Instagram's new links feature is... good, actually

It's no surprise that Instagram is a big deal among sports teams. In the UK, the top 92 teams have a combined following of around 322m. Premier League alone pumped out more than 4.5k posts in February 2026, an average of 226 per club or eight per day. That's a lot of content.

Reels (videos to you and me) are one of the most dominant content types on the platform. They're vertical videos - think TikTok - that users can swipe through.

In April 2025 Instagram introduced a separate mobile app, called Edits, to make creating Reels easier. While a lot of teams will rely on external tools like Premiere Pro, Instagram is trying to tempt users over to using their app by including unique features that enhance the viewing experience.

One of these is the latest feature: links.

What are links?

In short, they're clickable links that you can include directly in your Reel. They look a bit like the photos from Harry Potter as they play in full within the snapshot you can include. You can also link people to an Instagram account (either your own or someone else's).

Tapping on any of the included Reels takes you straight to it, allowing you to watch it immediately. This is one of the first opportunities on Instagram for clubs to be able to take people to content they've published previously.

As you can see from my example above, you can also link to other Reels on the platform. You can't link to other link Reels though (I tried this), so there's no potential to do an Inception-style link through.

Why is it a good opportunity for clubs?

This is an attention-routing tool, rather than one that's going to have an impact on sales. At least until Instagram lets you include direct links to websites (which is being worked on at present for paying subscribers).

In my experience, teams are trying to do one of three things with content:

• Get more views.
• Grow priority accounts.
• Keep fans engaged in official content for longer.

Links helps with all three because it reduces the effort needed to find the next piece of content to watch. And anything that makes things easier is a good thing.

How is it being used so far?

Like a lot of trends, this seems to have taken off quite quickly since it was first noticed. I went from not seeing any at all on Tuesday, to seeing loads by the time of writing this (Thursday evening). So let's take a look at what uses there have been so far.

For the examples I've linked to them on Instagram alongside a short GIF of the Reel itself.

Relive the match day

Definitely only one to try if you win.

The morning after (or later in the day depending on the kick off time), you can do a round-up of all of the goals or big moments.

So far this has been the main use, as you can see below from WBA, FC Porto, and Southampton.

Here's what you've missed

This could work as a monthly round-up. Spotlight your top performing Reels so that people can catch up on what they might have missed. It gives some content a potential second lease of life.

That's what CF Montreal have done with their "in case you missed these" round-up. I assume a lot of these early posts are testing the format.

Themed collections

Scored a lot of good team goals this season? Is one player known for scoring worldies? Or do what Napoli have done and show the top six celebrations so far this season. What this one has done differently compared to the others featured is edited the Reel to make the links pop in as it's playing.

I've also had a few other ideas that I haven't seen used yet. Feel free to steal them, and let me know when you do so I can highlight it.

Grow your other accounts

If you're running men's, women's, and academy accounts - and maybe others, like a separate stadium one - then you've got a chance for a bit of cross-promotion. You can either link directly to one of their Reels or to the accounts themselves. It's also possible to do this with content published by players.

Build weekly recurring content formats

This could be quite powerful. If you're doing a semi-regular series, link back to the previous instalment at the end of the current one. If this is the first one people have seen then they'd appreciate easily being able to find other ones.

How do you link Reels?

Right now, this new format can only be created in the Edits app. When you start a project and choose your initial image or video - which will be used for the background - you'll see the Links button underneath the editor.

Tapping this will give you the choice of linking to an account or a Reel. When you select Reels you can search for them, navigate through your own, or go to any that you've got saved.

When adding a link to an account you'll need to type in the full URL if it doesn't appear in the list of recommended accounts. I'm not sure why there's not a way of just searching by username.

Other news and updates

Here are a few other bits and pieces you might have missed.

• Fulham are now on Reddit! They hosted an AMA with Antonee Robinson this evening on r/soccer that seems to have gone down well. The community has been really appreciative of these recently, including the Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall one from earlier this week. If you're after any advice or guidance in getting started on Reddit let me know, I'd love to talk.
• YouTube are partnering with FIFA for this summer's World Cup. Some channels will be able to stream full matches, which is an interesting move.

And finally

This is lovely from Wolves. After spotting a young fan getting upset at his dad taking his last chicken nugget during a home game they surprised him with a fresh box of them along with a kit and junior membership. They also had a home visit from the club mascot.

The video had the third highest post interaction rate in the Premier League last month, showing that these moments are worth making the most of. They've even had some press coverage because of it, with the local Aldi getting involved too.