It’s been observed lately that a few of you remain somewhat confused about Instagram Highlights, what they are, how to use them, how to make and edit them, and why they’re even required!
We are thrilled that you have now brought it to our attention because, to be completely honest, we have been oblivious to this area in our Instagram tips and tricks up until now!
And since our mission at Social Puffin is to provide you with free information (and we sincerely value your feedback), we thought it would be helpful to put together this comprehensive how-to guide for Instagram Highlights.
We hope that by providing you with all the information you require to utilize this excellent feature, it will help you become more comfortable and confident with it as a platform feature.
What Are Instagram Highlights?
Let us begin by providing a brief definition of Instagram Highlights.
In essence, Instagram Highlights let you keep your Instagram Stories on your profile for as long as you want.
This is because, as we’re sure you know, Instagram Stories expire after a 24-hour period.
With Highlights, you can save these Stories indefinitely, access them from your Instagram profile, and group them into educational hubs based on specific topics or themes.
Essentially, Highlights are collections of Stories that you can create, add to, edit, or access from your Instagram profile on a regular basis.
Highlights are a great way to provide your audience with more information about your brand, especially when it comes to the more candid, behind-the-scenes content that your Stories typically display but your Feed Posts most likely don’t.
Those who missed your story during its 24-hour live period can still view these facets of your brand because Highlights allows you to save Stories to your profile.
Highlights assist in creating a more three-dimensional relationship and increased sense of familiarity between your audience and your brand by allowing them to see a range of facets and aspects of your business.
Because of this, we advise utilizing Highlights—that is, organizing your Stories around recurring brand messages you want to convey to your audience.
Using the concept of Content Themes is a crucial way to achieve this, as we discussed in the post from last week.
How to Create a New Highlight?
Go to your Instagram profile to start creating a new highlight.
This is where your Highlights will be located, the horizontal area above your Feed Gallery.
A circle icon with a cross in the center and the word “New” beneath it should be visible in this area. To begin creating your first Highlight, tap this icon.
You can choose all the Stories you wish to include in that Highlight by going to your Story Archives after clicking the circular icon with the cross.
By tapping on and off the Stories, you can choose which ones you want to read. Each Story’s blue tick in the upper right corner will light up or disappear.
It should go without saying that you are choosing to include that Story in your Highlight when the blue tick is highlighted.
You want to click the Next button in the upper left corner after choosing the Stories you initially want to appear in that Highlight (you can choose more later).
After that, you’ll be asked to select a cover photo and a highlight title.
As we will be explaining how to create sexy Highlight covers later in this article, we advise leaving the cover as it is for the Story at this point.
As we discussed previously in this post, when it comes to a title, keep it brief, to the point, and centered around your primary brand messages or content themes.
After selecting a title (which you can change afterwards, just so you know), click Add in the upper right corner of the screen to see your first Highlight show up in that horizontal area on your Instagram profile!
How to Add to an Uploaded Story to a Highlight?
Following the creation of your first Highlight, you’ll probably want to add more Stories to it. In that case, here’s how to do it.
Start by making an Instagram Story using the standard process.
Once it has been uploaded, you can find the word Highlight written beneath a heart-shaped icon in the Story’s lower right corner.
You can either create a new Highlight for this Story by selecting the circular icon with the cross and following the instructions we covered in the previous section, or you can tap this and add the Story to the Highlight of your choice.
How to Add to a Highlight from Archived stories?
You can also add Stories that you’ve saved in your Instagram Archives to your Highlights, so the fun doesn’t stop there.
Yes, in case you were unaware, you can find all of your Stories in the Archive section of your Instagram Business Profile, including those that have expired after 24 hours.
Go to your Instagram profile and tap the hamburger menu (three short horizontal lines) in the upper right corner to access these Archives.
You can choose the Archive option from this window menu, which appears as the second option down and is accompanied by a clock image and a rewind directional arrow.
You can view every Story you’ve ever posted to Instagram by date or location by tapping Archives.
After locating the Story you want to highlight, just pick it and tap the heart-shaped Highlight button in the lower right corner, just like you would if the Story were actually live.
And just like that, the Story will also be added to the Highlight of your choice!
How Are Highlights Displayed?
After going over every method for adding Stories to your Highlights, we just wanted to quickly touch on how your Highlights appear on your Instagram profile.
Highlights appear in a horizontal area on your Instagram profile, above your Feed Posts, as we previously discussed in this article.
This Highlight space’s far left position can be conceptualized as the number one spot, where your highlight will be prominently displayed and easy for viewers to click on.
Every time you add a Story to a Highlight, it advances that specific Highlight to the top of the list; that is, the Highlight that has the most recent Story piece added to it always occupies the top spot.
From this point on, your Highlights operate in reverse chronological order, with new Story content added to them later and moving down the horizontal line towards the right.
The icons of any additional highlights will begin to fade from your Instagram profile’s immediate view after the fourth or fifth highlight, forcing viewers to scroll right to find them.
To ensure that your highlights stay prominent, we advise you to keep the number of highlights you create to no more than four or five at this time.
We also wanted to let you know at this point that there is a 100 Story cap on each highlight.
Highlights continue to archive the oldest Stories after the 100 has been reached, substituting the newly added, more recent Stories.
How to Delete Highlights?
- Want to remove a highlight you posted because you don’t feel like it? Don’t worry, doing it isn’t too difficult.
- Navigate to your Instagram account and select the Highlight that you wish to remove.
When the option to “delete highlight” appears, long-press (hold down) the Highlight preview.
Conclusion
With these Instagram Highlights Ideas and a comprehensive how-to guide at your disposal, you can finally make your Instagram magical.
Instagram Highlights have the power to completely transform the aesthetic of your account and open up new possibilities for you to utilize Instagram Marketing!
What are your preferences for using Highlights in your business? Tell us in the comments section below!
FAQs
How to Use Your Business with Instagram’s Close Friends?
The audience as a whole will never see the stories you send to your close friends. ‘Close Friends’ stories can also be added to your profile’s highlights. They are still hidden from your normal audience even though they appear on your highlights.
Can I see who viewed my highlights?
To view your Highlights, click the circle icon at the top of your profile. Choose the highlight that you wish to examine. To view the list of individuals who have viewed your Highlight, swipe up on the screen. The quantity of views and a list of the usernames of people who have viewed it will be visible to you.
Can someone see how many times I viewed their Instagram story?
You can see a list of users who have viewed your Instagram Story at least once, but you are unable to see the number of times an account has viewed it.
