Instagram Highlights should be a critical part of your marketing strategy and one of the focal points of your Instagram account. After all, they allow you to showcase your best Stories on your profile and keep them there permanently.

This is crucial at a time when users have reduced attention spans and want to know things about brands fast. Instagram Story Highlights fast become the easiest way to give context about your brand.

What are Instagram Highlights?

An Instagram Story Highlight is displayed as a circle icon below your bio. The Highlights reel allows different ways of personalization, such as cover photos and names, for each one.

The key benefit of this is that Instagram Stories only last for 24 hours, but Highlights allow you to keep them visible for as long as you would like.

If used in the correct way, Instagram Highlights can give your profile a professional and polished look. They also offer another route for your followers to engage with you.

This feature is great for businesses who need to display their products and for content creators to showcase their previous work. Or, let’s be honest, just anyone wanting to show off some of their favorite memories.

If you want to make the most out of Instagram Highlights, be sure to update them regularly with new content because it keeps your Instagram profile fresh for current followers. With some thought and creativity, you can create Instagram Highlights that effectively communicate your brand's essence and turn them into Instagram advertising campaigns that massively boost engagement.

In this guide:

How Instagram Highlights work

The first step to creating an Instagram Highlight is to head to your profile and tap the “New” circle under your bio. Users can create Highlights from their archived Stories, selecting saved Stories to pin on their profiles.

You will then see an entire history of your Instagram Stories giving you the option to select the ones that you wish to create a Highlight of. The Stories archive plays a crucial role in this process, as it allows you to access and manage your saved Stories. Then it’s time to add a Highlight cover and name it. This part is crucial because you need a Highlight cover image and name that is going to stand out and catch the eye of your followers.

Up to 100 photos or videos can be added to one Highlight and they stay there until you remove them. They can also be edited anytime allowing you to keep the content fresh for your audience.

You can have as many Instagram Highlights as you want but it’s important not to overload and just select content that is going to be relevant and engaging to your followers.

Difference between Instagram Stories and Highlights

Instagram Stories expire after 24 hours, whereas an Instagram Highlight allows you to take that Story and display it on your Instagram profile long-term.

Stories are a very engaging feature on Instagram and are great for sharing in-the-moment content. But if you have a day where you have posted quite a lot to your Story, maybe a behind-the-scenes photoshoot, you can use the Highlights feature to take the best bits from that and display it for longer on your profile.

Benefits of using Instagram Highlights

Instagram Stories Highlights offer several key advantages for your profile. They help you showcase important content, organize information, and create a polished look that can boost engagement. Here are some of the immediate benefits you can get from using Stories Highlights.

Extended visibility for key content

An Instagram Highlight gives you more chances to share important information to your followers. Especially newer followers that have missed your historical Instagram Stories.

Highlights can be used to feature your products or services that you want people to see when they visit your profile. Because Highlights appear right below your profile, they’re easy to see and are in prime location to showcase content.

Be sure to organize your Highlight covers into different categories to help visitors know what they are looking at when selecting one.

Enhanced profile organization

One of the key benefits of Instagram Highlights is that it allows you to bring more organization to your content and profile. It therefore quickly becomes more user-friendly and helps your followers find what they’re looking for.

There are various different ways you can categorize your Highlight, such as product lines, your services, behind-the-scenes content, customer testimonials, or events and promotions. If you're a sports team you might want to feature Highlight covers for each of your players. If you're a B2B company then client appraisals might be a better way to go.

Driving this structured approach will streamline your profile, making it easier for your audience to understand your brand. The organization also shows your professionalism, adding trust to your business.

Increased engagement through easy access to information

The beauty of an Instagram Highlight is that it makes it simple for new followers to understand your brand.

Grouping and categorizing your Instagram Stories into Highlights can take your audience on a journey. It’s also content they can return to.

A good idea is to do a Q&A on your Story about your brand where people ask questions for you to respond to. This can be turned into an Instagram Highlight and then new followers will instantly have access to key information.

When that kind of information is readily available, followers will be more likely to interact and spend more time exploring your brand. This can only lead to more engagement such as likes, comments and shares.

Creative ideas for Instagram Highlights

Instagram Highlights let you showcase your best content and important info right on your profile. Instagram Highlights covers are crucial for branding and user engagement, as they create a visually appealing and cohesive look that reflects your brand identity. Here are some creative ways to use them to engage your audience and boost your brand.

1. Unseen stories from your brand

Behind-the-scenes content is a great way to build a rapport with your audience. You can showcase your products being made, give a sneak peek into your office culture, or get a member of the team to do Instagram takeovers.

You could also record a time lapse of a day in the life at your company and feature employee spotlights to put faces to your brand. Bloopers and anything entertaining that happens are great ways to humanize your content.

This is the type of content that builds trust in your audience and makes you more relatable.

2. Product features and tutorials

Instagram Highlights can be a great way to teach followers how to utilize and use your product. If there are any complicated processes, break them down into simple guides. Start-ups with new products often do this.

You can do this with product walkthroughs and unboxing videos to highlight comparisons between different products.

This is a chance to get creative and show customers your products in a way they might not have seen before.

3. Customer testimonials and reviews

There’s no better way to attract new customers than showcasing your happy existing ones! Share screen grabs of positive reviews or even any followers that have posted content using your product.

Theaters do this really well. They share all the Stories from their audiences and combine them into a new Highlight that showcases their current show. The Highlight icon effectively becomes a home for all positive reviews.

Remember that you should always ask permission if it is content created by your audience. You could even consider running competitions or giveaways to encourage more to follow suit.

