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How do you add photos to instagram highlights


How to Combine Instagram Stories Highlights and Story Links to Increase Conversions

An article from

Published Dec. 19, 2017

By

Andrew Macarthy Social Media Consultant, Social Media Author

In December 2017, Instagram rolled out Stories Highlights and Stories Archive, two new tools which enable users to hold on to their favorite memories from Instagram Stories. These additional Stories features offer up precious new opportunities for brands to promote their content and attract new customers.

In this post, I'll explain just how to do it, but first, here's a brief rundown of the new options:

Stories Highlights

To showcase Stories content that would otherwise disappear after 24 hours, Stories Highlights enables you to group stories you’ve shared into highlights and feature them on your profile. Highlights stay on your profile until you remove them, and you can have as many highlights as you’d like.

To edit or remove a highlight, just tap and hold that highlight on your profile.

As Instagram explains: 

"Stories Highlights appear in a new section on your profile below your bio. To create a highlight, tap the “New” circle at the far left. From there, you can choose any stories from your archive, select a cover for your highlight and give it a name. Once you’re done, your highlight will appear as a circle on your profile that plays as a stand-alone story when someone taps it. "

Stories Archive

To prevent your stories from disappearing forever when they expire, all Instagram Stories will now automatically save to your Stories Archive when its initial 24 hour lifespan is up. This makes it easy for you to revisit your favorite moments later on, or bring them back to life in a highlight.

"To access the stories in your archive, tap the Archive icon on your profile. From there, you can easily switch between your Posts Archive and your new Stories Archive. In your Stories Archive, your stories will appear in a grid with the most recent stories at the bottom. The first story from each day will show a date indicator to help you navigate your archive as you scroll."

Tap on any story in your archive to watch it, and from there, you can add it to your story, share it as a post or add it to a highlight on your profile. Only you can see your archived stories.

How to Use Highlights and Story Links to Increase Conversions

Here comes the most interesting part, especially for businesses. Now, with Story Archive and Stories Highlights, you can re-surface the most popular parts of a previous Story, showcasing it to your audience as a "new" post - with promotional links included.

You can share a Story from your Stories Archive in a direct message or to your Story. 

To share a story from your Stories Archive:

  1. Go to your profile and tap the 'Archive' (clock) icon.
  2. Tap the Story you want to share.
  3. Tap 'Share' at the bottom of the screen.
  4. Tap 'Your Story' or choose the people you want to share it with, then follow the on-screen instructions to finish sharing your Story.

You can add Stories to appear on your profile as highlights, even after they disappear. Highlights appear below your profile photo. 

To add a 'Story' to a highlight:

  1. Go to your profile and tap below 'Stories Highlights'.
  2. Tap to select the Story (or Stories) you want to add to highlights, then tap 'Next'.
  3. Choose a cover photo and enter a Story name for your highlight, then tap 'Add'. You can add more photos or videos to your highlight at any time by tapping 'Edit Highlight'.

Other ideas for combining stories and highlights include:

  • Drive web traffic - If you have the “Swipe Up” tap-to-view-a-link feature, users who visit your profile will see the highlight at the top, and hopefully tap to view it.
  • Showcase Events - Re-cap the best bits of an event or occasion held by your company.
  • Create round-ups of company or industry news - And other topics that interest your audience. 

There's a range of ways you can use these new functions, adding a whole new perspective to the increasingly popular Instagram Stories option. If you haven't used Stories yet, it's definitely worth looking into for 2018 - Stories use grew by some 200 million daily active users in 2017, now up to 300 million, surpassing its inspiration in Snapchat (178m DAU). As that momentum continues, you can bet more businesses will be looking to tap in. It might be best to get ahead of the curve.

A version of this post was first published on Andrew Macarthy's blog.

