Do Collab Posts Count as Duplicate Content?

Collab Posts are a popular feature on social media platforms, which allow two or more users to co-author a single post. Brands can use Instagram Collab Posts to significantly enhance reach and engagement by tapping into the combined audiences of all collaborators. A common concernreal-timeer these posts are seen as duplicates — fortunately, Collab Posts are designed to appear as a single, unified piece of content across all participating accounts, ensuring a seamless experience for followers without the risking penalty from posting Reels and photos that are too similar.

What Happens When a Brand and Creator Share the Same Post

When a brand and creator share the same post on Instagram, the platform currently treats it as duplicate content if they upload separately and then collaborate. This means the post will appear on both the brand’s and creator’s grids and in their follower feeds, with unified statistics and data visible across both profiles. Therefore, it’s more efficient to share a single Collab Post for a specific image to avoid redundancy in your feed and followers’ feeds — ultimately, it ensures the best reach and engagement possible.

However, a brand, creator or influencer can diversify their content by sharing different images from the same campaign. Using more than one image is a great way to maximize the content gathered from photoshoots and your design team — especially if two options catch your team’s eye. A great way to determine which visual each party should use is to upload your chosen posts to your Content Library, and let Visual IQ, Dash Hudson's visual research tool, determine which visuals have the best chance to perform. If Visual IQ predicts that the same image will perform best on two different accounts, you can use your discretion to determine which fits best with your feed’s creative identity. What's more, Dash Hudson's Visual IQ also identifies visual trends from your owned and earned media, discerns which imagery your competitors are using and more.

Does Duplicate Content Hurt SEO?

Duplicate content can significantly impact SEO, but effects vary depending on where this duplicate appears. For websites, duplicate content is typically detrimental to your SEO strategy. Search engines like Google will likely struggle to determine which version of the content is most relevant, which can lead to lower rankings or exclude your website from search results altogether. Duplicating content, especially if the content is similar, can also hurt your authority, which in turn, impacts your rankings and search traffic. 

However, the best practices for SEO and social media are slightly different. Although social media platforms prioritize unique and engaging content, duplicate posts across social channels typically don’t directly hurt SEO. Still, sharing the same content without variation can lead to reduced engagement and follower fatigue, indirectly affecting your brand’s overall digital presence and visibility — rather than deleting and reposting content, try resharing older, but still relevant posts with your audience. Relevance is key here — if you’re resharing older content that you think aligns with an upcoming campaign, product release or other key event for your content marketing strategy, use a poll, Q&A or a text overlay to add additional context to the post. 

Tailoring your content marketing strategy for each platform is essential for optimizing SEO and social media performance. On your website, focus on creating a cohesive, search-focused strategy that will help boost your discoverability and website traffic. On social media, diversify your content with different intent — brand awareness, targeted social media advertisements, polls, Q&As and more. By understanding and addressing the nuances of SEO and social media, you can create a cohesive strategy that maximizes your content’s reach and effectiveness across all platforms.

Explore Collab Post Impact With Dash Hudson

Brands can leverage Dash Hudson to precisely analyze the impact of their Instagram Collab Posts. With Dash Hudson’s Social Analytics Monitoring and Reporting features, brands can gain insight into their performance including engagement rate, reach and audience demographics. Social teams can understand how well collaborations resonate with their audience and what content drives the most interaction. 

Dashboards offer a complete view of your social media metrics — you can customize dashboards to track specific KPIs pertaining to your Collab Post, like reach, post sentiment, engagement rate and more. This lets you monitor performance in real time, giving your team the opportunity to pivot and adjust your strategy accordingly. 

Additionally, Content Segmentation lets you categorize and analyze different content types like Collab Posts. By segmenting Collab content, brands can compare performance against their other posts to determine if they work well. By segmenting your content, brands can get deeper insight into how collaboration contributes to overall social media success. 

FAQs

What determines the order of usernames in Instagram Collab Posts? 

The order of usernames in Instagram Collab Posts is determined by the sequence in which collaborators are added during the post creation process. The first username listed is typically the account that initiated the collaboration, followed by the usernames of the accounts that were invited and accepted the collaboration.

Can Instagram remove the ‘Collab’ option? 

Yes, Instagram can remove the ‘Collab’ option at any time. Social media platforms often update their features and policies based on user feedback, technical improvements, or changes in their strategic direction. However, Instagram typically provides users with advance notice regarding significant changes to its features.

Can you post a Collab from a private account? 

Yes, you can post a Collab from a private account. However, the collaboration will only be visible to the followers of the private account and the public or private followers of the collaborating accounts, depending on their privacy settings. If a private account collaborates with a public account, the post will only be visible to the private account's followers unless the post is shared by the public account, in which case it can reach a wider audience.