A lot of my week at Risendo goes into reading other people's Instagram Insights, and the posts I learn the most from are rarely the ones with the most likes. They are the ones that get sent. A post that people forward to each other behaves differently from the rest of an account. It keeps picking up views after the first day, and more of those views come from people who have never followed the account.
That pattern comes from what I see in accounts. Instagram hasn't published it as a rule, so throughout this guide I mark which is which: when Instagram has said something about shares, I quote it and link the source, and when I'm describing my own observations, I say that too.
Shares are also the number most people misread. They count them like likes, and they try to raise them with the same tactics that raise likes. In my experience that rarely works, because a share isn't a reaction. It's a message someone sends with your post attached.
The short answer: to get more shares on Instagram, make posts that help someone say something to a specific person: "this is you," "we should try this," "don't make this mistake." Put the whole point on screen so it still makes sense when it lands in a chat without your caption. Use Reels for reach and carousels for things worth discussing, check that resharing to Stories is switched on for your account, and judge each post by shares per viewer, not by the raw count.
Why Your Reels Get Views but Nobody Sends Them
A view only needs a viewer. A send needs two people: the one watching and someone they think of while watching. Most posts are made for an audience in general, so they never trigger that second thought.
When I go through an account whose Reels get decent views and almost no shares, I usually find one of three gaps:
There is no obvious recipient. The post is pleasant, but nobody watching it thinks of a particular friend, partner, colleague or client.
The point needs explaining. If the sender would have to write a paragraph to say why they're sending it, most people won't bother.
The post is about the creator, not the viewer. A result, a milestone or a behind-the-scenes clip can get plenty of likes. It gives the viewer nothing to say to anyone else.
The most-sent posts I've reviewed were rarely the best-produced ones on the account. They were often plain: a short clip settling an argument people in that niche keep having, or a list that was obviously written for one kind of person. Production quality earned likes. A clear recipient earned sends.
The Ways a Post Gets Shared on Instagram
"Share" covers several different actions, and they don't all work the same way. It helps to know which one you're actually asking for.
Sent in a message. Someone taps the share icon and sends your post or Reel to one person or a group chat. This is the action Instagram's head calls a "send," and it's the one I care about most.
Added to a Story. Someone puts your post or Reel into their own Story. According to Instagram's Help Center, this only works if your account is public and you've allowed resharing. The same page says you won't be able to see who reshared your reel or where they shared it to. Instagram's page on sharing posts to Stories has the details.
Reposted. Since August 2025, people can repost public Reels and feed posts. In its announcement of reposts, Instagram says reposts are credited to the original poster and that reposted content "may be recommended to that person's followers, even if those people don't follow you."
Shared outside Instagram. Someone copies the link or shares the post to another app. Your content travels, but the conversation happens somewhere you can't see.
In your own Insights, shares are counted under interactions. Instagram's guide to Insights describes interactions as actions "such as likes, comments, saves and shares." What you get is a count. You don't get names.
Check your sharing settings first
This is the first thing I check when an account tells me nobody shares its posts to Stories. If resharing is switched off, that route is closed no matter how good the post is. On the Instagram app, go to your profile, open the menu, tap Sharing and reuse under How others can interact with you, and look at the toggle next to Posts and reels to stories. A private account can't have its posts reshared to Stories at all, so if you want shares from strangers, the account has to be public.
What Instagram Has Actually Said About Sends
There is a lot of confident advice about shares online, much of it with no source. Here is what Instagram itself has published.
The clearest statement came from Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, in a post on January 21, 2025. He wrote that for both connected reach (people who follow you) and unconnected reach (people who don't), "the top three signals that matter most for ranking are watch time, likes and sends." He added that sends are "slightly more important for unconnected content," and told creators to watch "average watch time, likes per reach, and sends per reach" in their Insights. You can read Mosseri's post in full.
Instagram's longer explanation of ranking says each part of the app has its own system, and shares appear in all of them in different ways (Instagram Ranking Explained):
Reels. The predictions Instagram lists as most important start with how likely you are to reshare a reel, followed by watching it all the way through, liking it and going to the audio page.
Explore. "The most important actions we predict in Explore include likes, saves, and shares."
Feed. Sharing is one of the five interactions named for Feed, alongside spending a few seconds on a post, commenting, liking and tapping the profile photo.
Instagram's creator FAQ adds one more piece. When it decides how far to recommend something, it looks at "how much engagement per viewer the content has received," and sharing is one of the actions it lists.
