Everything you need to know about story highlights
- Kaitlyn Granger
- Apr 15, 2024
- 7 min read
Quick links to:
Story Highlights Overview:
Story highlights are one of the best ways to optimize your Instagram profile because they're at the top of your page and will likely be one of the first things a new client taps through before they even look at your posts. That makes highlights the perfect place to put important information that you want all of your potential new clients to know, such as what your specialty is, where you're located, your booking process, and so on.
AND, they're especially great because when all the important information is right there in your highlights, you don't have to keep recreating or reposting that important stuff to your feed 😎
Uploading & Editing:
Highlights are created with story posts, so anything that you want to be in a highlight will need to be posted to your story. But don't worry, there's a way to upload all of your highlight slides at once without completely spamming your story for the day.
The secret to doing this is what we'll refer to as the upload & delete method - and it's just as easy as it sounds.
You post a slide to your story and then immediately delete it.
At least 24 hours after you've deleted the story (or up to 30 days later), go into your "recently deleted" folder via the "your activity" tab in the drop down menu on your profile (pictured below) and restore the story to your archive.
Doing this allows you to add as many slides as you want to your highlights without them ever having to clog up your stories feed! This method does take 2 days to complete, but it's definitely my preferred method for updating highlights. The good news about this method though is that it doesn't have to be done on back to back days, so there's no pressure to dedicate two days in a row to getting it done. Just don't forget to restore them before they're permanently deleted 30 days later 😉
Once you've restored all of your stories to your archive, you're ready to make your highlights! If you want to create a brand new one, just tap the "new" button under your bio to get started.
You'll be prompted to select the stories that you want to include in that highlight, and there will also be options to name the highlight and choose its cover photo.
📌 Keep the title of your highlight as short as possible, ideally only 1 word. If the cover title is too long it will get cut off on your profile.
If you're updating an already existing highlight, tap the desired highlight and then locate the "edit highlight" button by tapping the "more" option in the lower right corner of your screen.
There, you can add or remove stories from the highlight, change the name, as well as change the cover photo.
Once you've added all your story slides to the desired highlight, tap done and you're good to go!
A few things to note:
In general, you shouldn't have more than 5-6 highlight categories. This is because only 4-5 highlights will show up on your profile at one time, and most people aren't going to scroll through all of your highlight categories if there's more than what they see on screen. Odds are, if you have more than 5 categories, anything that is not immediately listed on screen will get skipped over entirely - rendering them completely useless to put it bluntly 😬
You also shouldn't have more than 5-6 slides per highlight. Statistically, the average consumer is only going to tap through 3-5 slides before they get bored and exit out of the highlight. So anytime you're adding to a highlight, make sure to either remove the oldest slides or prioritize what stays and what goes so that you can keep the slide count minimal.
Upkeep & Maintenance:
When you've gotten your highlights uploaded and working how you want, you'll still need to update them from time to time. Whether information goes out of date, you've made changes to your business model or specialty, or you're just feeling bored with the current layout, there will likely be a point down the road where they need some updating.
As a rule of thumb, I usually recommend reviewing your highlights quarterly and making sure that everything is looking correct and making updates where needed. And for the most part, the updating process is pretty straight forward. But there are a couple of things to be aware of when you're making your updates ⬇️
👉 If you want your highlight categories to be listed in a specific order on your profile, you'll need to do the following:
Edit them in reverse order - update category 5 first, then 4, then 3, and so on. This is because the most recently updated highlight category will appear first in your highlight list. So if the order of them matters to you, you'll want to keep this in mind.
👉 If you want your highlight slides to be listed in a specific order within the highlight itself, updating them will be a bit more involved. When adding stories to a highlight category, the story slides will always be displayed in chronological order.
Example: Let's say you have 5 slides in a category and you want to make an update to slide number 3. In order for the slides to stay in the specific order you've set them in, you'll need to repost slide number 3, 4, and 5. You don't need to repost slides 1 or 2 because they were still posted before number 3, but the other three slides will need to be reposted to maintain the chronological order.
It can be a bit of a time consuming process to make updates like this, but if it's important to you then that's how you would need to do it.
Recommended highlight categories for hairstylists:
If you're not sure what you should include in your highlights, I've put together a few resources to help you get started. Here are some highlight ideas that I think would be beneficial for hairstylists to have:
"Start Here" - This is your virtual handshake with your potential new clients. Introduce yourself, talk about what your specialty is, and talk about who your ideal client is and what problems you solve for them.
"Prices" - I know this will likely feel uncomfortable to share, but it's the number one question a new client wants to know before booking an appointment with you. Make it easy for them by letting them know upfront exactly what to expect when booking a specific service with you and what the estimated starting cost will be. Transparency is key, and I promise it will pay off!
"[salon name]" - Give potential new clients a sneak peek into your world. Show off your space so that they can familiarize themselves with where they'll be hanging out during their appointment, show a look at the salon's parking situation, and anything else they might need to know before stepping through your doors. 📌 When I was in a salon suite, I posted a floor plan picture of the building I was in and highlighted my suite so that new clients weren't walking around the hallways like a lost puppy when they came in for the first time!
"FAQs" - We're talking like 3-5 of the most asked questions by new clients. Don't overdo it. Keep it simple. 📌 Some questions that I would personally have as a potential new client would be things like: ➡️ Where can I park? ➡️ Is there a waiting area? Where do I check in if not? ➡️ How early should I arrive? And so on.
"Book Now" - Make booking a first appointment effortless. Walk them through your online booking process if you offer it, or walk through your new guest application form, how it works, and what your potential new client needs to do before they can book their first appointment.
"Reviews" - Review posts are generally pretty boring to look at when they're sitting in your feed, but a story highlight is the PERFECT place for them to live! Potential new clients still want to read reviews, so having a review highlight kind of covers all your bases without clogging up your feed. Plus, nothing speaks louder than glowing testimonials from your existing clients who've experienced first hand what you can do!
By having highlights like these front and center on your profile, you're creating an interactive experience that draws your audience in and gives them a sense of ease before they even press the 'book now' button.
If you're interested in creating some of these highlights for yourself, I've put together a PDF download for you that breaks down each highlight category and give you ideas of what kind of slides you could include in each one. Tap the button below to download the PDF ⬇️
Highlight Cover Templates:
Overall, you don't need to do anything fancy with your highlight covers unless you want to. It's super common for stylists to display their brand colors in their highlights, you can use photos for covers, or you could make your own little graphics in Canva. My main recommendation is that your covers aren't too busy and that they relate to the highlight topic if they're not just a solid color.
I've put together a couple of cover graphic templates for you that you're more than welcome to use and edit to reflect your branding if you'd like. Tap the button below to access them ⬇️
And that's pretty much all there is to it! I hope this helps you to feel more confident with how you utilize your story highlights. As always, if you have any questions about this process or anything else, please reach out. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have!
See you next time 🫶
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