Beefing up Your Instagram Profile with Highlights

I recently wrote an article about Instagram giving everybody the ability to add links to their Story, not just verified accounts or those having 10,000 or more followers.

I have a hot tip for you on a nice way to curate content on your Instagram profile using this feature and beef up your profile with some click-worthy Highlights!

Hit the jump for more info!

You're going to want to create a Highlight for whatever it is you are sharing most linkwise on your socials. For instance, I share a lot of interviews, so I created an Interviews Highlight.

When I share an interview to my Instagram profile, I also send it to my Story. I make sure to include a link to my interview in the Story and then also send it to my Highlights when posting. You can learn how to add links to your Story in the article linked above.

Now, anytime I add a new interview, it goes into my Highlight and stays there forever. Somebody clicking through my Highlight will see all the interviews and have the chance to click through to my website. And, once they are on my website, hopefully they will take a look around at my other content and offerings. It's one more way to link back to your website from social media and can drive additional traffic.

You can have as many Highlights as you want on your profile, but keep in mind your viewer will only see about the first six and then they have to scroll to the side.

You can see here what my Highlights look like without covers. It's very messy and doesn't look great, hence the need for branded covers. That shouldn't stop you from creating them and sharing content to them, however.

If you generally post about certain topics or have certain features you do, you can create Highlights for those and then when you post a new blog to your feed, you will just have to make sure and add it to the correct Highlight. For example, Profiles, News, Podcast, etc.

I have a Highlight that is a few years old, but serves as a good example of a specific topic or theme that makes for a great Highlight- SDCC 2019. It's from when I was a freelancer covering San Diego Comic Con for Flickering Myth. Any new articles or videos or blogs I published could be added to that specific Highlight and then when somebody clicks on it, they will see everything I have added, one after the other. It curates all my SDCC content in one place on my Instagram profile and preserves all the links to my articles.

If you are a heavy user of Instagram and have some graphic talent, you can make thumbnail covers for these that look professional and fit within your own branding guidelines. As you can see here, I have created some simple Highlight covers using Canva and it makes all the difference!

Are you using this technique to build out your Instagram profile page?

Let me know in the comments below if you do this or have other tips for using the new link feature on Instagram Story!

I offer a variety of services, including digital marketing, social media and copy editing through my company?Tai Freligh Consulting, as well as tips, exclusive entertainment interviews and the occasional dog and cat picture.?

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