Ready to upgrade your Instagram account? Instagram Stories Highlights covers is the perfect way to create an attractive layout, make your Instagram Stories stand out & helps build your brand on Instagram.
Regular Instagram stories disappear 24 hours after being posted while highlights are saved to custom categories on your Instagram account. The highlights never disappear and will be remain until you delete them.
The stories highlights section is a great feature to share information about you or your brand right below the bio section. So, it is definitely one of the main things a user notices when landing on your Instagram account.
Below are 3 steps to create attractive Instagram Stories Highlights Covers that capture people’s attention:
1- This feature allows you to save your most important content from stories into groups. You can group the stories based on topic, category, type or anything relevant to your account business. So your first step, is to decide the categories; how to group your stories.
2- You need to think about the design which includes the icons & colors or background image. The size of the stories highlights covers is “1080 x 1920”. Choose a title or icon for each.
3- Open Instagram, turn on stories archive. Post the images as part of your Instagram Stories. The covers in stories must be active in your Instagram Stories for a full 24 hours so don’t and delete them. After you’ve added your cover into your Instagram Stories, select the ‘Highlights’ heart icon on the bottom right to add your cover to an existing Instagram Stories Highlight, or create a new Instagram Stories Highlight.
Make sure to use the right hashtags as well! So if you want to show off your products, drive more traffic to your website, and make more sales, creating Instagram stories highlights is a must!
It’s so frustrating when you have to search the web for products featured on your favorite influencers or brands’ stories. Guess what, you will no longer have to do so!
Shoppable posts, the long awaited feature expanded to stories to help businesses sell their products on Instagram
Instagram announced in a press statement that selected brands like Adidas and Louis Vuitton will now be able to use the new shopping tags feature in Instagram Stories – Yes, shopping on Instagram is expanding beyond feed & becoming easier.
Instagram has been testing Shopping Tags since 2016 with certain partners in the US, as more than 300 million users are using Instagram Stories everyday.
Shopping tags includes a shopping bag icon will added on items in stories, Instagram users can click on the icon to view full details on the product & directly buy the item without having to leave Instagram.
However, the shoppable posts feature in both feed and stories sections is not yet available for countries in the Middle East. Its a very exciting opportunity for online businesses to grow in the Middle East especially those that solely rely on Instagram.
Once the shopping tags feature is enabled in your country, Lebanon, UAE, Saudi…, you will have to follow couple steps such as having a business account, and a Facebook catalogue & receive the approval from Facebook prior to selling your products.
Instagram has recently changed its algorithm, and has been been releasing updates that made it harder for brands to generate engagement and reach.
These changes will help decrease spam and irrelevant content of certain Instagram accounts. If you manage an Instagram account, you would know that using the right hashtags can extend the reach of your posts which results in more followers, visibility and interaction.
Hashtags are placed either in captions or in comments. However, some users have been placing hashtags in comments to manipulate the system.
Testing different tactics is a strategy to success, but what works for a beauty brand might generate different results when managing an Instagram business account in the health industry.
If you are an active user on Instagram, you will notice a trend of adding hashtags in the comments section. This was considered a tactic to outsmart the Instagram algorithm & keeps the caption section looking nice and clean.
So, should you be applying this & add hashtags in the comments or stick to captions?
When it comes to working in digital marketing & social media, testing & evaluating results is the best strategy to understand the right tactic that works for you.
Below is some feedback from users who tested & analyzed placing Instagram hashtags in the caption and compared the performance to posts with hashtags in comments.
- Some users reported no different in engagement
- Some users reported better engagement when having hashtags in comments while others said the opposite.
- Some users reported received more engagement in the caption, but said it looks way too messy so kept using hashtags in the comments.
- Some users suggested adding 5 to 6 dots or 8 space distance then the hashtags and using the captions section.
Another study analyzed for a 30-day period, 51 posts with hashtags in the comments, in comparison to 66 posts with hashtags in the post caption. Each post in this study included 30 hashtags.
Posts with Hashtags in the Captions:
- 60.64 Average Likes per Post
- 2.84 Average Comments per Post
- 2.72 Average Profile Visits per Post
- 66 Average Reach per Post
Posts with Hashtags in Comments:
- 55.21 Average Likes per Post
- 3.39 Average Comments per Post
- 2.88 Average Profile Visits per Post
- 51 Average Reach per Post
So, if you are still wondering whether to add Instagram hashtags in the comments or the caption section. The answer simply is that there is no winning tactic here. But one important thing to highlight that some users noticed their account got shadowbanned when placing hashtags in the comments or revive old Instagram posts by editing & changing hashtags used in captions.
So if you are having an engagement issue then your account might be shadow-banned by Instagram.