• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Social Media Examiner | Social Media Marketing

Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

  • 🔥 Free Newsletter
  • ☀️ Web3 Conference
  • 🔎 Find Marketing Help
  • ⚙️ Tools
  • 🗓️ Events
  • 🎧 Shows
    • Social Media Marketing Podcast
    • Social Media Marketing Talk Show
    • Crypto Business Podcast
    • Our YouTube Channel
  • Content
    • Articles
      • Web3
      • How To
        • Instagram Marketing
        • Facebook Ads
        • Facebook Marketing
        • YouTube Marketing
        • YouTube Ads
        • LinkedIn Marketing
        • TikTok Marketing
        • Clubhouse
      • View Points
      • Expert Interviews
      • Tools
    • Video Tutorials
      • Instagram Marketing
      • Instagram Ads
      • Facebook Marketing
      • Facebook Ads
      • LinkedIn Ads
      • TikTok
      • Clubhouse
  • Sponsor
    • Podcast Sponsorship
    • Email Sponsorship
    • Event Sponsorship
  • About
    • Society
  • Search
  • Web3 Business ConferenceLearn how to put NFTs to work for your business.BIG SALE, SAVE NOW!

    How to Customize Your Instagram Story Highlights Cover

    by Tammy Cannon / April 24, 2018

    social media how toDo you use Instagram story highlights?

    Wondering how to make them more recognizable to your followers?

    In this article, you’ll discover how to change your Instagram story highlights cover from the default view to a branded cover image.

    How to Customize Your Instagram Story Highlights Cover by Tammy Cannon on Social Media Examiner.
    How to Customize Your Instagram Story Highlights Cover by Tammy Cannon on Social Media Examiner.

    Why Brand Your Instagram Highlight Covers?

    The Instagram Highlights feature lets you group and save important, educational, or entertaining content from your stories. Unlike regular Instagram stories, which disappear after 24 hours, highlights are saved to custom categories on your Instagram profile, and they live there until you delete them.

    Think of highlights like containers for similarly themed Instagram stories you share. After you add content to your story, you can choose to highlight that content by saving it to one of these containers.

    Instagram highlights on Whole Foods profile.

    When you create a highlight, you can use up to 15 characters in the name, but you’ll need to make it a little shorter if you want users to be able to read the whole name on your profile. To illustrate, instead of using “Summer 2018,” which is cut off after the “2” below, you could change it to “Summer.”

    Instagram highlights cutoff names on profile.

    By default, Instagram uses the first image you add to the highlight as the cover. However, you have the option to replace it, which is the perfect opportunity to add your branding.

    In the image below, the highlights don’t look very streamlined or branded, so they get lost on the page.

    Instagram highlights without branding.

    Photographer Kim Klassen’s highlights, on the other hand, have a clean consistent style that matches her branding and prompts you to want to take a closer look. The simple highlight names (Lightroom, Truths, Words, The Studio, etc.) complement the streamlined look.

    Instagram branded highlights on Kim Klassen profile.

    Your Guide to the Future of Business

    Crypto Business Conference

    The Web3 renaissance opens up new opportunities for entrepreneurs, creators, and marketers who are ready to embrace the changes. But, who can you trust?

    Introducing the Crypto Business Conference; a premium event for anyone who wants to learn how to put Web3 to work for their business.

    Join us in sunny San Diego, California, for the first-ever crypto conference for business pioneers…not finance and tech nerds. You’ll get actionable, business-building ideas from proven innovators—without all the techie jargon.

    CLAIM YOUR SEAT

    On Foundr’s profile, you’ll find highlights for its startup guide, print and digital magazine, success stories, podcast, and blog posts. The bold red background of each of the cover images is the brand’s signature color and it immediately draws your eye when viewing the company’s profile.

    Instagram branded highlights on Foundr profile.

    Here’s how you can start creating and using branded highlight cover images for your best Instagram Stories content.

    #1: Design Your Highlight Category Covers

    To add a branded look and feel to your highlights, create custom covers that reflect the look and style you want to convey to your followers. You might incorporate a logo, icon, script, or relevant image in your designs. You can design the images in Photoshop, Canva, or a graphic design tool of your choice. Just be sure you size them at 1080 x 1920 pixels.

    Another option is to simply design your covers right inside Stories. For the Work highlight below, I used the Type feature inside Stories to create the cover.

    Instagram highlights with branded cover.

    To design a cover this way, open up Stories and scroll over to the Type option. By default, the Modern font style is selected, but you can tap at the top of the screen to cycle through the other style options.

    Tap the Type option in Instagram Stories.

