10 Ways to Optimize Instagram Highlights for Your Business

Shanoon Cox

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

The time to utilize Instagram highlights for business accounts is now, and if you haven’t started to use this feature already here is your chance to catch up. The ability to connect, learn, share and sell on Instagram is limitless, but those who achieve the greatest success do so by exploiting every feature the app has to offer. Join the most successful accounts by following these 10 tips for optimizing your Instagram Highlights.

What are Instagram Highlights?

Instagram Highlights allow users to take current and past Instagram stories and permanently publish them to your profile. Highlights are featured below a user's bio and appear in circles, with images and names that coincide with the content of the highlight.

Check this article to learn more details about how to create an Instagram Story Highlight.

How Can Story Highlights Help Your Business on Instagram?

While the Instagram Story is a fantastic way to share news, information and updates about your business, the information here is only viewable for 24 hours. For business accounts, think of the Instagram Highlights as a specifically curated folder where your audience can find all the information they need in an organized manner. The better curated your Highlights, the more your audience can understand who you are and what you do or sell.

1. Organize and Categorize Your Highlights Strategically

When curating Instagram Highlights for your business account it is imperative that the content is placed in categories that are organized by their purpose.

For example, if you create a Highlight meant to showcase your hours of operation, you would not include a story that features new products. When your audience is looking to gain more information about your business they want to find this information with ease.

Naming your Instagram Highlight must be done strategically so that users can find what they are looking for without any guesswork. Additionally, creating a cover image for your highlight that coincides with the content will also better suit your business account. Instagram celebrates the visual learners in all of us, use that to your advantage.

2. Keep it Concise

This feature allows you to upload up to 100 stories per Highlight. Wow! 100 stories!?

It seems great, that is until you remember how small of a window you have to capture a potential customer/buyer. While some Highlight categories might call for more content, be sure to pick the most important, eye-catching and engaging stories to feature.

3. Showcasing Products/Services

One of the most successful ways you can utilize Instagram Highlights for your business account is to showcase the product and/or service you are selling. A Highlight specific to these items is a lot quicker and easier for your audience to digest.

This feature is particularly beneficial for e-commerce businesses. You can implement the “swipe up” feature (if you have over 10,000 followers) to take your customers directly to your product pages. Products can also be tagged and take users to your Instagram Shop!

4. Make Company Announcements

Having a Highlight to feature company/business announcements is a great way for your audience to stay up to date with what you have going on.

Maybe your business is hiring, opening a new storefront, or featuring star employees. This is the place to house that content. While it may seem difficult to make people care about updates and announcements to your business, you can curate content for this Highlight in a way that engages your audience.

5. Promote Events

Using Instagram to promote your event is a great way to build awareness and gauge interest from your audience.

Because the story feature only operates for 24 hours, having a Highlight for an upcoming event allows people to view the information for as long as you make it viewable. Make sure to include stories that provide the date, time and location of your event. Don’t forget that you can utilize other Instagram functions such as the “poll” to help you gain an understanding of how many people will be coming to your event.

6. Interact with your Audience

Gain a better understanding of your customers by interacting with them in your stories. But don’t limit these interactions to 24 hours. By including an interactive Highlight on your business Instagram, you can learn all kinds of things about your customers.

Another key interaction tool that would help boost your business account is the question feature. This feature allows you to ask your audience questions and get their feedback in real time. Their responses will be sent directly to your Direct Message box.

7. Answer Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Instead of leaving things up to the imagination, or having your audience sort through pages to find the answer to their question, creating an FAQ Highlight on your account can help your audience better understand important details about your business.

Don’t hesitate to include basic information in your FAQ highlight. You’d be surprised how the easiest of details can be forgotten. Try including the question feature as one of your slides, so that users can submit questions they have that you can include in the Highlight moving forward.

8. How-To Guides

If your product requires assembly or tips for use, consider creating a Highlight that shows customers how to use or build your product. Showing your customers the proper way to use your product will help instill trust in your brand. This is especially important if the product you are selling is on the high-end spectrum. If potential buyers can see the outcome of the product once put together or used, they might be more inclined to purchase from you.

9. Showcase Reviews/Testimonials

Nothing helps the buyer's decision more than seeing other happy customers. There is great value in showing love and support for your product, so don’t hesitate to highlight this in a Highlight. While tip #2 stated the importance of being concise, this is one highlight we recommend you make as long as possible. The more positive testimonials and reviews you can promote, the more trustworthy your brand becomes.

10. Share Promotions/Deals

The final tip we’d like to share is using Instagram Highlights to share any promotions or deals you are offering.

Boosting sales on Instagram is a great way to attract new business and followers. Offering deals to new and existing customers prompts users to interact with your business and generate sales. Running a giveaway on your Instagram can also help build your following. To do so you must include conditions of the giveaway that requires users to follow you and interact with your content in order to be entered.

Your business matters to you, and using Instagram Highlights for your business account helps make it matter to your audience. Creating a hub of information that is creatively constructed and strategically categorized is an important resource for driving new and existing customers to buy your products and/or visit your website to learn more.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox