by By Emily Daniels
In today’s age, social media platforms exist as strong tools for both businesses as well as personal branding. Instagram specifically stands out as a platform that is visually captivating as well as can be molded into representing each individual that uses it. One of the most effective features on Instagram is story highlights. There are several ways to use them strategically to build your personal brand.
As story highlights can be saved to your Instagram page, curating them can create a sense of cohesiveness on your Instagram page. The highlights that you chose to save and gather together can tell a story about who you are and what you value. For example, if you are trying to build up your brand as someone who travels and works with various travel brands, you may decide to have a highlight for each location that you visited in the past year. This gives a sense of organization to your Instagram and builds upon the brand that you are trying to craft for yourself. When someone new clicks on your page they instantly are able to see your labeled highlights spelling out what is important to you.
Another helpful aspect of story highlights is the ability to engage with your audience through them. This helps build your personal brand as doing a q&a on your stories for example can help your followers learn who you are as a person and relate to you on a deeper level. Also, having these stories saved in a highlight allows new followers to go back and read past conversations that you have had with followers giving them instant insight into who you are.
Another more business-centered aspect of Instagram stories is being able to save past collaborations on highlights. Having a specific section where businesses can easily see who you have worked with and what content you have produced for them in the past is almost like a portfolio right on your page. This can be an easy way to build your personal brand as having previous partnerships saved automatically shows that you are willing to work towards expanding your reach.
In the ever-changing world of Instagram and personal branding, story highlights stand out as an element that is both interesting to audiences and can also be informative. They can help with curation and organization, and by utilizing them effectively can lead to the growth and development of the brand you are trying to create!
This article by Sprout Social gives a good overview of Instagram story highlights as well as giving visual examples.
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Hi Emily!
I’m on Instagram all the time, but hardly find myself posting in general, let alone posting to my story. That being said, your piece has me strongly considering it. Everyone agrees that what people find most captivating right now is short form content. Stories and reels are very easy and accessible ways to achieve this, and the more Instagram continues to update and polish it, the more useful it can be. I think the addition of highlights is an example of this.
Hi Emily,
I agree that using story highlights does increase online presence and awareness because it provides more content for existing fans or new followers to engage with. I’ve seen influencers create categories on their highlights such as travel, DIY, meals etc. I appreciate this level of organization and I feel its similar to having multiple pages on a website, however instead it’s on a social media platform. Thank you for your interesting post!
Hi Emily,
I think this blog is full of great content. I remember when Instagram first launched their story feature I was not a fan because I thought it was trying too hard to copy Snapchat. However, now Instagram highlights are one of my favorite ways to create content. I post significant more on Instagram stories compared to Snapchat stories and Instagram posts. I think story highlights allows an easy way to post quick content and is able to be organized on one’s profile. I specifically enjoyed your point about how Instagram highlights is a great way to engage with your audience. I completely agree with this statement because Instagram stories has great features such as questions and polls to allow one to engage with their following.
Hi Emily,
I really enjoyed your take on social media highlights. I completely agree that these more informal collections tell more of a story, and feel more real than curated instagram feed content. I love watching people’s stories and I love seeing the ways in which others categorize them. It’s intriguing to see that this could be a new fan favorite, and will definitely need to be explored more in my personal time.
Hi Emily!
I have been an Instagram user for about 10 years now, and I never even pondered over using my story highlights to my benefit. I always watch people’s stories on instagram and engage with them, but i never really think to click on people’s story highlights, which are stories but categorized. Although this feature isn’t promoted as much as others, I think the highlight feature is a great way to showcase your posts on instagram