    Now tap on the screen to add your text. If you want to keep things simple, you can use the highlight name (“Home,” for instance). When you’re finished adding text, tap the round white button with the arrow.

    Launch Social Projects Faster and Easier

    FindHelp Marketplace

    Looking for a content creator, campaign manager, or strategist for your social channels or a special project?

    Find the right expert for even the most complicated project or campaign in just a few clicks with our new FindHelp marketplace. You'll have more time to focus on other areas of your business without sacrificing your social presence. Browse highly qualified Facebook and Instagram experts today.

    FIND HELP TODAY

    Add text to your highlight cover image.

    If you want, you can further customize your design by changing the text color, background color, font, and more.

    Keep these tips in mind when creating cover images:

    • Center all elements such as text, logos, and icons in the design.
    • Keep the design simple at first. You can get fancy later on if you want to.

    When you’re happy with your design, tap Save to save it to your camera roll.

    Now you can create the rest of your highlight covers right inside Stories in just a few minutes.

    #2: Add Your Cover Designs to Your Story

    Before you can use your new designs as covers, you first need to add them to your story and then to the appropriate highlight.

    Go back to your profile and tap your profile image to watch your story. When your cover image opens, tap the heart icon labeled Highlight.

    Open your Instagram story and tap the heart icon labeled Highlight.

    Now you have the option to either create a new highlight or select an existing highlight. For this example, I selected the Home and Family highlight.

    Create a new Instagram highlight or select an existing highlight.

    If you prefer to create a new highlight, tap the + sign, add a highlight name, and tap Add.

    Add a name for your new Instagram highlight.

    #3: Update Your Highlight Covers With Your Designs

    The next step is to update your highlight cover with your new branding. Tap on your highlight container and click the three dots icon at the bottom-right corner.

    Tap your Instagram highlight container and click the three dots icon.

    Next, tap Edit Highlight.

    Tap the Edit Highlight option.

    You now see options to edit the cover, change the name of your highlight, or delete highlighted stories you no longer want to use.

    To change the cover, tap Edit Cover and select your new branded highlight. You can drag the image on the screen to reposition it. Tap Done to save your changes.

    Tap Edit Cover and select your new branded highlight cover.

    Now follow the same process for all of the highlights you want to make available to your followers. This simple and easy way to brand your Instagram story highlights helps you create valuable content that can live forever on your profile.

    Your Instagram story highlights will look a lot more branded and streamlined, and will be easier for your followers to navigate.

    Instagram highlights with branded covers.

    Want more like this? Explore Instagram for Business!
    Conclusion

    Instagram stories and highlights can be powerful tools for your business, taking the Instagram experience to a whole new level. Branding your highlight covers is one way to invite followers to take a deep dive into your business and life.

    What do you think? Do you plan to use stories and highlights to showcase your business, world, or community? Let us know in the comments below.

    Curious about NFTs, DAOs, and Web3?

    Crypto

    Follow the Crypto Business podcast to find out how NFTs, social tokens, DAOs (and so much more) will affect your business in the near future.

    Every Friday, host Michael Stelzner interviews leading industry experts about what works right now in Web3 and what to expect in the future, so you can prepare your business for the shift, even if you're a total newbie.

    FOLLOW THE SHOW

    Tags: Instagram, Instagram Stories

    About the authorTammy Cannon

    Tammy Cannon is a digital marketer focusing on helping creative entrepreneurs create successful marketing funnels and Facebook Ads.
    Other posts by Tammy Cannon Âť

    Get Social Media Examiner’s Future Articles in Your Inbox!

    Get our latest articles delivered to your email inbox and get the FREE Social Media Marketing Industry Report (39 pages, 50+ charts)!

    Industry Report Cover

    Worth Exploring:

    Facebook

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Instagram

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    YouTube

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Linkedin

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Facebook Ads

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Social Media Marketing Industry Report

    Get Free Report →

    Social Marketing Trends

    The data you've been missing!

    Need a new plan? Find out how thousands of marketers plan to change their social marketing activities in our 14th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report. This 39-page report reveals what marketers have planned for their organic social activities, video marketing, social ads, and more. Get this free report now and never miss another great article from Social Media Examiner.

    Enter your email to get
    our free report:


    Footer

    Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle
    Copyright © 2022 Social Media ExaminerÂŽ
    All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy.

    Helpful Links

    • About us
    • Our content via email
    • Our podcasts
    • Our YouTube channel
    • Our live show
    • Our industry report
    • Sponsorship opportunities
    • Write for us…
    • RSS
    • Accessibility