The landscape of marketing has been totally remodeled because of the boom of social media. And let’s face it: social media is here to stay for a long time. With a lot of options to choose from (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and many more), digital marketers can definitely exploit these platforms in engaging to their target audience.
While you can utilize all the social media platforms in marketing and building your own brand, some would prefer to use their tried and tested favorite and stick with that. And just when you thought you have already mastered navigating that platform for your marketing strategies, a new feature or update emerges that will have a significant change to the way you are using it.
Instagram’s Story Highlights feature has been widely embraced by people since it was launched last December 2017. This feature undeniably changed the way Instagram was used by social media marketers in building their brand through this platform. Although it has been two years since it was launched, a majority of marketers are not yet incorporating this Instagram feature in their social media marketing strategies.
I. WHAT ARE INSTAGRAM HIGHLIGHTS?
Humans are visual in nature, and this is highly backed up by science. People tend to absorb information better if it is incorporated with visual stimuli. And this is why Instagram is a very powerful marketing tool that can be used in your business.
Instagram stories only last for 24 hours. What if you would like your Instagram story to be on your profile for an indefinite period of time? This is where Instagram Highlight comes in, as this feature allows your Instagram stories to be saved in a folder and make them visible as a pin in your profile.
Because of this, you can share your favorite story creations in self-made collection just under your bio. Instead of repeatedly creating stories that will only last for 24 hours, Instagram Highlights make you save your best contents and craft it in a way that will further boost your profile’s branding.
The main attributes of the Highlights are:
Highlights covers – option to add a custom image or an icon that will represent the topic of the stories that are saved inside;
Highlights name – option to name the Highlight the same as you do with naming folders.
II. IMPORTANCE OF INSTAGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
Instagram stories, from the name itself, has the main goal of portraying a story with the use of visuals and images. This feature is one of the key strategies used by brands to connect and engage with their audience.
By having Instagram Highlights, you preserve these videos and images for your future followers to view at any time. It can also be used to showcase your products or services in a structured and categorized way and at the same time provides library format of useful content that you’ve already shared.
III. HOW TO CREATE INSTAGRAM HIGHLIGHT?
Before you can share to the world your awesome Instagram Stories Highlights on your profile, you first need to create them. Don’t worry, as creating your stunning Instagram Highlights are just a few clicks away!
There are two ways on how to create Highlights depending on where the Story is coming from, if it is from archived stories or an active story. Follow the steps below to create your own Instagram Highlights.
A. Create Highlight from Active Story
An active story is a content that is currently being featured on your Instagram story. You can manually save it in a Highlight by following these step-by-step procedures:
1. Tap on the active story to view it
2. Tap the bottom option Highlight
3. Tap the plus icon to create new Highlight
4. Enter the name of the new Highlight
5. Tap the blue buttons Add
B. Create Highlight from the archived stories
Activating Archive option on your Instagram account will allow your stories to be saved automatically in your archive section. Because of this, you can choose which stories to be included in a Highlight from your previous stories. Follow these steps to create Highlight from your archived stories.
1. Go to your Instagram profile and tap Story Highlights below bio
2. Tap the plus icon
3. In the new window, tap and select the stories you want to appear in the Highlight and tap Next.
4. Tap ‘Edit Cover’ to choose which story will appear as a Highlight icon or just upload an icon
5. Enter a name for your Highlight
6. Tap Add (iPhone) or Done (Android).
ADDING MORE STORIES IN A CURRENT HIGHLIGHT
You can add more photos or videos to your highlight at any time by following these steps:
1. Go to your profile and hold your finger pressed on the Highlight you want to edit
2. Tap Edit Highlight
3. Choose the stories you want to add and tap Done
IV. HOW TO ADD INSTAGRAM HIGHLIGHT COVERS?
Customizing your Highlight cover is extremely important as it is the first thing the viewer will notice on your Highlight. It plays a big role in determining whether the viewer will click on your Highlight to check its content.
Before changing your Highlight cover, make sure that you already have the image to be used as your cover saved in your phone’s camera roll. To use this image as your cover (without sharing them in a story), follow these steps:
1. Go to your profile and hold your finger to the Highlight you want to edit
2. Tap Edit Highlight
3. Tap Edit Cover
4. Choose the photo from your camera roll
5. Click Done
Pro Tip: To design Highlight cover icons, you can use Canva. This is a very user-friendly image-editing tool that does not require extensive photo editing skills. They even have a template for you to choose from! Follow these steps in using Canva to design your Highlight cover icons:
1. Open Canva and click Create a design
2. Choose the Instagram story format
3. Choose any template, delete its content and change the background color
4. Go to Elements and in the search field type icon. Choose the preferred icon, set it in the middle and choose its color
5. Share this design to your email and save it to your phone’s camera roll
V. ADDITIONAL DETAILS ABOUT INSTAGRAM HIGHLIGHT
There is no limit as to how many Instagram Stories Highlights folder you can create. However, you can only add up to 100 photos or videos on each Highlights folder.
If you add more than 100 clips to your current story, the first one will be removed and added to your Archive.
Only YOU can see your Instagram Stories Archive.
With everything mentioned above about Instagram Highlights, you are now ready to use it to your advantage! It is in the front-and-center of your Instagram account which makes it a perfect avenue to tell new visitors what your content is all about. But using Instagram Highlights to your advantage requires careful strategy on how to utilize it efficiently.
As a marketer or business owner, it is your obligation to leverage this feature to your own benefit. Now is the best time to beautify your account and drive your follower’s attention to where you want it to go!