Harnessing the Power of Instagram Stories Highlights
Update your Insta profile & take advantage of Stories Highlights
You and your team have been crushing it when it comes to planning and coordinating events.
Now, it’s on to event promotion — getting the word out.
You’ve done the flyer route, you’ve posted on social media. But have you used Instagram Stories?
Yes — Instagram Stories. Generate buzz for your event and use stories to share your weekly campus happenings.
Why Insta Story? Insta Story humanizes your account. You’re not just the flyer you’re posting. You’re the people behind it all. Take advantage of the human factor and include YOU in stories. For example, use Insta Stories to give a teaser of what you can expect. Have you received a lot of questions about your event or program? Take the time to answer them on Insta Story.
Now that you’ve posted the story — you’re all set right? Almost. Make sure to incorporate Instagram Story Highlights to extend the digital life of your stories.
What is Instagram Story Highlights?
Instead of disappearing after 24 hours like regular Instagram Stories, Instagram Stories Highlights are a collection of stories you can group together that will live on your profile until you choose to delete them.
They will appear under your bio on the profile page, above your feed and will play as a stand-alone story when someone taps on it.
Promoting Events Using Highlights
The best part of this feature? You can create one or as many highlights as you’d like to live front and center on your profile. You can continue to add on to Highlights to curate your story collection or create new ones as the need arises.
At NAU Social, we’ve used highlights to promote our Spotify playlist collection and Insta Templates. Because we continue to create new playlists and Insta Story templates throughout the year, Highlights are a great place to feature them and bring “old” collections back into the mix.
Don’t forget this feature — Link Sharing
Highlights also gives you the option to copy a link that will direct users to your highlight stories and will automatically move onto the next highlight as viewers watch.
Real Life Application
Let’s say you send out a monthly newsletter and you’d like to feature an Insta story you posted that month.
Go to your Instagram Story Highlight and click on the first post in your story. On the bottom part of the screen, you’ll see three dots. Click on the that and you’ll get a pop up that says “Copy Link.” This link is essentially the link for your Insta Story. If someone clicks on it, they will automatically be taken to Instagram to view that story, and the next ones on your highlights.
If you’re looking to gain engagement and exposure on Instagram, sharing your Highlights links are a great way to draw your audience to your account and get them to engage with you in a new way.
#LumberjackTip Utilize your story highlights to answer messages you receive. For instance, NAU Career created a highlight to feature their Legislative Internship program. Instead of responding to inquiries received with text answers, they could share the link to the Highlight they made for it. This allows them to share content in a fun manner and also direct users to their Instagram story to follow for the most up to date information.
This can be used beyond just event promotion. Keep a collection of resources, flyers, applications, etc. on Highlights to illuminate your programming!
BONUS
Create your own Instagram Stories Highlights covers with this easy tutorial. It’s also FREE. #Winnning
Happy Highlighting!
