The Importance of Social Media for Therapists
For therapists, social media is now an essential tool for running and promoting clinics. In today’s digital age, sharing content with current and prospective clients is crucial for maintaining and growing your business.
Why No Instagram Share Button?
Instagram has become one of the most popular social media platforms. However, there’s no share button for web content as there is for other platforms. Here’s why:
1. Instagram Has Not Made It Technically Possible
The ability to share content from a website to a social media platform relies on the platform itself providing an API. APIs enable websites to connect and share content directly to platforms like LinkedIn or Facebook. Social media companies control these APIs and decide which applications or plugins can use them.
As website developers, we can’t create sharing functionality without an API from the social media platform. Instagram hasn’t provided the necessary infrastructure, API, or developer documentation to enable a share button for web content.
2. It’s a Cultural Thing
Social media share buttons allow users to share content from a website to a social media platform. Instagram, however, is designed primarily for sharing user-generated photos and videos. Unlike other platforms, Instagram doesn’t encourage or make it easy to share external links. Users typically stay within the app to consume content, rather than navigating to external sites.
This is different from platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, where users frequently share and seek out links to external content. Each social media platform has its own culture, and Instagram’s culture focuses on keeping users within the app.
While Instagram does have features like the “swipe up” option in stories for certain accounts, it still emphasizes keeping users engaged with content made specifically for Instagram. Many influencers note that Instagram’s appeal lies in its in-app content consumption.
Conclusion
The absence of a share button for Instagram on web pages is due to two main reasons: Instagram has not provided the technical capability for it, and the platform’s culture doesn’t support sharing external links. If users want to find external content, they’ll likely turn to other platforms like Twitter.