This is more content that will build credibility and trust in your brand.

4. Event and launch recaps

Recaps of your events are great ways to keep your followers engaged when perhaps a new product launches. Share exciting moments from the launch such as conferences, trade shows, or networking events you host.

When it comes to a product launch, include teasers leading up to the launch date to build excitement. Highlights can then be shared from the launch itself to encourage sales.

Live Q&As during these events would be good for your Story to then save as a Highlight later because it gives those who missed it a chance to be included.

Recaps like this will create FOMO (fear of missing out) amongst your audience and encourage them to not miss future ones.

Tips for optimizing Instagram Highlights

Here are some key ways to make your Instagram Highlights more effective and engaging for visitors.

Use descriptive and branded covers

Create Instagram Highlight covers that are eye-catching. After all, they sit high on Instagram profiles and immediately draw the eye. They can quickly become a key engagement feature that draws your audience in.

If you don’t create one, the default option is simply a screen grab from your story. This won’t hit the mark.

Think about your brand, its colors and fonts, and implement these into bespoke visuals that will clearly display what’s in the highlight. Tools like Canva or Pixlr can help with this.

Update regularly to keep content relevant

Be sure to refresh your Highlights where necessary to ensure they are always showing your most up-to-date content. Outdated content won’t keep your users informed so keep things fresh, so your Instagram profile stays active and relevant.

Set reminders to go through your Instagram Highlights every few weeks. As time goes on there might be more engaging Instagram captions that you need to start utilizing in your Stories for newer Highlights.

Organize highlights by theme or purpose

Grouping Instagram content into themes is the easiest way for followers to understand what they’re looking for. If you have a variety of products or services, categorize these into separate Highlights and give them clear, descriptive names.

Also, it’s key to understand what information is going to be the most useful to your followers. You may decide to include FAQs, step-by-step guides, or upcoming events.

Effectively, organization is crucial when it comes to the success of Instagram Highlights. It’s the only way your followers will digest the key information you are trying to get across, so be sure that the most important Instagram Stories are first as a start.

How to track Instagram Highlight performance

Tracking your Instagram Highlight performance helps you understand what Story content resonates with your audience, this is key for any social media. By analyzing key metrics, you can refine your strategy and create more engaging Highlights.

Using Instagram Insights for Highlight metrics

When it comes to any content on social media, the performance of it matters. Instagram Insights provides you with key data on how your Highlights are performing. If you want to access these insights, it is very simple, just tap the insights button on your profile, then head to "content" and scroll down to the "stories" section.

These metrics will tell you things such as reach on your active Highlights, as well as taps forward, taps back, and exits. These numbers are important because they give you an idea of how your audience is interacting with your content – so pay attention to it!

Instagram also shows you the completion rate of your Highlights. This is an important piece of data because that ultimately determines how interesting your highlight is and whether it needs to be shorter or maybe even longer.

Key metrics to monitor for Highlight engagement

When you're measuring the performance of your Instagram Highlight engagement, there are some important metrics to focus on.

First, you have reach. This is the number of unique users that have seen your Highlight.

There are also impressions, which are very similar to reach. However, it differs in the sense that impressions are the total number of times your Highlight has been seen. This can be from the same user multiple times.

Then there is taps forward, which is simply how many times viewers skipped to the next Story. Similarly, you have taps back, which is how many times users rewatched part of the Highlight.

There’s exits, which is the number of times a user left your Highlight before it finished. Finally, there’s replies, which is the number of direct messages you receive in response to a section in your Highlight.

High reach and high impressions are key, because this tells us that the Highlight is being seen a lot. Low exit rates and high completion rates therefore mean your content is engaging. Lots of replies means that the content has sparked conversation. These metrics are crucial across all social media platforms, not just Instagram.

Use all this info to understand what content types perform best. There are different approaches you can take so use different Highlight themes to track the ones that get the highest engagement.

Frequently asked questions

Instagram Highlights are a popular feature that lets you showcase your best Instagram Stories. They're a great way to organize content and make a good first impression on your profile.

How do you add a Highlight on Instagram without posting them as a Story first?

You can't add Highlights without posting a Story first. To create a Highlight, simply post a Story and then go to your profile. Tap "New" under the Highlights section. Choose the Story you want to add and give your Highlight a name.

What's the purpose of using Highlights on your Instagram profile?

Highlights let you keep your best content visible on your profile. They're useful for showing off and selling your products, sharing important info, or grouping Instagram Stories by theme. This helps visitors get to know you or your brand better.

What is the difference between Instagram Stories and Highlights?

Instagram Stories disappear after 24 hours. Highlights stay on your profile until you remove them. You can add multiple Highlights to your profile, each containing several Stories grouped by topic.

Can people see if you've viewed their Instagram Highlights?

No, Instagram doesn't show who views Highlights. You can check your Highlights' views but others can't see if you've looked at theirs.

How can you download someone else's Instagram Highlights?

There's no built-in way to download others' Highlights. Some third-party apps claim to do this, but be careful – they may break Instagram's rules or be unsafe to use.

Do you have any creative ideas for organizing Instagram Highlights?

Try grouping Highlights by theme, like "Products," "Behind the Scenes," or "FAQ". Use a custom Highlight cover image to make them look neat. You could also create seasonal Highlights or ones for special events.

You can add as many Highlights to your profile as you like. Multiple Highlights is a good way of improving your social media bio. You can add 100 Stories per Highlight, which gives you lots of room to show off different aspects of your brand or life. Just be sure not to overwhelm visitors with too much content.