Instagram offers features like reels, boomerangs, and stories, making it a valuable tool for brand expansion.
Stories are particularly remarkable, with thousands of stickers and music to choose from. However, they only stay on your profile for 24 hours. To keep them permanently, use the Instagram story highlights option.
To understand what Instagram story highlights are and how to leverage them for your business, scroll down for the complete breakdown.
Instagram Story Highlights are a selection of old and new stories that you personally choose to showcase.
They are easily accessible to your followers and remain permanently visible.
Instagram Highlights allow your own stories to be viewed past the first 24 hours. You can find it right under your profile bio.
You have total control over what topics you want to focus on and what Stories to include in your highlight and label them accordingly.
There are many benefits of using Instagram story highlights, as mentioned below:
They can also be an excellent marketing tool for your brand by promoting more interaction with your audience.
In other words, Instagram Story Highlight is a vital feature for any business to get the best out of the social media platform.
Instagram Highlights is an essential aspect of the platform.
They provide businesses and individuals with a powerful tool to market products and services, build their brand, and connect with their audience.
Story Highlights, in particular, allow users to showcase their favorite stories on their Instagram profiles, making them stand out.
In this section, we will explore why Instagram Story Highlights are so crucial.
Instagram Story Highlights allow you to showcase your creativity engagingly. This feature can highlight your products or services, showcase your team, and share behind-the-scenes footage.
This helps to give your target audience a glimpse into your brand and what you have to offer.
Instagram Story Highlights are an excellent way to increase engagement with your audience.
By showcasing your best stories, you can entice your followers to watch them and interact with your brand.
You can also add call-to-actions in your highlights, such as "Swipe up to learn more" or "Click here to shop now," which can increase website traffic and sales.
Using Instagram Story Highlights, you can save time by organizing and reusing your most engaging content.
Instead of creating new content for every post, you can select your top stories and create highlights that will remain on your profile as long as you choose.
This saves you time and effort and allows you to focus on other important aspects of your business.
Instagram Story Highlights can also increase your visibility on the platform.
When you add a new highlight, it appears at the top of your profile, making it the first thing your followers see when they visit your page.
This can lead to increased engagement, followers, and greater brand recognition.
Instagram Story Highlights can also help you showcase your personality and connect with your audience personally.
You can make highlight covers that showcase your brand personality and let that speak for your brand.
By sharing behind-the-scenes footage, personal stories, or your favorite things, you can give your followers a glimpse into who you are and what you stand for.
This helps to build trust and foster a deeper connection with your audience.
Creating highlights for your Instagram profile is extremely easy.
But there are three ways in which you can create Instagram story highlights.
Read on to find out what they are.
You can create your first Instagram highlight as soon as you upload your story. To do so, follow these steps:
You can also create highlights from your Stories archive.
To do that, ensure you have activated the Archive option, and then all your Stories will get saved automatically in your archive section.
Then, you can choose which stories to be organized in a Highlight from there.
To do this, go to Settings, then Privacy, then Story, and toggle on "Save story to archive."
To create highlights from archived stories, follow these steps:
You can add more photos or videos to your highlight at any time by following these steps:
You can add more photos or videos to your highlight at any time by following these steps:
If you've yet to take advantage of Instagram Story Highlights, you're missing out on a powerful tool to help you grow your brand, connect with your audience, and showcase your best content.
Here are some tips on how to make the most of Instagram Story Highlights:
The first step in taking advantage of Instagram Story Highlights is creating excellent stories your audience will want to see repeatedly.
Use the features available on Instagram to add stickers, gifs, polls, and more to make your stories engaging and interactive.
Be creative and experiment with different formats to keep your audience engaged.
Once you've created a great story, you can save it to a Highlight by tapping the "Highlight" button at the bottom of the screen.
You can add the Story to an existing Highlight or create a new one.
Doing this saves your content for future viewing, which is excellent for showcasing your brand or product.
To make your Highlights easier to navigate, it's a good idea to categorize them by topic.
For example, if you're a food blogger, you might have Highlighted "Recipes," "Restaurants," and "Cooking Tips."
This makes it easier for your audience to find the story content they're interested in and helps you organize it.
Instagram Story Highlights offer an excellent opportunity to showcase your customers and their experiences with your brand.
