Instagram Story Highlight: How To Use It For Brand Account?

Table of contents

Open Table of contents

• What You Should Know About Instagram Story Highlight
• 1. Select Instagram Stories To Add On Story Highlights
  • Story Archive
  • Active Stories
• 2. Make Cover Images For Each Instagram Highlight
• Recommended Editing Apps For Instagram Story And Highlights
  • Canva
  • Unfold
  • Pond5
  • Buffer
• Making Your Instagram Story Highlight More Engaging
  • Feature Influencers And Your Followers
  • Create A Product Guide
  • Repurpose Contents
  • Give Weekly Updates
• To Sum Up!
• The shorter version

What You Should Know About Instagram Story Highlight

Brands have been making the most out of Instagram’s features for reaching out to their customers and prospects since social media lets you meet where people are. With Instagram’s 500 million active users and user experience design, you can gain followings and engagements and use it to your advantage in brand awareness.

70% of these Instagram users watch Stories daily, a great way to introduce and feature your products and services. Millennials and Gen Z users are also the majority on Instagram, and 25% use the platform to search for products and services. 

As you learn more about Instagram Highlights, it just means that the platform has a potential market and could turn users into paying customers. Also, customers will be more likely to interact and be kept through your posts and live online sessions.

Now, I’ll guide you throughout the article so you’ll be able to post Instagram Highlights that can engage your followers. Also, I’ll recommend some of the best and most convenient apps you can use for your Stories so you can add them to your Highlights. 

1. Select Instagram Stories To Add On Story Highlights

There are two ways to add your Stories to your profile’s highlights: your Story Archive or active Stories.

Story Archive

You can add previous Stories you’ve posted to your Instagram Highlights by going through your Archive:

1. On your Instagram profile, tap the three horizontal lines, then go to Archive.
2. From there, you can select the Stories you want to add to your Highlights by tapping them and clicking on Highlight at the bottom of the selected Instagram Story.
3. You can then add it to an existing Highlight or create a new Highlight to put the Story on.

Active Stories

Add your Stories to your Highlight by tapping on the active Story. Then tap on the Highlight (with a heart icon inside a circle) to add it to an existing Highlight, or you can add it to a new one at the bottom of the Story.

2. Make Cover Images For Each Instagram Highlight

Making cover images or icons for each of your Instagram Highlights lets the users easily navigate the Stories they want to see in your highlights. The users can easily browse through the Highlights, whether the organized in-season collection, testimonials, FAQs, or ordering guide.

Putting cover images for Highlights also adds consistency to your branding and its theme. You can follow the following steps:

1. Go to your Instagram profile
2. Select from the Highlights you want to put the cover image in
3. Tap More on the bottom right corner
4. Select Edit Highlight
5. Then Edit Cover
6. Upload the image of the icon you want to label for the Highlight
7. Lastly, tap Done 

Recommended Editing Apps For Instagram Story And Highlights

Suppose you’re just getting started or would like to make sure you’ll post the best of the best of your Instagram stories. In that case, you can use these apps to edit your Instagram Stories or the cover images of your Highlights.

Canva

Besides being free and easy to navigate, Canva also has thousands of templates for Instagram Stories and size templates. Thus, you won’t take many hours creating layouts for your Stories.

You can collaborate with colleagues for ideas and designs by sharing the link to your Canva or adding their email addresses.

The app works on mobile, tablet, and desktop. It’s free but has premium access to other graphics, fonts, photos, and templates.

Unfold

Unfold provides thousands of aesthetic layouts, such as Retro, Clasico, Film Frames, Ripped Paper, and more designs from which the app stands out. Other editing options include image filters, stickers, fonts, and backgrounds.

It’s a free app that works on iPhone and Android phones, but its monthly paid plan starts at $19.99.

Pond5

Videos are one of the great ways to tell a story on your Instagram Story, so make sure you have a good video editing app to help you with your project. Pond5 is a free video editing app that works on desktops which you can use for Instagram Stories.

Plus, you can make vertical videos here smoothly or choose from the pre-made ones.

Buffer

If you don’t always have the time of day or are sometimes forgetful about when to post Instagram Stories, Buffer is an app that can help you preview, schedule, and post them. The app works on iOS, Android, and desktop.

Note that Buffer doesn’t automatically and directly post your Instagram Story to your account. The app will notify you of the media and captions you must post on Instagram Story.

Buffer has a free trial of up to 10 scheduled posts, and its paid plan is from $15 up to $399 a month. You can follow these steps in scheduling your Instagram Stories for posting:

1. On the Publish tab, under it is another set of tabs. Click on the Stories tab.
2. Click on Add to Story and then click on Add Media to upload photos or videos.
3. You can arrange the order of your stories.
4. If you want to remind yourself to add captions, texts, emojis, stickers, and hashtags to your Story, click Add Note. Thus, it will be easier to add those later on by simply pasting them to the actual post.
5. Then, you can see a preview of your Story by clicking on the Preview button at the bottom beside the Schedule Story button.
6. Once satisfied with your Story, click the Schedule Story button to select the time and date.

Making Your Instagram Story Highlight More Engaging

Take note of each Instagram highlight’s purpose since that’s where you can brainstorm which Instagram Stories add. So here are some of the things you can do to create a Story Highlight more engaging to users. 

Feature Influencers And Your Followers

You can feature influencers who have tested your products or services, whether a review or reaction video. Moreover, your followers should also share the spotlight and a way for your community to interact with each other.

People from the community know so much about your brand and could share some insights, so they need a voice and other users to engage in the content with them.

Create A Product Guide

Since you can use Instagram Highlights to inform users about your offer, you can make an engaging product or service guide. You can also put the price on services that provide packages, such as spas or salons.

Repurpose Contents

You can repurpose content from other social media platforms, your website, or your previous Instagram posts. Make graphic info or layout them into digestible content considering the size of an Instagram Story.

Give Weekly Updates

Make a Story Highlights where you can put weekly updates so that your followers won’t be able to miss out on anything, such as promotions and new products or services. Thus, it’s easier and more convenient for you not to post from time to time and for users to navigate and look for updates so they won’t miss anything.

To Sum Up!

You can make your brand stand out through your social media platforms, especially on how you would present yourself to your prospects and customers. More than aesthetic design, it must be consistent with its content throughout Instagram and other platforms. 

Such Highlights are used for featuring these products and services, FAQs, testimonials, rewards, or positive feedback throughout the years up to the present times. You can also use Highlights for announcements for product launches and annual or promotional events.

Want to know more about brand awareness for your business? Check any of these posts!

• 4 Ways To Use Digital Marketing To Grow Your Brand
• Top 8 Most Interesting Content Marketing Examples
• Top 7 Social Media Sites To Consider For Your Brand

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The shorter version

If you’re reading this because the workflow it describes is eating your week, that’s the kind of loop I build AI agents for. Two build slots open at a time.