8 Clever Ways to Use Instagram Highlights for Business
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While Snapchat may lay claim to the original version of Stories, one of the standout features for users of Instagram is the Instagram Highlights feature. But often business users don’t make the most of this feature so here are four clever ways to use Highlights for your business.
Table of Contents
What are Instagram Highlights?
Instagram Highlights were released in December 2017 and allow you to archive and display Stories. The feature adds a new bar under your main profile area which contains these highlights and then you can pick and choose which Stories go into it. You can create mini-collections of Stories that go together under a single title and each Highlight can contain up to 100 photos or videos. Plus you can create an unlimited number of Highlights.
The feature also means that while Stories are available for the traditional 24 hours, they then move to the archive and you can select them from there to add to Highlights. So that ephemeral content can become something useful over a much longer period.
How to use Highlights
Before you can start using Story Highlights, there’s a quick setting to change. Go into your Story Settings on the mobile app and under the ‘Saving’ section, there’s a toggle for ‘Save to Archive’. Make sure you select this on, so Stories don’t automatically vanish.
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Then once you make a Story in any of the normal ways, they will go into your archive.
A few more tips about using Highlights:
- You can add multiple clips and photos to a Highlight and anything new will move the Highlight to the first position on your bio page
- You can edit the position of an image on the cover
- You can add up to 15 characters with spaces on the title but only the first 10 show up in the feed so keep it short
- You can use emojis in titles
- Five highlights show but you can have more, people just need to scroll to see them
How to use Instagram Highlights for business
Once you know how to use the Highlights feature, the next step is to plan how you will use them for your business. There’s no shortage of ways so let’s take a look at some examples.
1. Creating product collections
One clever way to use these Highlights is to create a collection of products. If you sell products or even affiliate products you promote, you can collect together Stories and photos on the products and make a Highlight with them. You could even add stuff to them over the year or have seasonal collections that expand as you create new content.
2. Best user generated content
Because you can add photos as well as Stories to a Highlight, you can collect reviews and user generated content about your brand in one place. Screen shots from your Facebook page, quick video comments that users have left or even reviews from websites like Yelp can all be added into a Highlight.
3. FAQs
Another clever idea from Social Media Today is to use Instagram Highlights as a FAQs section. Businesses often get the same questions repeatedly and these are often given a page on the website. So why not make them into a quick Story and then add into a FAQs Highlight for more visual customers?
4. Tutorials
In a related way, you can use them to create tutorials, walking people through a series of step by step Stories you have created to teach them something. Or you could offer seasonal tips on a topic and these will move down the list as the season finishes and you stop adding new content to them.
5. Behind the scenes
Behind the scenes content is often a great way to build relationships and with Highlights you can do more. You can add these pieces together with little snippets from your life as well as content from the workplace and create a real behind the scenes collection.
6. Cross posting
You can create a Highlight of all of your cross posting content from other platforms or even some other people you are working with such as brands or other users.
7. Freebies
If you have email marketing freebies available, you can create Stories about them and group them together in a Highlight so people can see all the great free stuff you have on your website. You could do this if you have testers or other free products that you give away.
8. Latest news
Finally, you could have a latest news Highlight where you put all of your latest Stories about you or your brand or even anything ’news’ style that you create. Because these are often updated, it would keep this Highlight right at the front of your profile.
Highlight the best stuff
Highlights are a useful Instagram feature that allow you to choose what goes together and to form cohesive collections for your audience to enjoy. They have clear marketing benefits too and can be used in clever ways to engage your customers and build your profile.