Filed Under: Digital Strategy, Social Marketing, Social Media Updates

How to add an Instagram Highlight Without Adding to Your Story

So you want to update your Instagram Highlights? Highlights can be a great marketing tool if you want to create a collection of information readily available to new and existing followers. It can give a deeper insight into who you are, or just get across information about your products and answers to FAQs. Today’s toolkit walks you through how to add an Instagram Highlight or cover photo without adding content to your Story.

What are Instagram Highlights?

Instagram Highlights are essentially a roundup of your ‘best bits’ that sit at the top of your profile. They are compiled of Instagram Stories you have posted in the past, and can be created and added at any time. Most people prefer to create Instagram Highlights under different categories, such as ‘everyday life’, ‘outfits’, ‘animals’, etc. Stories usually disappear after 24 hours, whereas Highlights allow you to make selected Stories visible indefinitely, on your profile.

How many Stories can you have in a Highlight?

There is no limit to how many Highlights you can create, but you can post up to 100 videos or images into each Highlight. If you hit 100, Instagram will pop up with a notification, asking if you’d like to delete the oldest Story from that highlight, in favour of the Story you are trying to add.

How do you create a new Highlight?

To create a new Highlight, just head to your main profile. Underneath your bio, you should see a ‘plus’ sign in a circle, under ‘Story Highlights’. Select the plus sign and you will be able to create a new Highlight!

How to upload a Instagram Highlight cover Without Adding to Your Story

Highlight covers are the main icon of the Highlight that will appear within the circle when someone is on your profile. Most people like to create icons and cover photos for their Highlights, to make them look more organized and aesthetically pleasing. You can either select a cover photo from a Story within your Highlight, or you can upload one directly from your camera roll, without having to add it to your Story. Click here for some fun ideas for Highlight covers!

Here’s how to upload a cover without adding it to your Story:

  1. Click on the Highlight you want to edit, and select ‘Edit Highlight’.
  2. Then, at the top of the page, select ‘Edit Cover’.
  3. From here, you can either select something from your camera roll, or select one of the Stories from your Highlight to use as a cover.

How to add an Instagram Highlight Without Adding to Your Story

Want to add something to your Highlight without adding it to your actual Story? It might be that you want to add to your highlight in bulk without spamming your Story, or just want to post an older piece of content that you like, to fit in with an existing Highlight. There a few hacks you can use to add Highlights, without having to add the content to your Story.

  1. Switch your Instagram profile to Private, in your general Settings.
  2. Go to your privacy Story Settings, and Block all users from seeing your Stories.
  3. Upload the Story you want to add to the Highlight.
  4. Add the Story to your highlight.
  5. After waiting 24 hours for the video to add into your Highlights, you can change your privacy settings back to normal.

How do you delete Highlights?

Not feeling a Highlight you posted, and want to delete it? Don’t worry, it’s not too hard to do.

  1. Head to your Instagram profile, and find the Highlight you’d like to delete.
  2. Long-press (hold down) the Highlight preview and select ‘delete highlight’ when the option comes up.

How do you delete Stories from a Highlight?

To delete a Story from your Highlight, click on the Highlight to watch it. As Stories come up that you’d like to delete, click on the ‘…’ icon and select ‘Remove from Highlight’.

Instagram Highlight Ideas

Stuck on ideas for what Highlights to create? Here’s a few we prepared earlier:

Behind the scenes

Everyday life

Outfit of the day

Makeup looks

Events

Press

Community

Trends

About us

Hauls

Get to know me

Do Story Highlights have Analytics?

You are able to view insights on normal Stories, which showcase views, interactions, link clicks and more. You can also view historical insights on your Stories through Highlights, by watching the Highlight and swiping up on the Story to access the Insights. The only thing you won’t be able to access is whether new people are watching your Stories on Highlights, after the 24 hours has passed from when you posted it.

Want to learn more Instagram tips and tricks from your peers? Click the banner below to get connected with likeminded people, in our Facebook community!

How to make albums from photos and videos on Instagram

We are sure that many users of the Instagram photo service are unaware of the existence of a tool that allows you to save your favorite publications and organize them into collections (albums) that only the owner of the account can view. How to do this will be discussed in the instructions below.

