Social Media Examiner - 14 Instagram marketing ideas...

🐦🦜It’s National Adopt a Rescued Bird Month, Reader...

Someone on our team adopted a rescued 💛 canary two years ago. True story!

This newsletter is brought to you by the 10th annual Social Media Marketing World.

In today’s edition:

Plus, we’ll cover:

• Protecting your brand’s identity and content on social
• Facebook Ads strategy
• DAO governance

But first, a word from our sponsors:

Network with the Best and Brightest
Come to Social Media Marketing World and make the connections you need to take your business to the next level! This conference is jam-packed with networking opportunities and expert advice. Grab your ticket now!

Are in-person events part of your 2023 marketing plan? Do you need new customers, exposure, and leads? Sponsor the 10th annual Social Media Marketing World.

14 Ways to Use Instagram Stories Highlights for Marketing

Before jumping into strategies for creating your own Instagram Stories Highlights, keep these three guidelines in mind to maximize the results from your brand’s highlights.

1. Curate Customer-Focused Instagram Stories Highlights Categories

Technically, you can create as many different Instagram Stories Highlights as you like. But because Instagram bios only display four highlights at a time, users have to swipe to see more. Consider focusing on four well-rounded highlights or rotating them regularly (see below) to ensure the most relevant content always appears first.

To create a new highlight, open your Instagram profile and tap the New button underneath your bio. Select all of the stories you want to highlight, and use the strategies below to separate them into goal-focused categories. Tap Next and give the highlight a descriptive name. Then tap Done to feature the highlight on your profile.

Alternatively, you can open any active or archived story and tap the Highlight button in the Story menu. Choose an existing highlight to add it to or create a new category by tapping New and following the steps above.

2. Update Instagram Stories Highlights and Categories Regularly

Instagram Stories Highlights support up to 100 stories, allowing your team to add a ton of content to each one. So should you max out every highlight with 100 stories? In some cases, adding 100 stories may make sense—but in most cases, it probably won’t.

Keep in mind that Instagram automatically displays story highlights in chronological order, using the original story publication date. Older stories display first, which means newer stories may get buried at the end of a lengthy highlight.

If you want to increase views for newer stories, it’s a good idea to update you Instagram Stories Highlights and remove older stories periodically. To edit your account’s highlights, open one and navigate to a story you want to remove. Tap the three dots in the lower-right corner to open the menu. Then select Remove From Highlight.

If you’re planning to make several updates, select Edit Highlight from the menu instead. From the Selected tab, uncheck any stories you want to remove. You can also navigate to the Stories tab to select active or archived stories to add to the highlight.

Note that Instagram automatically displays your most recently updated highlight first on your profile. If you’re planning to create or update multiple Instagram Stories Highlights, save the one you want to feature for last.

Need to remove an outdated highlight completely? Long-press any highlight to open the menu. Then select Delete Highlight to remove it from your organization’s Instagram profile.

3. Produce Custom Instagram Stories Highlights Covers

Whether you create a new Instagram story highlight or update an existing one, you have the option to create a custom cover. The quickest way to create a cover is to repurpose one of the stories from the highlight. You can scroll through the included stories and zoom or reposition the graphic.

If your stories don’t have a common aesthetic, your highlights may look haphazard. That’s why it’s usually best to create custom graphics for your highlight covers. Use branded graphics and colors to create a coherent appearance across your highlight covers.

Once you’ve produced cover graphics, save them to your device’s gallery. Then open a highlight, tap to edit, and select Edit Cover. Then select the custom cover from your device’s gallery.

Ready to use Instagram Stories Highlights to your brand’s advantage?

To explore 14 ways to curate Instagram Stories Highlights to align with common business and marketing goals, read the full article.

And here is more great content for you:

• How to Report Fake Accounts on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok
• How to Get Facebook Ads Working for You in 2023
• How to Govern a DAO