How to Make Instagram Story Highlights [+Engage Your Audience]

Did you know that ⅓ of the most viewed Instagram stories are from companies? Customers want to see what companies are posting about in stories. However, as you probably know, these are only visible for 24 hours.

But what if your audience wants to save those stories and come back to them later (be it for a link or to refer to something)? For this reason, Instagram added the “Highlights” feature a few years ago.

This tool allows brands to save stories so customers can view them anytime, indefinitely.

In this post, we’ll show you how to create an Instagram story highlight, then dive into expert tips on how to use the feature to wow your audience.

1. On your profile, tap the plus sign.

The first step in creating an Instagram highlight is to tap the plus sign in the top right corner of the screen on your profile.

2. Select Story Highlight

Then select “Story Highlight”.

3. Select the story you want to add.

At this point, it’s time to choose which stories you want to save as highlights. You can choose one or more. Then click Next”.

4. Select a cover photo and add a name to your highlight.

Lastly, choose a cover photo and then add a name for your highlight. Then click on “Add”. To add more stories over time, you can tap and hold the marker, then select Edit Marker.

As time goes by and you want to rearrange or archive your Instagram story highlights, you can select “Edit Highlight” and then select the story you want to delete. Then you can click “Edit Highlight”, go to your Instagram Story Archives and select the post again. This will now add that post again and be at the top of your Highlights thread.

Once you’ve followed these steps, your Instagram story highlight will be visible on your profile. However, you may be wondering which image to use for your highlight cover / icon. Let’s dive in below.

Instagram story highlights cover

The final step in adding a marker is to choose a name and picture / icon. Visually, it is best to create symbols that match. For example, the HubSpot Academy Instagram account uses similar icons for its highlights.

As you can see, the icons follow a certain format, are visually appealing, and match the theme of the rest of the feed.

Before creating your highlights in the app, it is important to choose the name and design the icons you want.

You use square dimensions when designing the symbols. It is actually very similar to the size of the profile picture. Make sure your icons have an aspect ratio of 1: 1 and use dimensions like 2000 x 2000 pixels.

Now that you know how to make an Instagram story stand out, you might be wondering what the best practices are. Let’s see some of the best ways you can use this feature to engage with your audience.

1. Promote your products.

Use Instagram Highlights to promote your best-selling products. Perhaps you will design an icon that resembles your product and then name it your product name. In this highlight, you can view reviews for specific products, photos, features, benefits, and more.

Jenni Kim, Marketing Manager at HubSpot, says, “Brainstorm your highlights on the topics most relevant to what your audience is looking for to provide an overview of what your social brand has to offer! The highlights act as a compilation or mini-archive of your past, so it’s a perfect way to showcase your past content in a way that is useful for your audience as they learn more about your brand. “

This is a great way to excite your audience on Instagram and increase the chances of your followers buying from you.

2. Add blog posts.

The best way to connect with your audience through highlights is to post engaging content that your followers will want to return to.

For example, you can add blog post links and save the latest and relevant content on the highlight. This will help your audience access your top blog posts even as they read the posts after you’ve already promoted them on social media.

3. Show interviews.

Another great way to connect with your audience through highlights is to post interviews with your employees, executives, or customers. If you publish interview content on your blogs, you can film these interviews and save them in your interview highlight. This will showcase your series and help you educate your audience.

Interview content is usually very appealing because it is interesting and informative at the same time. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at how others do what they do.

4. Show footage behind the scenes.

Speaking of behind the scenes, BTS footage is one of the best types of content to post on highlights. Whether you are an individual brand or a company, there is a fun way for customers to see you do what you do. You can present footage behind the scenes of a product production or an advertising campaign for a photo shoot.

This type of footage is engaging and will help your audience connect with your brand. By saving this footage in Your Highlights, you will expand engagement and hopefully develop interested and long-term viewers who keep coming back to learn more.

5. Add events.

When it comes to promoting events, storing information about your Instagram highlights is a great way to ensure customers and followers have all the information they need at hand.

This will help motivate your event attendees (because they’ll want to come back to this highlight for information) and promote the event to those who haven’t heard of it (if people look at your profile, they will see You that you have an event).

6. Save links.

Of course, one of the best ways to get followers to buy products from you on social media is by adding links to your social media pages. If you’re an influencer or a company, this is a great place to save these most requested links to a highlight. This makes it easy for users to find and buy a product from you.

7. Showcase your culture.

Instagram highlights can be used to showcase fun, engaging video footage that shows your company culture. Perhaps you have someone on your culture team making videos of events to increase morale.

Or maybe you’re starting a series of acquisitions like HubSpot on our HubSpot Life Instagram account. With this highlight, we inspire our audience with a different takeover of employees every day. That employee will basically post a “day in the life” on Stories that day and you can save these as your highlights when people search for your company culture.

8. Answer frequently asked questions.

If users have any questions, they go to social media. A great way to get these customers in is with an FAQ highlight where you discuss all / all of the users’ top questions.

9. Integrate reviews and testimonials.

We all know that people buy products that have great reviews and testimonials. In fact, it’s one of the most important elements that influence purchasing decisions. For this reason, it is a good idea to engage the users who research your product by taking a look at the social media with a highlight “Reviews and testimonials”.

10. Give tips / tricks.

Educating your audience is one of the best ways to add value on social media. Save your tips and tricks to a highlight to further educate and connect with your audience on Instagram.

11. View sales and discounts.

How do you inform about current offers and discounts? One way to do this is through Instagram Story Highlights. You can save all of this information about a highlight so customers know they can always review that highlight before making a purchase. This, too, ensures that users return to your profile and engage with your content.

12. Show case studies.

Depending on your product, users may want to see case studies or use cases for your product. When potential customers go online and look at your social media, this highlight will get them to click on it and see how other people use your product or service.

Instagram story highlights are a great way to keep important information easily accessible for your audience on your social media. This feature allows you to use your Stories (one of the most popular Instagram features) as part of your long-term social media strategy.