.jpg)
Before we dive into the strategy of Instagram highlights, let’s first cover what they are.
Highlights are those little circles that you see underneath somebody’s profile and there’s many of them that you can create and categorise.
Highlights are Instagram stories that you can feature and organize for your viewers and get more exposure for the best content that you have. Most importantly for businesses, this is where you can get more eyeballs on the products and services that you sell.
Why use Instagram Story Highlights?
If you’re familiar with Instagram stories then you already know that they disappear after 24 hours.
Because Instagram stories disappear after 24 hours, it’s a great idea to add them to your highlights.
That becomes a problem when we create value driven stories that we want people to keep seeing when they find you through Instagram.
The same can be said about posts or IGTV’S.
As time goes by what tends to happen is it will shuffle down to the very bottom and it loses exposure.
So all those great posts and IGTV’s you created no longer have the exposure they once did. That’s where Instagram highlights come into play.
So what you can actually do is you can take your best posts, IGTV’s and stories and add them to your highlights and continue to get eyeballs on them. After all, if you’re in business, you want all the eyeballs and exposure for your products and services as you can get!
Instagram Story Highlight PRO TIP #1 – Create 5 categories that help your ideal customer
Now keep in mind that in the video above that goes with this blog post, I’ve included a step by step visual where I show you how to add a story or post to an Instagram highlight.
I recommend you watch it after you’re done reading these strategies because it’s a very visual process.
I want to give you some PRO TIPS when it comes to putting together your highlights.
Think about the top five categories that you typically revolve your posts around that help your potential new customers or clients.
These would be the things that they are already needing help with so think of the benefits of your products or services. If you look at mine you’ll see that some of them are very business-related where I’m talking about the benefits of what my products or services do, but I also have some in there that are personal.
Here are some of mine to help you generate some ideas:
•Clients
•FREE Training
•DIY Tutorials
•Loyalty programmes
•Giveaway
•Insta Tips
•Coaching
•Speaking
•Family
•Wellness
•Adventures
•Sales Tips
•Mastermind
These are categories or topics that my ideal customer would be interested in diving into.
There is no limit to how many highlight categories you can create but don’t go crazy creating a ton of them that will only confuse people…make sure they are topics or categories that your ideal prospect or customer would love to dive into.
And as you can see, I let people into my personal life, not just business. I’ve created highlights to feature my adorable dog Cardi and my family. The reason for that is if you’re on social media, you really want people to build a relationship with you so that they can trust you and they feel comfortable with buying or joining your business or buying the products that you offer.
BOSS TIP: Keep your titles short. You have limited space when creating your category titles so make sure you keep them short or else they will get cut off.
Instagram Story Highlight PRO TIP #2 – Have a call to action
Another pro tip is if you’re doing a story or you’re doing a highlight that you want your audience to take action on, make sure that you tell them what to do next with you. Whether it’s to visit your website or send you a DM…whatever it is make sure you let them know how to take the next step with you.
This is very important because it will help you generate leads and sales from your stories or posts.
Instagram Story Highlight PRO TIP #3 – Add new content to your highlights
Another thing I like to do is to keep my highlights fresh. I like to add a new piece of content to my highlight reels to keep it fresh for my people.
This way they keep coming back for all the new posts and content that I create on a weekly basis.
Instagram Story Highlight – In Closing
Social media is a great place to generate new business but most people don’t know how to use it properly.
You are now armed with a strategy that if implemented can bring you results.
I hope this strategy was valuable and that you’ll pencil it into your calendar this week to actually implement it.