Being Successful on Instagram: Here is What Instagram Recommends for Highlights

If you want your business to succeed on Instagram, it’s important to understand the different features of the platform. The better you understand how Instagram works, the more you can use the site to make your business stand out. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at Instagram Highlights.

For your content to perform well on Instagram, it helps to understand not just what to post, but where different types of information belong. Some features are designed for reach, whereas others are designed more for clarity. Instagram Highlights fall firmly into the second category.

While they don’t generate engagement in the traditional sense, Highlights play a central role in how people understand your content once they arrive on your profile.

What are Instagram Highlights?

Instagram Highlights are collections of Stories that are saved permanently to a profile. Instead of disappearing after 24 hours, they sit below the bio section and can be viewed at any time.

According to Instagram, Highlights are designed to help users “keep their favorite Stories on their profile.” - (Instagram Help Centre)

For businesses, this means Highlights can be used to surface important information that would otherwise be lost in the feed or buried in past Stories which are, of course, no longer visible.

How Highlights differ from Stories and feed posts

Stories are temporary; feed posts are algorithm-driven and compete for attention. Highlights, by contrast, are static and user-controlled.

When someone taps on a Highlight, they are doing so intentionally - most likely because they want to find out more about who you are or what your business does.

This makes Highlights particularly useful for:

1. Explaining what a business does
2. Outlining how a product or service works
3. Answering common questions
4. Setting expectations around pricing, process, or support

By including this information, Highlights allow you to create and manage an easily retrievable library of information that's accessible for your long-term followers and drop-in visitors alike.

Practical ways businesses use Highlights

Most effective business profiles use Highlights to group related information in a way that is easy to scan.

You could style your Highlights as a type of visual helpdesk, but in practice, most brands don't use them to showcase formal (boring) information like shipping and returns.

Instead, they use Highlights to add texture and personality to their Instagram profile — to show who is behind the brand and what it feels like to engage with them.

This is especially true in retail, creative industries and events, where emotional connection matters as much as anything else.

Common (and popular) Highlight themes include:

• Behind the scenes: studio days, fittings, site visits, rehearsals
• Our story: how the brand started, who’s involved, what inspires you as a business
• Day to day: informal snapshots that make the business feel dynamic and human
• Community: reposted customer photos, event attendees, collaborators
• General inspiration: playlists, quotes, inside references and jokes

Sprout Social notes that Highlights work best when they reflect the types of Stories a brand already shares, suggesting brands organise them around themes such as behind-the-scenes content, products, reviews or company culture rather than rigid informational categories.

Why bother with Highlights?

Highlights are often reviewed by visitors to your profile who are already considering whether to follow, enquire, or buy one of your products. Consider your Highlights a way of opening the door to both your company and the community surrounding it.

Rather than persuading or explaining, effective Highlights focus on inviting people into the fold. Instead of trying to convince someone why a brand is good, effective Highlights make it clear whether the account is worth following.

Following a brand on social media often comes down to a simple question: do I care enough, or am I entertained enough, to watch content from this brand on a regular basis?

Instagram’s recommendations for getting the most out of Highlights

Instagram describes Highlights as a way to keep important Stories visible on your profile over time.

Highlights work best when they contain Stories that remain useful beyond the moment they were posted. Instagram encourages businesses to think about relevance and usefulness, rather than saving content simply because it performed well. So, before adding a Story to a Highlight, consider whether it helps someone understand your brand, answer a common question, or decide whether to follow.

Because Stories disappear after 24 hours, Highlights allow you to give important content a longer lifespan. This includes behind-the-scenes content, recurring themes, community posts, or brand stories that are still relevant to new visitors.

Clear titles and thoughtful grouping make Highlights easier to navigate. Instagram also emphasises keeping profile information current, which means reviewing Highlights periodically and removing Stories that no longer reflect your business.

When you create or update a Highlight, Instagram recommends using Stories to draw attention to it. Let your followers and visitors know that you have Highlights folders in your other content forms, especially if FAQs keep cropping up.

Use Storrito to schedule directly to your Highlights

Storrito makes it possible to schedule Stories and add them to Highlights automatically, so your profile stays current without extra manual effort. With Storrito, you can upload, edit, and schedule Instagram Stories in just a few clicks, making it easier to maintain your Highlights over time.

For more information on how to use Highlights effectively in 2026, check out this guide!