Claim | Where it stands |
|---|---|
Sends are one of the three signals that matter most for ranking | Published by Instagram (Mosseri, January 2025) |
Sends matter slightly more for reaching people who don't follow you | Published by Instagram (Mosseri, January 2025) |
Reels ranking predicts whether you'll reshare a reel | Published by Instagram (Ranking Explained) |
Recommendations look at engagement per viewer, including sharing | Published by Instagram (creator FAQ) |
A reposted post may be shown to the reposter's followers who don't follow you | Published by Instagram (reposts announcement) |
One send is worth a fixed number of likes | Not published |
A set number of shares guarantees a Reel goes viral | Not published |
For how these signals fit into each surface, see my guide to how the Instagram algorithm works. This article stays on one question: how to earn the send.
What I've Seen in Accounts That Get Sent
This part comes from watching accounts, not from documentation.
When a post gets sent a lot, the first day often looks ordinary. What stands out comes later. The post keeps collecting views for days, and the share of its audience who don't follow the account is higher than on the account's other posts. Those latecomers also visit the profile more often. Of all the numbers I look at, a high share rate is the one I find most often next to a post that keeps growing after launch day.
That fits what Mosseri wrote about sends and unconnected reach. A send puts your post in front of someone because a person they know chose it for them, and then Instagram has a reason to show it to more people like them.
I can't prove cause from the outside. Posts that get sent are usually good posts, and good posts also get watched and liked. Nobody outside Instagram can separate one signal from the others. So check it against your own account. Take your last ten Reels, write down shares per viewer for each, and note how much of each Reel's reach came from people who don't follow you. If the most-shared Reels aren't the ones that travelled furthest in your account, trust your numbers over my experience.
Write for the Message, Not the Feed
Before I publish anything meant to be shared, I write one line first: the message someone would type when they send it. If I can't write it in under ten words, the post isn't ready.
That line tells you who the post is for and why they'd pass it on. In my experience, almost every send falls under one of five messages.
"This is so you"
People send posts that describe a friend, a partner or a coworker with uncomfortable accuracy. The post works as a way of saying "I know you." To make these, be precise about a type of person and their habits. "Runners" is too broad. "People who say they'll do an easy run and then race the stranger next to them" is specific enough to send.
"We should do this"
A place to eat, a trip, a recipe for the weekend, a workout to try together. These posts start a plan between two people. They get sent when the details are there: the price range, where it is, how long it takes. Without the details, the recipient's first reply is a question, and the plan dies.
"See, I told you"
Every niche has arguments people keep having. Whether a certain habit actually works, which of two options is better, whether a common belief is true. A post that settles one with evidence gets forwarded as proof. Pick a side and show why. A post that lists both sides and concludes "it depends" gives nobody anything to win with.
"Don't make this mistake"
Warnings travel because sending one looks after someone. A contract clause to check before signing, a scam message that's going around, a setting to change before a trip. These need to be concrete and current. Vague caution isn't worth forwarding.
"You need this for…"
Someone knows a person who is in the middle of a specific task: a friend planning a wedding, a colleague starting a new role, a sibling choosing a laptop. A post that helps with exactly that task gets sent to exactly that person. This is close to what earns saves, with one difference: a save is for the viewer's future self, while a send is for someone else's present problem. If saves are what you're after, I cover them in how to get more saves on Instagram.
Make the point survive without your caption
A forwarded post arrives in a chat as media first. From what I've watched people do, many recipients tap the video, watch it and reply without ever opening the caption. So whatever the sender wants to say has to be in the post itself: on screen in the first seconds of a Reel, on the first slide of a carousel. If the point only lives in the caption, it gets lost in the chat.
Narrow beats broad
General advice gets agreement. Specific advice gets forwarded. "Travel light" gets a nod. "Flying long-haul with a toddler? Pack these five things in the seat pocket" gets sent to the friend whose trip is next month. When a niche post gets sent, the people receiving it are usually in that niche too. They're the people you want Instagram to show your work to next.
Where Shares Come From, Format by Format
Reels
Reels are where most sends happen in the accounts I look at, and they're the format Instagram ranks partly on reshares. But a Reel has to hold someone's attention before they think about sending it. Opening clearly and earning the watch is a separate skill, which I cover in how to get more Instagram Reel views.
For shares specifically, I'd change three things. Put the message on screen in the first frame, so the recipient gets it even with sound off. Keep the Reel short enough to watch in full in a chat. And end on the line the sender would agree with, because that's the moment they decide to tap the share icon.
A note on paid help, since we sell it. Buying Instagram Reel views can make a new Reel look established. It can't make anyone send it. Bought views and real sends measure different things, so if you use both, read shares per viewer with that in mind.
