What are Instagram Highlights?

Instagram Stories are featured on the app interface as a form of live media that disappears after twenty-four hours, creating an exclusive feel to the story or a “sneak peek” of content. This feature of vanishing pictures and videos was modelled after Snapchat Stories. Like Snapchat Stories, Instagram Stories do not permanently display on your profile like regular Instagram posts do.

Instagram Highlights are a cutting edge method that mitigates the expiration factor involved with Instagram Stories, allowing users to save and pin their past Instagram Stories directly to their profile for ongoing viewing. This is a prime location for content because the Highlight icons sit directly below account information and biography. Viewers will see the Highlights first before they see any other posted media, making it imperative that the pinned content you select for your business contains your most valued Instagram Stories.

“Showcasing brand personality is essential to developing and expanding your online following.”

Why are Highlights an important part of an online marketing strategy?

Instagram Highlights are a great way to boost your business’ online growth. They add an additional dimension of content to your account, showcase your digital marketing skills, and provide an opportunity to get ahead of your competitors. Not only that, Instagram Highlights provide a platform to create and showcase your brand’s personality to current and potential followers. Showcasing brand personality is essential to developing and expanding your online following. The media you select for your Highlights has the ability to create a stronger brand presence and push forward memorable company information immediately. Highlights have the potential to draw in new followers before they scroll down to see the rest of your posts.

5 Steps to Maximize the Marketing Potential of my Company’s Instagram Highlights

2 | Categorize Your Archives

Once you have categorized your content, it is time to begin selecting your best Stories to display as Highlights on your business profile. This may include the most aesthetically pleasing Stories, the most informative Stories that speak most to your company’s brand, the Stories that had the highest levels of engagement, or a mixture of these. The options are endless, just make sure that the story you tell with your Highlights showcases your brand the way that you want it to come across to a potential client with no prior knowledge of your company. Always remember that your Highlights could be a customer’s very first interaction with your brand, so make sure it’s a welcoming one.

3 | Create New Highlights

If you are unable to find archived Stories to use on your profile Highlights, you can begin to create Highlights to cater to your additional profile needs. For example, a business account may want to include additional content to show the products and brands they carry, provide information on their staff, or links to other social media accounts to increase cross-platform engagement. Here are some other examples of Highlights to help you start brainstorming ideas to expand your business:

5 | It’s All About The Details

Instagram Highlight covers are an important aspect that should not be overlooked. These are the icons that represent each of your Highlight categories. Highlight covers allow you to add extra flair to your profile by incorporating a specific colourway, or make your account appear sleek and professional through graphics and white space. It all depends on your business’ brand image and the personality you want to portray for your company on social media. Many accounts use covers to add an additional graphic to their profile. Using simple graphics can provide a clean look for your page. When adding text or a small graphic, we recommend making sure that lines are bold with minimal fine details. Instagram’s cover rendering will blur small lines, making graphics hard to see, or text illegible.

“It is imperative that your Highlights contain your very best content.“

Once your Highlight Covers are designed to perfection and you’ve categorized and chosen your very best Stories that represent your brand, the final step is to piece all of the elements together. It is very important to rename your Highlight to reflect the content within it. If you don’t rename it, the default setting presents it as Highlight on your page, which can appear unprofessional and unappealing. The number of Highlights you use on your business profile is also an important factor. At New Wave, our full-service marketing experts recommend using only five Highlights per account. Five Highlight Covers completely fill the face across the midsection of your Instagram profile on most smartphones, without requiring the viewer to scroll left or right to see them. This avoids the risk of your viewer missing valuable content.

Key takeaways

• Instagram Highlights allow users to pin past stories to the top of their profile
• It is imperative that your Highlights contain your very best content
• It is best to archive and categorize your stories
• Highlight your most aesthetically pleasing stories, stories with highest engagement and/or the stories that best inform new clients about your brand
• Remember, Highlights are likely to be the first interaction on your Instagram profile for potential followers, use them wisely
• Use Canva to create aesthetically pleasing Story templates and Highlight covers that reinforce your brand
• Name your Highlights based on their category
• Display no more than five Highlights per account to avoid the need to scroll

Now that you’ve learned why Instagram Highlights are such an important factor to include in your business’ Social Media marketing strategy, and how to use them to help grow your business, it’s time to get started on creating your highlights for your business’ Instagram. We’d love to see what you create, and hear your feedback on the results. Did you find this post useful? Will you use these best practices to create your Instagram Highlights, or do you have another method that worked better for you? Reach out to us on our Instagram page and let us know what you think.