We all know that Instagram stories are a great way to engage your followers, build connections and show off some behind the scenes of your day but with them expiring after 24hrs, it seems like the wrong place to put lots of effort into creating great content. That’s where Instagram highlights come in! Highlights allow you to save stories so they don’t expire and your audience can still access them - hurrah! So, with that in mind, are your Instagram highlights really showcasing the right content and showing off what your business has to offer? Keep reading for all you need to know about Instagram highlights, what you should be including, how to create them and our top tips.

What are Instagram highlights?  

Instagram highlights are the circles that appear below a bio on an Instagram account. They give users a place to save and categorise their story content that would usually expire after 24 hours giving them a home and allowing them to still collect views, clicks and replies.

How do you create an Instagram highlight?

Instagram highlights are easy to create! Firstly, to create a new highlight tap the “New” circle with the + sign in it. You will then be prompted to add any relevant stories from your archive. Once you have done that, tap “Next and you will be able to name your highlight and add a cover if you desire. To add a story to an existing highlight, tap on the “Highlight” heart icon at the bottom of a story and from there you can select which highlight you wish to save it to.

What Instagram highlights should you include?

Think of highlights as an extension of your bio. With your bio, you have a short number of characters to explain who you are & what you do but your highlights give you the opportunity to expand on this and showcase more about your business, what you offer and how you can help people. The types of highlights you include will depend on your business but may include:

• About (explain more about your business & story, who you are and what you do).
• Reviews (regularly sharing client testimonials & customer reviews and saving them to a dedicated highlight is a great way to build trust with your audience).
• Behind the scenes (if you regularly share BTS stories about your business, your process and what you are up to then save them to a highlight! People love to be nosey and see what goes on).
• Tips (share tips & advice that your target market will find useful and save them to a dedicated highlight so people can always access them).
• Products/services (create a highlight that showcases what you sell or the services you offer).
• Seasonal/special offers (create highlights for specific offers or seasonal launches).

Using Canva to create Instagram highlights

Canva is our favourite tool for creating our graphics for social media and that includes Instagram highlights. While some stories to save to your highlights may work best as a video created within Instagram itself (e.g. you speaking to camera, behind the scenes etc), some story content works better as a graphic. To create story graphics in Canva, click “create design” then select the “Instagram Story” option. Then you can then either design your content yourself or choose from the hundreds of editable templates in Canva. Remember to always keep them on-brand with your brand colours & fonts!

Tips for creating Instagram highlights

Here are our top tips for creating great Instagram highlights that encourage taps, engagement and sales:

• Create covers – to keep your account looking consistent & on-brand, add branded highlight cover graphics. Canva has some great templates you can use!

• Refresh regularly – keep your highlights up to date by updating them regularly, removing any outdated information and adding anything new.

• Don’t overdo it! A handful of relevant highlights is adequate. Be strategic with them and don’t go overboard by adding loads of highlights that aren’t of interest to your audience, it might turn them off.

There you have it! Are you going to give your highlights a makeover this week? If you are looking for story content that makes an impact and that can be saved to your Instagram highlights, check out rapide.ly. Our membership gives you engaging story & reels ideas tailored to your industry plus 60 post captions you can customise for your business. Find out more & try out with our FREE trial here.