Instagram is a powerhouse of visual content that offers brands a canvas to present their creativity to captivate the audience. Instagram stories are one of the greatest mediums for interacting with the audience and developing long-lasting connections. It allows you to post real-time updates along with other brand content in the most appealing manner. However, the biggest drawback of Instagram stories is their temporary presence. To cope with this issue, Instagram provides “Instagram story highlights features.” This dynamic and powerful feature allows you to keep the trending and popular story content on your profile permanently.
Instagram highlights have become an integral part of Instagram marketing strategy to foster meaningful connections between brands and their customers. Keeping the highlights engaging, polished, and updated is crucial to showcasing your brand story effectively. Whether you are a small business, a popular influencer, or an established brand, highlights are a powerful tool for branding. In this blog, we are going to share what Instagram highlights are and how to use them effectively for branding.
What Are Instagram Story Highlights?
Instagram story highlights are a strategic way to keep important Instagram stories on your profile even after 24 hours by adding them as highlights. They are basically a collection of stories in an organized manner under separate categories. For example, if there is a story about BTS of the event, it can be added in “BTS” highlights, customer testimonials can be added under “Reviews,” etc.
They present your stories into categories, allowing your followers to explore various aspects of your brand or life easily. Highlights are present on your profile below the bio right above the feed for a permanent period until you yourself remove it. You can customize your Instagram story highlights with unique cover photos and titles that match the content of the category.
How to use Instagram Highlights for Branding?
Over 200 million people visit profiles daily, of which around 70% check story highlights before even scrolling the feed. This data shows how powerful and important highlights are for branding your business. Have a look at how to use Instagram highlights to showcase your brand personality on a deeper level and connect with the audience.
Behind-the-Scenes Content
Highlights are an effective way to showcase behind-the-scenes content to give the audience a sight of the human aspect of your brand. Behind the scenes is one of the most engaging content types at present and caters to the maximum audience. It can be anything related to your business behind the camera or even your personal life. For example, a day in your life, how you make products, daily operations, product photography sessions, events BTS, team member interactions, etc. This gives a human touch to your brand and fosters a strong connection with the audience. This allows you to present the human side of your brand, which also helps with branding.
Show off your Best Products
The main purpose of any business is selling products; however, you cannot pin every best product at the top of your feed. In such a scenario, Instagram story highlights give you an opportunity to keep the pictures of your best products on the profile via highlights. You just have to create a highlight such as “Shop” or “Best Offers” and add a product story to the highlights. This allows you to showcase the best products along with their link to boost the product page traffic. Create separate highlights for different categories or collections if you have a diverse range of products.
User-Generated Content (UGC)
UGC, or User-generated content, is the most trustworthy type of content that the audience believes in. Sharing UGC content in story highlights allows you to show your audience’s reactions and reviews of using your products. This content type brings only real Instagram likes, which boosts your brand image and reputation among the audience. Encourage your customers to post and share stories using your products. Amplify their voice by sharing the UGC content on your story highlights and build an active community on Instagram. This raises the authenticity of your brand, fosters genuine engagement, and builds brand trust and loyalty.
Event Recaps and Memories
Events, seminars, product launches, webinars, and corporate conferences are a crucial part of any business. They show your brand’s activities and achievements, which present you as an authoritative person in the industry. Create and highlight any events you host or even participate in to show your followers the excitement and ambiance of your company’s events. This shows the active nature of your brand and captures the interest of the audience. Feature key moments, behind-the-scenes, attendees’ reactions, and most memorable moments to take your audience on a virtual journey of your event.
Educational Series and How-To Guides
Sharing high-value content boosts the credibility and authenticity of your brand, bringing in a larger audience and greater engagement. Create highlights to offer tips, tricks, how-to guides, mini-tutorials, and product demonstrations to help followers gain maximum knowledge. As per your brand’s niche, categorize the content under separate highlights to make your profile a go-to resource for authentic and relevant content. For example, if you own a fitness brand, you can create highlights for exercise tips, fitness challenges, equipment use, workout routines, healthy recipes, etc. They enhance your brand’s reputation, which helps bring massive engagement and followers.
Customer Reviews and Testimonials
Building trust with the audience is the most important goal of any branding strategy. Customer reviews and testimonials build trust and credibility among your audience and increase purchases. Create a highlight as “User Reviews” or “Testimonials” and add the positive feedback, success stories, case studies, and customer reviews of your products or services. Share what your customers feel and think about your brand. They not only build brand authenticity and credibility but also serve as social proof of your offerings which boosts sales.
Answer Audiences’ Questions
Engaging directly with your followers and solving their problems is crucial to maintaining a positive reputation for your brand. Create a separate highlight with the title “FAQs” and add answers to common questions from customers about your products and services. The best way is to use a question sticker to get questions directly from your customers and answer them in the story, along with adding them in highlights. This gives your audience a go-to place for checking solutions to common problems. It boosts brand credibility as well as reduces the number of direct queries.
Conclusion
Instagram story highlights are a great way to extend the lifespan of your stories and keep them permanent on your profile. Highlights help you organize and present your key content in the best manner possible. From behind-the-scenes and best products to customer reviews and question answers, they give you an opportunity to show important content and boost brand authority and credibility. You can add as many highlights as you want as per your brand niche and requirements. Make sure to keep the cover photo attractive and relevant while following a consistent theme for the highlight covers to show professionalism.