How to master Instagram Stories Highlights to express your personality

Originally published by Clare Farrugia at www.creativelysquared.com.

We’ve all been told that everything on the Internet lasts forever, but with the popularity of apps such as Snapchat, and the introduction of Stories on Facebook and Instagram, some moments online feel more fleeting than others.

Sometimes this isn’t necessarily a bad thing with brands being able to share exclusive behind the scenes content and users knowing that embarrassing Snap or Story they featured in will soon disappear into the deep Internet abyss.

It was over over a year ago that Instagram first released it’s Story feature for sharing candid snapshots in a separate area of your newsfeed. Instagram users embraced the opportunity to step outside of their perfectly curated feeds and share more content with their friends and followers online. With no planning of captions and hashtags it was easier to post more spontaneously and these Stories were only viewable for 24 hours — or so we thought!

Due to the success of this feature, Instagram has upped the ante and added an archive which allow users to add their all-time favourite Stories to their Highlights. Unlike Stories, these new Highlights do not expire and allow for users to view your Highlight Stories on your Instagram profile at any time.

Highlights are housed on your Instagram profile above your images grid. This gives an opportunity to welcome users to your profile, and tell them a little more about yourself and why you do what you do. You are able to have multiple Highlights with multiple Stories on your profile.

So how does it work?

From now on, every Instagram Story you create will be automatically saved to your Archive (you can change this setting). From this list of Archived Stories, you can select to display Highlights on your profile with their own cover image and title.

1. Go into your Archived Stories, by pressing the archive logo. The option to add a Story Highlight directly may also appear on your profile.
2. Once in your Archived Stories, press the more button and select Create Highlight. Select the Stories you’d like to feature and press next. Create your title and select your cover image for the Highlight, and then simply press Add.
3. Congrats! This Highlight will now appear on your Instagram profile. To remove, hold down the Highlight on your profile and select remove.

Adding an archived Story to your Highlights

New Highlights will appear here on your profile

What can I use highlights for?

There are lots of ways you can use Highlights to promote your creative work and improve your online presence as a brand or individual. Here are some of our favourite ways to add this feature to your profile:

Personal:

• Share your experience at a recent event/concert/festival
• Share a skill with how-to Highlight showing step by step instructions and supporting video
• Show off your latest shopping haul

Business:

• Show off a new season release of products or collection
• Show your followers a collection of behind the scenes Highlights
• Welcome users to your profile and tell them a little more about your business

How do you plan to use this new Highlights feature?

Originally published at www.creativelysquared.com.