Consider creating a Highlight called "Customer Stories" and sharing stories your customers have tagged you in.
This not only shows your appreciation for your customers but also helps to build trust with your audience.
Instagram allows you to add an expired story to your Highlights. This means that you can go back and add content to your existing Highlights.
It's a great way to bring back older content you might have yet to have a chance to highlight.
Your Instagram Story Highlights should be visually appealing, consistent with your brand colors, and aesthetically pleasing.
To do this, consider creating a custom cover for each Highlight, or you can choose the best shot from your previous uploads.
This helps to make your Highlights more visually appealing and easier to navigate.
Finally, it's essential to keep your Highlights well-maintained.
Ensure you're regularly adding new content and occasionally curating relevant old content.
This helps to keep your Highlights fresh and engaging for your audience and show that you do your homework.
Instagram Highlights are a valuable tool for many businesses looking to make a lasting impression on their audience.
These Highlights allow you to showcase your brand's personality and values in an engaging, creative, and memorable way.
Let us explore some of the best ways to use Instagram Stories Highlights, along with some resources and guides to help you get started:
With the how-to guides and resources for your products and brand, you can give customers a good idea about your brand.
They can determine whether your brand and page are worth their time and money.
These are great ideas for reels and feed posts as well. But it is likely beneficial to include resources and guides in stories.
By adding these Stories to your Highlights, you can help everyone can find them easily and be readily available and accessible whenever they need them.
James Smith, an online health and financial educator, has added his podcasts and books as his highlights to provide resources to his audience.
One of the most effective ways to build trust and credibility with your audience is by sharing reviews and testimonials.
Instagram Stories Highlights provide an excellent platform to showcase your customer feedback and create a positive image of your brand.
You can create a separate Highlight dedicated to customer feedback, which includes reviews, testimonials, and ratings.
This is an excellent way to showcase your product or service's benefits and help potential customers make informed decisions.
LusBug is an online clothing brand specializing in corsets and dresses; it has added Instagram story highlights of its customer testimonials.
It not only acts as customer feedback, but this customer-generated content also promotes the brand.
Sharing behind-the-scenes content is a fantastic way to showcase your brand's personality and build a connection with your audience.
You can use Instagram Stories Highlights to share behind-the-scenes footage of your business operations, events, and team members.
You can create a separate Highlight dedicated to behind-the-scenes content, which includes videos, photos, and text descriptions.
This can help your audience feel more connected to your brand and create a sense of exclusivity.
The famous TV Show Euphoria starring Zendaya, has an Instagram handle. It has BTS Highlights of the show, which is a treat for the audience.
Reward programs are an excellent way to incentivize your audience and encourage them to engage with your brand.
Another use for Instagram Stories Highlights is helping you showcase your reward program and its benefits.
You can create a separate Highlight dedicated to your reward program, which includes information on participating, the rewards available, and how to claim them.
This can help your audience feel valued and create a sense of loyalty toward your brand.
Lilly Sabri, a popular Fitness influencer, has shared Black Friday Gym Shark rewards highlights in her profile, as shown in the picture above. You can try doing that as well
Use Instagram Story Highlights to promote your lead magnet and encourage your followers to sign up.
Create a dedicated Highlight that explains what it is, how to sign up, and the benefits.
This can help you gain leads and grow your email list for future marketing campaigns. You can also use Story Highlights to direct your followers to other social media channels.
Sharing user-generated content and customer stories with Instagram Stories Highlights is an excellent way to create a sense of community and showcase your brand's social proof.
You can create a separate Highlight dedicated to this content, which includes photos, videos, and even reels.
This can help your audience feel more connected to your brand and create a sense of community.
PoshPast is an online thrift store based in Delhi. They have shared two highlights based on customer-generated content - Client feedback and Styled by you.
Demonstrating your brand's purpose and forging a connection with your audience can be achieved by sharing your mission and values.
Utilizing Instagram Stories Highlights is a great way to do so.
By creating a designated Highlight, you can feature videos, photos, and descriptive text that embody your brand's mission and values.
This can help your audience understand your brand's purpose and create a sense of authenticity.
UN Women have created specific highlights focused on their goals and values. Their highlights have everything starting from End Rape to AIDS Day initiatives.