Carousels
Carousels get sent when the whole argument fits in one swipe: a comparison, a short list of mistakes, a before-and-after with the reason it worked. I'd make the first slide state the claim and the last slide hold the conclusion, so the recipient can respond to the final slide alone. Carousels are also where I see sends and saves overlap most. A useful carousel often gets both.
Stories
Stories mostly reach people who already follow you, so they're not where new audiences come from. They matter for sharing in two ways. Your followers can send a Story in a message, so a Story with something worth passing on can still travel. And when people reshare your posts, they usually reshare them into their own Stories, which only works if your account is public and resharing is on.
Single images
A single image gets shared when it carries everything in one look: a chart, a screenshot of something surprising, one strong line of text. If it needs a second slide to make sense, it should be a carousel.
Read Your Share Numbers Without Fooling Yourself
Raw shares mostly tell you how many people saw the post. Shares per viewer tells you how many of them thought of someone else.
Here's the calculation. Open the post's Insights, divide shares by viewers, and multiply by 100. Instagram's Help Center defines viewers as the number of unique accounts that saw your content on screen at least once, so use that figure and not views, which count the same person more than once.
An illustration, not a benchmark: a Reel seen by 4,000 accounts with 80 shares has a share rate of 2%. A Reel seen by 40,000 accounts with 200 shares has a share rate of 0.5%. The second has more shares. The first did more with the people it reached.
Compare against yourself. Instagram doesn't publish a good share rate. Any number you find in a guide comes from someone else's accounts.
Compare like with like. Reels with Reels, carousels with carousels. They're shared for different reasons.
Look at ten posts, not one. One viral post tells you little. A rate that rises across a format tells you the format is working.
Pair it with non-follower reach. Where your Insights break reach or engagement down by followers and non-followers, note both numbers. That's the comparison from the section above.
One more thing: you won't see who shared your post. Instagram doesn't show it, so be careful with any app that claims it can tell you, especially one that asks for your login. For the rest of your Insights and which numbers to trust, see my Instagram analytics guide.
Asking for the Send: When It Helps and When It's Bait
Instagram's creator FAQ lists things that can limit how far content is recommended. One of them is content "that users broadly tell us they dislike, including clickbait, engagement bait, or which promotes a contest or giveaway." Instagram doesn't publish a list of banned phrases, so I can't tell you that "send this to a friend" is penalized. Anyone who says they know is guessing.
I use a simple test. An ask is honest when it names the person the post was made for. "If your friend is planning a first trip to Japan, this is the list I'd give them" is information, and the right viewer knows exactly who to send it to. "SEND THIS TO 5 FRIENDS OR…" is a chain letter.
Name the recipient, not the action. "For anyone who just started a new job" does more than "share this."
Ask once. At the end of the caption or on the last slide, not on every frame.
Never tie a send to a reward. "Send this to enter" is a giveaway mechanic, and contests are on Instagram's own list. You also can't see who sent the post, so you couldn't check the entries.
Asking for a send is also different from asking for a comment that triggers an automatic DM. That's a separate tactic with its own trade-offs, which I cover in how to get more comments on Instagram.
What Doesn't Earn Shares
Reuploading someone else's viral clip. Even if it gets sent, the sends belong to content that isn't yours. Instagram's recommendations guidelines name unoriginal content "largely repurposed from another source with only minor, immaterial edits" as low quality. Using the repost button is different: the post is credited to the original creator.
Share-for-share groups. Sends traded between people who don't care about the post tell you nothing. The same guidelines name "coordinated comment networks intended to artificially drive engagement and distribution" as low quality. Swapping sends works on the same logic, so I'd expect it to be judged the same way.
Posts that only make sense inside your account. Running jokes your followers know can be good for them. Forwarded to a stranger, they mean nothing.
Posts that make the sender look bad. People don't forward things that would embarrass them in front of the person they're sending to. Cheap outrage and crude bait get watched and quietly skipped.
Holding the point back. "Part 2 in my bio" turns a send into homework for the recipient.
Resharing switched off. It's a small setting, and I've seen it quietly block Story reshares on accounts that couldn't work out why nobody reshared them.
The Part That Actually Compounds
A like is a reaction that ends on your post. A send starts a conversation somewhere else, with your post in the middle of it. When someone forwards your work, a person they trust is vouching for it.
To get more shares on Instagram, start with three changes. Write the sender's message before you make the post. Put the point on screen, where it survives without the caption. And track shares per viewer across your next ten posts instead of celebrating the one that got lucky.
Then watch who arrives. In my experience, when the sends go up, more of the people who find the account are people who didn't follow it before. Check whether that happens for you.