Use Instagram Story covers to expand your branding

I’m in Seattle! I’m a tad stressed out, but this issue was scheduled, because my current self is probably listening to a Re:co lecture.

This marketing tip is going to be short and sweet – as well as easily implementable – just in time for Expo!

As you may have noticed, you have the ability to highlight Stories on your Instagram profile, extending their life beyond 24 hours. Some accounts have taken to creating “covers” that will be the preview image of each Story highlight.

Here’s how this can be useful for you. Your profile page is visited more often than you think. To get the exact statistics, you’ll need a Business account to view your profile view counts. People click on the URL you put in, they click through your current Story, and explore the Highlights.

Think of the Highlights section as a place to extend your branding. You can easily create covers that stand out with your brand’s colors. You can also use existing emoji or branded icons. Whichever you choose, I recommend planning the Highlights out.

Your limitations in Highlights are:

• The Highlight title starts cutting off into ellipses around 5–8 characters (depends on capitalizations)

• No limit on Highlights allowed

• 100 posts allowed per Highlight

• You have to post to your story before being able to Highlight it

Here are some uses that I’ve seen and some that could be useful for your business:

• A consultant had one Highlight that was all about their services and another that was titled “About Me”

• A coffee shop can have an About, Specials, New Coffee, and Sale

• You can highlight an upcoming event and where you’ll be

• A manufacturer can have an About, Products, News, Events, and even Sales

I give more examples like the one below in my full blog post.

Instagram is testing out resharing a post to your Story. They also added a focus Portrait mode for all those selfies.

Twitter is clamping down on repetitive, spam-like content. This includes if you’re resharing the same content across different accounts or resharing the same or almost-same text.

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