Stories & Highlights
Have you ever wondered what the point of Stories on Instagram are? Are you a little baffled by that statement and not sure why I capitalized Stories? Let me back it up and explain.
For those of you new to Instagram, you may have played around a bit and made a post or two, but haven’t explored much further. While browsing you will have noticed some accounts have a pink, yellow and purple ring around their profile picture, that then disappears later. These colorful rings around a profile picture indicate that a user has recently uploaded a Story. They are temporary posts that last only 24 hours and then vanish. You access them by clicking on a profile picture that is highlighted with the Story ring and you can see the post.
A Story on Instagram is a brief video (up to 30 seconds each), picture or written text message to your followers. The benefit of using stories is to stay in touch with your community without having to make an official post with all the hashtags. These are like a little secret note to your fans that remind them that you’re still around, even if you don’t have any content to share at the moment. However, do be advised that anyone that sees the Story ring around your profile picture may click it out of curiosity while browsing, so this is another good way to draw in new users. Remember these Story posts disappear within 24 hours, so often there is an irresistible “FOMO” (fear of missing out) feeling that accompanies them for your fans or random people who see your profile lit up and are curious. They realize they will loose their chance to see what you posted within 24 hours, so often users check these first when browsing on IG.
What if you created a story you are proud of and you want to keep it around? That’s where highlights come in. Highlights are the bubbles that appear under a user’s profile photo and bio information. When you click on these you can see a series of their old Stories they chose to save to their profile page. You can categorize and organize these old Stories however you like. You also have the ability to change the picture bubbles to match your brand aesthetic.
The best way to learn anything is just to jump in, so give Stories a try! There will be follow up blog posts where I will show some more in depth examples of Stories, so stay tuned. Also be sure to join our Curious Kirby Creatives group on Facebook so you can be a part of our Zoom calls. We will be going over how to create a story this morning on our Art Chat, so join us if you'd like to see a live demonstration of how to add some flair to your Story.
