Level Up Your Instagram Profile: A Complete Guide to Stunning Highlight Covers
Instagram Highlight Covers are those aesthetic, circular icons you find on shiny Instagram profiles (personal or brand). They are not just decorative; they are powerful tools to organize content and pull viewers into your best Stories. This guide, presented by TipsClear, will teach you how to create and implement highlight covers that make people interested in engaging with the profile. We’ll touch on everything from design to implementation to make you stand out from the crowd.
Why Instagram Highlight Covers Are Important (More Than You Expect)
Highlight Covers are essentially mini-billboards for your carefully curated Instagram Stories. So instead of letting your best stories go away after 24 hours, Highlights allow them to live indefinitely on your profile. The covers are the first look—they:
Divide Your Content:
On your Stories, divide your stories into categories (i.e. “Travel,” “Recipes,” “Behind the Scenes,” “Products,” Q&A”). That way, new and existing followers have no trouble finding the content they want to see.
Branding:
Uniform and appealing covers give a seamless and professional look to the account, ultimately building your brand. Consider them visual extensions of your brand style guide.
Increase Click-Through:
Eye-catching covers encourage users to click through and check out your highlights, boosting the views and engagement of your archived content.
To Tell Something Completely:
An eye-catching symbol or name in your cover explains in seconds what the highlight is referring to.
What is an Instagram Highlight Cover? (Refresher)
An Instagram Highlight Cover is the small round image that represents a particular Instagram Highlight. When tapped, the associated Highlight (a type of archived collection of Instagram Stories) will open. The cover defaults to the first image within your Highlight; however, you have complete control over this image, so make it your own!
How To Create Instagram Highlight Covers: Step By Step
Custom highlight covers will upgrade your profile from amateur to pro level. Here’s how to do it:
Step 1: Create Your Covers (Canva Is Your Best Friend)
Canva (Very Important): Canva visit www.canva.com Even if you have no design skills, this is the easiest and fastest way to create professional-looking covers.
Search: Search for “Instagram Highlight Cover” or “Instagram Story Highlight Cover” on Canva.
Browse & Customize: Go through the templates and pick any that resonate with your brand aesthetic. Modifying colors, fonts, icons, etc., including your own images.
Download: When you’re satisfied with your designs, download them as PNG or JPG files to your phone or your computer.
Other Design Tools (for Advanced Users):
Adobe Spark: A great alternative with similar features as Canva.
Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator: For professional-level design control, but needs some specific knowledge.
PicMonkey: A relatively easy option.
Over: Another good app—super easy to use.
Step 2: How To Design It (Most Important Step)
If you utilize a template or create a design from scratch, adhere to the following design guidelines:
Focus on the Center: Instagram crops your image into a circle. When creating these, ensure that the main element (icon, text, etc.) is dead center to avoid awkward cropping.
Best Sizes: 1080 x 1920 pixels (the size of an Instagram Story)
Aspect ratio: 9:16 aspect ratio.
Branding Consistency:
Color: Use your brand colors consistently.
Fonts—Use only your brand’s designs (or similar ones).
Style: Based on the overall aesthetic of your theme (e.g., minimalist, bold, illustrative).
Theme Overall: Ensure that all the covers feel cohesive and embody your brand.
Avoid adding unnecessary elements to your designs. Show a simple image or logo, or understand clearly what it is in text rather than a picture that is too busy.
Use Icons Instead: Icons are faster to recognize than text most of the time, so consider if you could use an icon in your design instead of text.
Text pulls: If you incorporate text, make it scannable and brief.
Step 3: Remember the Caption (It’s Prime Real Estate!)
When making a Highlight, Instagram gives you a little caption. Use this space wisely:
Make it short: You have limited characters to play with.
Use Keywords: Consider what users will search for.
Be Mindful of Emojis (Use Sparingly): Emojis can liven up your message, but a little goes a long way!
Call to Action (Optional): Use whatever fits your design best—phrases like “See More,” “Shop Now,” or “Learn More.”
How to Add an Instagram Highlight Cover (Two Ways)
As for adding your covers, Instagram is flexible in that department:
Method 1: Q3: Adding a Cover when creating highlight
Create a New Highlight: Visit your Instagram profile and click on the “+” (New) button directly below your bio (or select your profile picture and choose “Story Highlight”).
Step 2: Pick Stories: Select the stories you want to add to your highlight. Tap “Next.”
Edit Cover: Tap “Edit Cover.”
Choose Your Image:
Show: Pick an image from the stories you selected.
From Camera Roll: Click on the image gallery icon (usually in the shape of a square) to see your phone photos. Pick an individually designed cover.
Adjust & Zoom: Pinch and zoom to get your cover image perfectly centered inside the circle.
Highlight title (caption) Enter the title of your Highlight in the text field.
Tap “Done” (or “Add” on some versions).
Method 2: Replacing the cover of an existing highlight
Profile: Select your profile picture icon.
Long Press: Hold the highlight you want to change.
Edit Highlight: Choose “Edit Highlight” from the pop-up menu.
Edit Cover: Tap “Edit Cover.”
Select Your Image: Step 1: That is the routine as method 1, so select the emblem or your camera roll.
Set, Zoom, and Done: Center the image, then tap “Done” twice.
Competitive Advantages & Additional Insights:
Update Regularly: Make sure to keep your highlights relevant and fresh by regularly updating them with new stories and also using new covers every so often.
Analytics: Monitor your highlight views to identify the most popular topics. This leads to more engaging content. (Requires a business or creator account.)
Shorten Your Highlights: Keep your highlights relevant by shortening their length.
Think Animated Covers: For a more dynamic look, use tools like Canva Pro or (more advanced) Adobe After Effects to create animated GIF covers.
Use a link in bio tool. This can simplify the process of people clicking on your links, should your highlights refer to an external website.
Use different kinds of content: You can share stories, reels and posts.
Conclusion:
Instagram Highlight Covers are a small yet powerful tool to boost your Instagram presence. With this guide, you can create covers that are visually appealing, align perfectly with your brand, and strategically crafted to capture your audience’s attention. Then hurry, create your beautiful highlight covers, and put them on your Instagram profile! Visit TipsClear.com for more social media tips and tricks.
