Instagram story highlights sit directly below your bio, those little circles that visitors tap before deciding whether to follow you. Most brands treat them like an afterthought, throwing up random stories without strategy or cohesion. That's a massive waste of prime real estate.
Unlike Instagram stories that disappear after 24 hours, story highlights live permanently on your profile. They're the perfect place to showcase your best content, answer common questions, and give new followers a crash course in what you're about. Yet most profiles have either no highlights at all or a messy collection with no clear purpose.
Your highlights make or break that crucial first impression. Someone lands on your profile, sees well-organized highlights that immediately communicate your value, and hits follow. Or they see chaos and confusion and bounce. Let's build a highlights strategy that actually converts visitors into followers.
The biggest mistake? Creating highlights without understanding what your audience actually wants to see. You post 50 stories about your daily coffee routine and wonder why people aren't engaging. Your followers care about solutions to their problems, not your latte art (unless you're a coffee brand, obviously).
Many brands also make highlights difficult to navigate by using unclear titles or too many categories. When you have 15 different highlights, visitors get overwhelmed and tap none of them. The goal is curated collections that guide people through your most important content, not an overwhelming archive of everything you've ever posted.
Security becomes an issue when you try to analyze which highlights perform best. Some apps promise detailed analytics on highlight views but require your Instagram login credentials. These third-party tools can compromise your account, violate Instagram's terms of service, and potentially get you banned.
UnfollowGram's Instagram Highlights Viewer lets you understand highlight performance without risking your account security. You can analyze which highlights attract the most interest and adjust your strategy accordingly, all without handing over your password to sketchy services.
Start by identifying 5-7 core topics that define your brand. These become your highlight categories. A fitness coach might have: Workouts, Nutrition, Client Results, FAQ, and Behind the Scenes. Each highlight serves a specific purpose in moving someone from visitor to follower to customer.
Your first highlight should answer "What do you do?" in under 10 stories. New visitors tap this first, so make it count. Explain your expertise, show your personality, and give them a reason to stick around. Think of it as a mini pitch deck for your brand.
Create Instagram highlights from your best-performing stories, not just your most recent ones. Check which stories got the most replies, shares, or engagement. Those are the stories worth preserving. Everything else can stay in the archives.
The Followers App helps you identify which content resonates with your actual engaged followers versus those who never interact. Use this data to inform which stories deserve highlight status. Understanding who doesn't follow back on Instagram reveals patterns about which content attracts committed followers.
Instagram highlight covers are the visual thumbnails people see before tapping. Default covers pull a random frame from your first story, which usually looks terrible. Custom covers create a cohesive, professional look that screams "this brand has their act together."
Use consistent brand colors and simple icons that clearly communicate what each highlight contains. A shopping bag icon for products, a question mark for FAQs, a heart for testimonials. Keep designs minimal so they're readable at small sizes on mobile screens.
You can create covers using free design tools or even simple text on a colored background. The key is consistency across all your highlights. They should look like they belong together, creating a unified visual identity below your bio.
Many brands overthink this and spend days designing perfect covers. Actually, simple is better. Your highlight content matters way more than elaborate cover designs. Spend 80% of your effort on the stories themselves and 20% on making the covers look clean and professional.
Every business needs an FAQ highlight. Compile your most common questions into easy-to-digest story slides. When someone asks "Do you ship internationally?" you can say "Check my FAQ highlight" instead of typing the same answer for the hundredth time. This saves you time and builds credibility through transparency.
Behind the scenes content humanizes your brand. Show your workspace, introduce team members, explain your process. People buy from people, not faceless corporations. Even B2B brands benefit from showing the humans behind the business.
Product or service highlights let you create evergreen content showcasing what you offer. Unlike stories that disappear, these stay visible permanently. Add text overlays explaining features, benefits, and pricing. Link to your website in your bio and reference it throughout the highlight.
Social proof highlights featuring customer testimonials, positive reviews, and user-generated content build trust faster than any sales pitch. When potential customers see real people praising your business, they're more likely to convert. Screenshot positive comments, DMs, and reviews. Turn them into story slides.
Quality over quantity applies here. Five well-curated highlights beat 20 random ones every time. Too many highlights overwhelm visitors and make your profile look cluttered. Focus on categories that directly support your business goals.
The optimal range is 5-8 highlights for most brands. This gives you enough categories to showcase different aspects of your business without overwhelming people. Service-based businesses might need fewer, while product-based businesses might need more to showcase different product lines.
Order matters too. Your most important highlight should be first (leftmost on your profile). This is typically your intro or about highlight. Follow with your second most important, and so on. Most people won't tap through all your highlights, so prioritize ruthlessly.
