of the latest portrait you posted of her granddog.) Whether you’re interested to know more about your engagement on Instagram, or just dying to know who finds your posts interesting, there’s a lot to learn from your post insights.

While anyone can reshare content by taking a screenshot of a post or story and uploading it to their stories from their camera roll, the original poster won’t be linked, notified, or credited. The only way to tell if a user reshared your post to their Instagram story is by using the in-app post-sharing feature, which also gives viewers a chance to tap the original post and go to the poster’s page directly. It’s a more friendly and upfront way to share other users’ content than doing so without credit.

Here’s how to find out who has shared your posts to their stories — and why you should care.

How To See Who Shared Your Posts To Their Instagram Stories

The only way you can see who shared your Instagram post to their stories is if you have a business or creator account. These kinds of accounts give you access to content insights, which can tell you a lot about who is engaging with your Instagram posts, Reels, and stories. It’s free to convert your personal account to a creator version (and easy enough to switch back), but keep in mind that creator accounts can’t be private. Once you have your account in creator or business mode, follow the below steps to see who shared your posts to their Instagram stories.

1. Go to your profile and click on the post.

2. Click “View Insights” on your Instagram post. If your post was reshared, there will be a number directly underneath the paper airplane icon. This will tell you exactly how many people reshared your post.

3. Return to the photo and click on the three dots in the upper right-hand corner of the post. There will be an option to “View Story Reshares.” Click on it. (Note: This option will only appear if your post was reshared at least once.)

5. You will be brought to a page titled “Current Public Reshares” where you can see exactly how many people reshared your Instagram post to their stories.

6. To see who shared the post, click on a reshared story in the grid, and it will take you directly to the user’s story.

7. From there, you can see the username and click on the account.

Why Does It Matter If Someone Reshared Your Instagram Post?

If engagement is important to you — think, if you’re trying to build your influencing empire — finding out who shared your Instagram post can be incredibly valuable information. By checking who reshares your posts, it can help you understand which demographic your post jives with. Is your new needlepoint hobby striking out with Gen Z? Are your social justice infographics getting circulation amongst respected Millennial peers?

Reshare insights are also helpful if you just recently got a slew of new followers or likes on a post, but don’t know why. You can check your posts individually to see which ones might have been reshared, and then go through the users listed to see if any of them have big followings that could account for the influx of notifications.

While your friends and followers might like a post enough to double tap it, sharing a post to your story is a bit more of a commitment. Users generally don’t share posts to their stories unless they really connect with it, so it’s good to know who is spreading the love.