Instagram Clarifies That Including Your Own Logo on a Reel is OK

Here’s a quick, but important note from Instagram chief Adam Mosseri:

As per the above clip, Mosseri clarifies that including your own brand’s logo will not impact the reach of your Reels on Instagram.

To quote Mosseri directly:

“If you watermark a Reel with your own logo, will that affect its reach? The answer is no, that’s actually good to go. What we try to do is not recommend Reels with logos from other apps, but if it’s your own logo, don’t worry about it.”

Back in 2021, Instagram implemented a discovery penalty for Reels that include the TikTok logo on them, in order to disincentivize users re-posting content between the two apps. Re-posting TikToks as Reels, even with a watermark, will still get shown to your followers in the same way, but their broader reach is limited, so they won’t show up in Explore or within recommendations

The specific advice at the time was that users should not post content “that’s visibly recycled from other apps”.

Since then, YouTube has added Shorts, its own variation of short-form content, and that, seemingly, would also be covered under IG’s “logos from other apps” proviso here.

But including your own brand logo on your clips is fine, and won’t result in a reach penalty.

In some ways, it seems a bit petty for Meta to restrict the reach of re-posts from competitors, but then again, they do the same, in order to highlight original content (ideally) particularly across the discovery elements of their apps.

So, to clarify, don’t re-post TikToks to Reels with the TikTok logo if you’re looking to reach a broader audience. But if you want to create a Reel that includes your own branding, that’s not a problem.

A relevant clarification for Reels creators.