Regularly audit your highlights every few months. Remove ones that no longer serve your current business focus. Add new ones as your brand evolves. Highlights aren't set-and-forget; they're living collections that should grow with your business.
Your stories archive contains months or years of content that disappeared after 24 hours. Go mining through there for gems worth preserving. Educational content, viral posts, product launches, events. All of these deserve a second life in your highlights.
To create highlights from archived stories, tap your profile picture with the plus sign, select "Story Highlight," then choose "Stories Archive." Browse through your old stories and select the ones you want to include. Give the highlight a title and custom cover, then publish.
You can also add active stories to existing highlights immediately. When you post a story you know you'll want to save, tap "Add to Highlight" right from the story screen. This saves time compared to waiting for it to archive and adding it later.
Edit highlights regularly to keep them fresh. Remove outdated content like expired promotions or past events (unless you're creating an events archive). Add new stories that perform well. Tap "Edit Highlight" on any existing highlight to add or remove stories.
Every highlight should have a purpose beyond just existing. Educational content builds authority. FAQ content reduces support burden. Product highlights drive sales. Behind the scenes builds connection. If a highlight doesn't serve a strategic purpose, delete it.
Include clear calls-to-action throughout your highlights. "Swipe up to shop" (if you have 10k+ followers), "Link in bio," "DM me to book," "Comment YES for details." Tell people exactly what action to take next. Passive highlights that just show information without directing behavior waste potential.
Limited time offers and flash sales work great in highlights because you can update them quickly. Create a "Current Promos" highlight that you refresh weekly with your latest deals. This gives followers a reason to check your highlights regularly, not just once when they first discover you.
Track which highlights get tapped most by monitoring your Instagram insights. Business accounts can see how many people viewed each highlight. Use this data to understand what topics interest your audience most, then create more content in those areas.
Your highlights should tell a cohesive story about who you are and what you offer. Think of them as chapters in a book about your brand. Each one contributes to the overall narrative you're building.
Brand voice matters even in story highlights. If you're a playful brand, use humor and casual language. If you're a professional service, maintain a more polished tone. Consistency across all your highlights reinforces your brand identity.
Use highlights to showcase brand values. If sustainability matters to your business, create a highlight showing your eco-friendly practices. If you donate to charity, highlight that. People increasingly buy from brands whose values align with theirs.
Videos work better than static images in highlights. They grab attention as people scroll through your stories within the highlight. Mix formats to keep things interesting: photos, videos, boomerangs, text slides. Variety maintains engagement.
E-commerce brands should have highlights for new arrivals, best sellers, how-to-style guides, and customer photos. Make shopping easy by organizing products into clear categories that visitors can browse without leaving Instagram.
Service providers need highlights explaining their process, pricing, results, testimonials, and FAQs. Help potential clients understand exactly what working with you looks like before they ever contact you.
Content creators benefit from highlights showcasing their best work by category, collaborations with brands, personal life snippets, and resources they recommend. Give followers multiple entry points to connect with different aspects of your content.
Local businesses should have highlights for location details, hours, menu or services, events, and community involvement. Make it easy for nearby customers to find everything they need to visit you in person.
Using vague titles like "Stuff" or "Random" tells visitors nothing about what they'll find inside. Be specific. "Client Transformations" beats "Results." "Free Resources" beats "Links."
Neglecting to update highlights leaves outdated information visible indefinitely. That holiday promotion from 2023 should not still be in your current promos highlight. Set reminders to audit highlights quarterly.
Creating too many similar highlights confuses visitors. Do you really need separate highlights for "Products," "Shop," and "New Arrivals"? Consolidate related content into single, well-organized highlights instead.
Forgetting mobile experience is a killer mistake. Your highlights look different on desktop versus mobile. Most people view Instagram on their phones, so design and organize with that experience in mind.
Instagram analytics show view counts for each highlight, but they don't reveal which stories within the highlight people actually watch. You need to infer performance based on which highlights get tapped most overall.
Compare view counts across your highlights to identify which topics interest your audience most. If your FAQ highlight gets 10x more views than your behind-the-scenes highlight, that tells you people want practical information over personality content.
Test different cover designs and titles to see what drives more taps. Change one highlight's cover and track whether views increase. A/B testing applies to highlights just like any other marketing element.
UnfollowGram helps you understand which followers actually engage with your content overall, giving you context for your highlight strategy. When you know who doesn't follow me back on Instagram or which followers are actively interested, you can create highlights that speak directly to your engaged audience.
Your highlights strategy should evolve as your business grows. What works for 1,000 followers might not work for 100,000. Regularly reassess whether your highlights still serve your current goals and audience needs.
