How to put highlights on Instagram

In December 2017, Instagram rolled out Stories Highlights and Stories Archive, two new tools which enable users to hold on to their favorite memories from Instagram Stories. These additional Stories features offer up precious new opportunities for brands to promote their content and attract new customers.

In this post, I'll explain just how to do it, but first, here's a brief rundown of the new options:

Stories Highlights

To showcase Stories content that would otherwise disappear after 24 hours, Stories Highlights enables you to group stories you’ve shared into highlights and feature them on your profile. Highlights stay on your profile until you remove them, and you can have as many highlights as you’d like.

To edit or remove a highlight, just tap and hold that highlight on your profile.

As Instagram explains: 

"Stories Highlights appear in a new section on your profile below your bio. To create a highlight, tap the “New” circle at the far left. From there, you can choose any stories from your archive, select a cover for your highlight and give it a name. Once you’re done, your highlight will appear as a circle on your profile that plays as a stand-alone story when someone taps it. "

Stories Archive

To prevent your stories from disappearing forever when they expire, all Instagram Stories will now automatically save to your Stories Archive when its initial 24 hour lifespan is up. This makes it easy for you to revisit your favorite moments later on, or bring them back to life in a highlight.

"To access the stories in your archive, tap the Archive icon on your profile. From there, you can easily switch between your Posts Archive and your new Stories Archive. In your Stories Archive, your stories will appear in a grid with the most recent stories at the bottom. The first story from each day will show a date indicator to help you navigate your archive as you scroll."

Tap on any story in your archive to watch it, and from there, you can add it to your story, share it as a post or add it to a highlight on your profile. Only you can see your archived stories.

How to Use Highlights and Story Links to Increase Conversions

Here comes the most interesting part, especially for businesses. Now, with Story Archive and Stories Highlights, you can re-surface the most popular parts of a previous Story, showcasing it to your audience as a "new" post - with promotional links included.

You can share a Story from your Stories Archive in a direct message or to your Story. 

To share a story from your Stories Archive:

1. Go to your profile and tap the 'Archive' (clock) icon.
2. Tap the Story you want to share.
3. Tap 'Share' at the bottom of the screen.
4. Tap 'Your Story' or choose the people you want to share it with, then follow the on-screen instructions to finish sharing your Story.

You can add Stories to appear on your profile as highlights, even after they disappear. Highlights appear below your profile photo. 

To add a 'Story' to a highlight:

1. Go to your profile and tap below 'Stories Highlights'.
2. Tap to select the Story (or Stories) you want to add to highlights, then tap 'Next'.
3. Choose a cover photo and enter a Story name for your highlight, then tap 'Add'. You can add more photos or videos to your highlight at any time by tapping 'Edit Highlight'.

Other ideas for combining stories and highlights include:

• Drive web traffic - If you have the “Swipe Up” tap-to-view-a-link feature, users who visit your profile will see the highlight at the top, and hopefully tap to view it.
• Showcase Events - Re-cap the best bits of an event or occasion held by your company.
• Create round-ups of company or industry news - And other topics that interest your audience. 

There's a range of ways you can use these new functions, adding a whole new perspective to the increasingly popular Instagram Stories option. If you haven't used Stories yet, it's definitely worth looking into for 2018 - Stories use grew by some 200 million daily active users in 2017, now up to 300 million, surpassing its inspiration in Snapchat (178m DAU). As that momentum continues, you can bet more businesses will be looking to tap in. It might be best to get ahead of the curve.

A version of this post was first published on Andrew Macarthy's blog.

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Do you want to add a Story to your Highlights? While Instagram Stories only stay around for 24 hours, Highlights will remain on your profile until you remove them. They are a great way to showcase who you are on your Instagram profile. This wikiHow article teaches you how to create and publish a new Highlight on your Instagram profile, using an iPhone or Android.

1. 

   1

   Open the Instagram app on your phone or tablet. The Instagram app looks like a white camera icon in a purple-and-orange square.

2. 

   2

   Tap the

   
   icon or your picture in the bottom right corner. This will open your profile page.

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3. 

   3

   Tap +. You'll see this plus sign below your username and bio. If you don't see this, tap Story highlights first and will expand a list of all the highlights you've previously added.

   • Tap + to add a Highlight.
   • You can add an infinite amount of Highlights to your profile.

4. 

   4

   Select the story you want to add as a Highlight. You can select one or multiple stories to add all of them to your profile in the same highlight.

   • You can add up to 100 Stories to your Highlight.

5. 

   5

   Tap the Next button. It's located in the top-right corner of the page. This will confirm your story selection.

6. 

   6

   Enter a story name for your highlight. Type in a title into the text field here to name your new highlight.

   • Optionally, you can also change your highlight's cover picture here. Just tap Edit Cover, and select the picture you want to use.

7. 

   7

   Tap Add (iPhone) or Done (Android) on the top-right. This will save and publish your new story highlight on your profile.[1]

   • You can later edit your Highlights or change their order on your profile.
   • To delete a Highlight, tap and hold the Highlight on your profile page, then tap Delete Highlight and Delete.

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1. 

   1

   Open the Instagram app on your phone or tablet. The Instagram app looks like a white camera icon in a purple-and-orange square.

   • Since only published Stories can be added as Highlights, this is a workaround so that others will not see your published Story first. This method is particularly long and tedious, so this isn't the solution to make a quick highlight.

2. 

   2

   Switch your Instagram profile to private. To do this, go to your profile, tap the three-line menu, tap Settings > Privacy, and tap the switch next to "Private Account" to make your account private.[2]

3. 

   3

   Hide everyone from seeing your Story. To do this and hide your Story from everyone, go to your profile again, tap the three-line menu, and tap Settings > Privacy > Story. Finally, tap the number under "Hide story from" and then you can go through your list of followers and check them all to prevent them from seeing your Story.

4. 

   4

   Publish your story. To do this, swipe from the left to the right to access the camera and tap Story to change it to your Story instead of a post. Record your Story (or upload media from your camera roll), then tap the arrow and Share to publish your Story.

   • Once your Story is published, no one will be able to see it.

5. 

   5

   Add the Story to your Highlights. To do this, go to your profile, tap the + under "Story highlights," then tap the Story you want to add. Finally, name it and choose the appropriate cover photo before continuing.

6. 

   6

   Un-hide people from seeing your Stories and change your privacy again after 24 hours. You'll want to do this after 24 hours so the Story disappears and becomes a Highlight instead.

   • Un-hide people the same way you initially hid them by going to Settings > Privacy > Story and tapping the number of people you've hidden under "Hide Story from."
   • You can access the privacy settings from your profile and navigate to Settings > Privacy.
   • To delete a Highlight, tap and hold the Highlight on your profile page, then tap Delete Highlight and Delete.

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• As a small thank you, we’d like to offer you a $30 gift card (valid at GoNift.com). Use it to try out great new products and services nationwide without paying full price—wine, food delivery, clothing and more. Enjoy!

• It's not an option to create Highlights from your computer or laptop, so you can only use the mobile app.

  As a small thank you, we’d like to offer you a $30 gift card (valid at GoNift.com). Use it to try out great new products and services nationwide without paying full price—wine, food delivery, clothing and more. Enjoy!

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About This Article

Article SummaryX

1. Open Instagram.
2. Tap the profile icon on the bottom-right.
3. Tap Story Highlights.
4. Tap + New.
5. Select a story.
6. Tap Next.
7. Enter a highlight name.
8. Tap Add or Done.

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