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♥ BY TOPIC: Who has the most followers on Instagram - the 40 most popular accounts.

How to save photos or videos to albums on Instagram

To save a post (video or photo) to an Instagram album (collection), click on the bookmark icon under the post. In this case, the author of the publication will not know that you have saved it.

The post is not actually stored on your device, you simply bookmark it. If the author of the post decides to delete it from Instagram, the post will also disappear from your saved bookmarks. All saved posts appear in the private section of your profile.

♥ BY TOPIC: Invisibility in Instagram stories, or how to anonymously view other people's Instagram stories.

How to create a new Instagram photo or video album

You can create a new gallery when saving a post, add a post to an existing album, or create a collection of saved posts.

1. Click on the profile icon, and then tap on the icon with three lines in the upper right corner of the screen;

2. Select partition Stored ;

3. Click the "+" button in the upper right corner to create a new collection;

4. Enter the album name and press " Next ";

5. Select publications corresponding to the created album from those added earlier to the general album Saved ;

6. Press " Done ".

♥ RELATED: How to protect your Instagram account from being hacked (it's free).

How to create an album while saving an Instagram post

1 . Select the post you want to include in the new collection;

2 . Press and hold the bookmark icon below a post;

3 . Select an existing collection or create a new one by clicking on " + ".

♥ BY TOPIC: How to repost on Instagram: 3 ways.

How to manage Instagram albums and add new photos and videos to them

1. Click on the profile icon, and then tap on the icon with three lines in the upper right corner of the screen;

2. Select partition Saved ;

3. Click on the collection you want to add the post to;

4. Click on the menu button (three dots) in the upper right corner, and then select " Add to collection ";

5. Select publications corresponding to the created album from those added earlier to the shared album Saved ;

6. Press " Done ".

BY THEME: How to unfollow a person on Instagram so that they don’t find out (so as not to offend).

How to delete photos or videos from Instagram albums

1 . Open the post you want to delete;

2 . Click on the bookmark icon in the lower right corner;

3 . Click " Remove from collection " to remove the post from the collection.

♥ RELATED: How to add music to Instagram Stories on iPhone.

How to change the cover, rename or delete an album on Instagram

1. Click on the profile icon, and then tap on the icon with three lines in the upper right corner of the screen;

2. Select partition Stored ;

3. Select the album you wish to delete;

4 . Click on the menu button (three dots) and select " Edit Collection ".

Next, you can either rename the album (enter a new name and click " Done "), or delete it by clicking on the option " Delete collection ", or change the cover.

See also:

  • Masks on photos and videos on Instagram: how to enable and use.
  • Animate photos on iPhone: Pixaloop app animates any photo.
  • Blue tick on Instagram: how to get the status of a verified account on Instagram.

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How to add photos to Instagram from phone

There are 3 main ways to add a photo to Instagram* from your phone: upload via the Instagram* mobile app, from your phone gallery, or via third-party apps. We will analyze separately how to publish a photo in a post and a story.

How to publish a post in the feed

Method 1: through the Instagram app*

Download the Instagram app* from the AppStore or Google Play. After registering or logging into your account, you will see the [+] icon in the upper right corner, click on it, and then in the menu that appears, click on the "Publish" button.

Interface for adding a new post to the feed

Next, you will open the interface for adding a post, you need to go through several steps:

  1. select media files;
  2. file editing: filters, light and color correction;
  3. add text, geotagging, etc.;
  4. publication.

Let's take a closer look at how to post photos on Instagram* from your phone.

Select media files. After pressing the "Publish" button, you will be taken to the gallery on your phone. Select the photos or videos you want to post. At this stage, you can also change the resolution or select multiple files for one post.

Basic buttons for setting up a future publication

Editing files. After selecting all the settings, click the "Next" button in the upper right corner and go to the editing interface - here you can apply filters, adjust the contrast, add sharpness, level the horizon, and so on.