Promote events and conferences by using Instagram Stories Highlights. Create a separate Highlight with dates, times, and locations to inform and excite your audience.
Follow the example of Thirty Seconds to Mars, who have a Tour Highlight on their Instagram page.
Use Instagram Story Highlights to showcase new products or features. Create a separate Highlight with photos, videos, and text descriptions to generate interest and create exclusivity.
Selena Gomez even uses this strategy to promote her makeup products and launches from Rare Beauty.
One of the most effective ways to use Instagram Stories Highlights is to promote sales and special offers.
By creating a Highlight specifically for your sales and special offers, you can inform your audience about ongoing or upcoming deals.
For example, you could create a Highlight for a seasonal, flash sale, or limited-time discount code,
This helps create a sense of urgency and encourages your followers to take action before the sale ends. It can also help your customers to move quickly within your sales funnel
Shein has highlights on its Instagram profile regarding sales. It is a great way to save your stories for future reference for your audience.
Another way to use Instagram Stories Highlights is to answer frequently asked questions (FAQs).
This can be especially helpful for businesses that receive a lot of inquiries about their products or services.
By creating a Highlight specifically for FAQs, you can provide your audience quick and easy access to the information they need.
You could include questions about your shipping and return policies, product specifications, or any other relevant information your customers might want.
Finally, Instagram Stories Highlights can also be a great way to promote your blog posts.
By creating a Highlight specifically for your blog, you can share links to your latest articles and attract more traffic to your website.
You could create a Highlight for different categories of blog posts, such as fashion, lifestyle, or business, and use eye-catching graphics to make your Highlight stand out.
Sarah Tripp is a famous Instagram influencer known for her body positivity. Her Instagram highlights also include her blog links, which lead to her blog called "Sassy Red Lipstick."
Given below are some of the best and most aesthetically pleasing highlights we found while scrolling through Instagram:
Starbucks takes its brand and profile aesthetic seriously by incorporating earthly tones and green elements into its highlights covers.
This attention to detail makes them cool and captures the attention of their profile visitors.
Notice how well the light and soft pastel colors in all the highlight covers look sophisticated and well coordinated.
The soft and light elements for how a cake should be could also be seen in their Instagram profile, thus making it attention-grabbing and pretty.
It is a leading cosmetic brand; you can see how they use aesthetic images as their highlight covers.
Very minimalistic yet visually pleasing icons and product image covers make the account look like they mean business.
H&M is one of the biggest clothing brands of the current times.
They try to maintain a monochrome aesthetic by implementing black and white elements into their entire highlight covers, which makes them look friendly and sophisticated.
Ajio.com is one of the leading online stores in India. And its profile makes sure that they look like they mean business.
Their logo's blue and white theme can also be added to all of their story highlights, thus making their page look organized and well-maintained.
Yes, you can see who viewed your Instagram story highlights in the bottom left corner; you can see the activity of your Instagram highlight within 48 hours. After that, you won't know who viewed your highlights.
To create an Instagram story highlight, simply tap the "New" circle on the far left. From there, you can select any stories from your archive, choose a highlight cover image, and give your highlight a name. It's that easy!
Instagram Highlights allow you to save and categorize your Stories on your profile so old and new followers can still view and interact with past Stories well after the first 24 hours expire.
After your Instagram highlight reaches its time limit (48 hours from when it was posted), it automatically disables the list of viewers. You will then no longer be able to see who has viewed your Instagram highlights.
Yes, people can see if you view their Instagram highlights 48 hours after the story is published. Once the time limit is reached, people can no longer see who is viewing their Instagram Highlights.
Instagram Stories disappear after 24 hours. Meanwhile, Instagram Highlights remain on your profile until you delete them, allowing your followers to revisit your favorite content whenever they'd like.
No, you need to ensure you add your post as a story to create a story highlight.
Instagram story highlights are crucial for businesses and individuals looking to expand their online presence.
By curating and organizing their best content in a visually appealing and easily accessible manner, Instagram users can showcase their brand or personal identity to potential followers and customers.
With the ability to highlight important moments, showcase products or services, and provide a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes of their daily lives,
Instagram story highlights offer a unique opportunity to connect with audiences more personally.
Whether you're a blogger, influencer, or business owner, leveraging this feature can help you grow your brand to the next level.
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