Photo and video editing tools

Add text and labels. Once you've finished editing your media, click the "Next" button again, and the last settings will open: choosing other social networks for publication, adding text, geotagging, user tags. Read more in our article “Instagram tags*: how and why to use”.

Final settings for posting to the feed

You can't post large text on Instagram*, the limit is 2200 characters. But if you really need it, we have an article with recommendations for the design of such publications.

Publication . When you're done with the settings, click "Share" in the upper right corner and the post will appear in your account feed and in the news feed of your followers. Hooray!

The process of loading a post and its display in the news feed

Method 2: through the phone gallery

This is a quick way when you just need to post one file with a caption, because this way you can not customize the display format, add multiple files to one post, correct media files, add geotags and tag other users.

How to post photos on Instagram* from your phone using the gallery:

  1. open the gallery on your phone;
  2. click on the desired photo;
  3. select "Share" from the menu;
  4. click on the Instagram icon*;
  5. click on the "Publish" button;
  6. write the text for the post and click "OK" in the upper right corner;
  7. then click "Share" in the same place.

That's it - the publication has been uploaded to your profile!

Step-by-step process of publishing a photo in the feed through the phone gallery

If you do not know what, why, why to publish and how to design, I recommend our free course "7 Steps of Content Marketing". In the course, we tell you what content marketing is, how to create, design and promote content on the Internet. All this will help you understand how content works, why publish posts and how to make them beautiful and interesting.

Method 3: Through other apps

You can upload photos to Instagram* from photo and video editing apps, feed maker, and so on. Almost all of these applications have the ability to automatically add media files to Instagram*.

For example, the Canva photo and video editor app has a Share button in the top right corner. In the additional menu, the Instagram icon appears *, when clicked, it transfers to the social network application with the option to select a placement: Stories or feed. After clicking on the "Feed" button, the standard Instagram interface * opens to add a post to the feed.

Algorithm for publishing a post in the feed from the Canva application

How to post a Story

You can upload a photo to Instagram stories* from your phone either directly from the Instagram application* or through third-party applications.

There are 3 ways to post a Stories through the Instagram app*:

  • click on the blue [+] icon on your avatar in your feed or profile;
  • click on the [+] button in the upper right corner and select the "History" item;
  • in the news feed, swipe from left to right across the screen.
Ways to add a new Story: icon next to the avatar and icon on the right

After clicking, the interface for creating Stories will open. By default, the camera opens, and you can immediately take a picture or video for stories. If you want to add files from your phone's gallery, tap the button in the bottom left corner of the screen or swipe up from the bottom of the screen.

Stories interface when first opened with camera enabled

The story editing interface also has many useful features:

  • Text. Different fonts, colors, ways of writing, animation. To add, click once on the screen or on the “Aa” icon at the top right of the screen, the interface for adding text will appear with additional settings at the top of the screen.
  • Drawing. Brushes for painting on photo or video. Click on the ellipsis in the upper right corner and on the "Draw" button. The color and brush settings will also appear at the top of the screen.
  • Interactive Instagram stickers*. Questions, tests, polls, mentions, geolocation, music, hashtags and so on. To select stickers, click on the sticker icon in the upper right corner or swipe up from the bottom of the screen. Read more about them in our article with an overview of new stickers.
  • Masks. Filters and AR masks to decorate stories. There are masks both from Instagram* itself and from users. To get as many creative masks as possible, subscribe to major bloggers who create such masks. For example, bloggers ya.molli or georska.
Stories editing interface

Once you're done with your stories, select the publish option at the bottom of the screen:

  • Your Story. Stories are immediately published on your profile, and all users can see it.
  • Close friends. Stories will only be seen by users you have added to your Close Friends list.
  • Right arrow. An additional menu will open, which has the function of sending stories in a private message.
Selecting a publishing location Stories

Stories, like posts, can be posted from other applications, only when choosing a placement, you need to click "Stories".

Check out the Instagram Stories* section of our blog for inspiration on how to use Stories on both your personal blog and brand account.

Learn more