How to Make Story Sections on Instagram

Your Instagram Story Highlights are prime real estate on your profile, transforming temporary updates into a lasting showcase for your brand. They offer a powerful way to organize your best content, answer common questions, and guide new followers on what your brand is all about. This guide will walk you through exactly how to create these sections, design stunning covers, and use them strategically to grow your presence on Instagram.

What Exactly Are Instagram Story Sections (aka Highlights)?

Think of Instagram Story Highlights as the curated, permanent photo albums of your brand's digital storefront. While a regular Instagram Story vanishes after 24 hours, Highlights allow you to save and categorize your most valuable Stories directly on your profile, right below your bio. They appear as small circles, and when tapped, play a sequence of the Stories you've saved within them.

This feature essentially creates an evergreen navigation menu for your profile. For visitors, it's a quick way to understand your offerings, culture, and value without having to scroll through your entire feed. For you, it's a strategic tool to spotlight key information, promotions, testimonials, and brand narratives that might otherwise get lost in the feed.

Why Story Highlights Are an Absolute Must-Have for Your Instagram

Jumping into another social media feature can feel like just another task on your to-do list, but creating Story Highlights is worth the effort. They play a significant role in making a strong first impression and serving your audience better.

They Shape Your First Impression

Your profile bio, profile picture, and Highlights are the first things a new visitor sees. Together, they tell the story of your brand in a matter of seconds. Well-organized, visually appealing Highlights instantly communicate professionalism and give users a clear path to learn more about you. Vague or empty highlight bubbles are a missed opportunity to capture immediate interest.

You Can Showcase Products and Services In-Depth

Your feed might show off a final, polished product, but your Highlights are where you can show the process, the variations, and the real-world applications. A clothing brand, for example, could create Highlights for "New Arrivals," "Styling Tips," and "Behind the Seams." A restaurant could have Highlights for its "Menu," "Weekly Specials," and "Happy Hour." This organization makes it incredibly easy for potential customers to find exactly what they're looking for.

Build Trust with Social Proof and Behind-the-Scenes Content

Highlights are perfect for humanizing your brand and building community trust. You can create sections specifically for:

• Testimonials: Share screenshots of positive reviews, DM raves, or video testimonials from happy customers.
• User-Generated Content (UGC): Repost stories and posts from customers using your products or services. This is authentic marketing at its best.
• Meet the Team: Introduce the faces behind your brand to build a more personal connection with your audience.
• Behind-the-Scenes: Show the unfiltered work that goes into your craft, whether it's packing orders, designing a new product, or setting up for an event.

Save Time by Answering FAQs

Are you constantly getting the same questions in your DMs? "Do you ship internationally?" "What are your hours?" "How do I book an appointment?" Create a "FAQ" or "Info" Highlight to answer these common questions once. This not only saves you countless hours of repetitive typing but also improves the customer experience by providing instant information.

How to Make Your First Instagram Story Highlight: A Step-by-Step Guide

Ready to create your own Story sections? The process is straightforward. Before you begin, you need to make sure your account is set up to automatically save your stories.

Part 1: Enable the Story Archive

Your Highlights pull content from your Story Archive, so this is a critical first step. If you miss this, your stories will disappear after 24 hours, and you won't be able to add them to a Highlight later.

1. Navigate to your Instagram profile.
2. Tap the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) in the top-right corner.
3. Select "Archive."
4. On the Archive screen, tap the three dots in the top-right corner and select "Settings."
5. Make sure the toggle for "Save story to archive" is switched on.

Once this is enabled, Instagram will automatically save all your stories for you, even after they disappear from public view.

Part 2: Create a New Highlight

You can create a new Highlight from past stories saved in your Archive.

1. Go to your profile page.
2. Below your bio, you’ll see the "Story Highlights" section. If you don't have any yet, you'll see a circle with a plus sign labeled "New." Tap it.
3. Your Story Archive will open, showing you all of your past Stories. Select the Stories you want to include in this Highlight. The blue checkmark indicates a Story is selected.
4. Tap "Next."
5. On the next screen, you can edit the cover photo and give your Highlight a name (up to 15 characters). Be clear and concise with your title (e.g., "About Us," "FAQ," "Shop").
6. Tap "Add" (on iPhone) or "Done" (on Android), and your new Highlight will appear on your profile.

Part 3: Add to an Existing Highlight

Once you have Highlights set up, you can keep adding new content to them easily.

Method 1: From a Live Story

If you've just posted a Story and want to add it directly to a Highlight before it expires:

1. View your active Story.
2. Tap the "Highlight" icon at the bottom of the screen.
3. Choose which existing Highlight you’d like to add it to, or create a new Highlight directly from this screen.

Method 2: From Your Archive

If you want to add an older, archived Story to an existing Highlight:

1. Tap and hold the Highlight on your profile that you want to add to.
2. Select "Edit Highlight."
3. Go to the "Stories" tab. Here, you'll see all the Stories currently in the Highlight. You can tap Stories from your archive on the right to add them.
4. Tap "Done" when you're finished.

Designing Attractive and On-Brand Highlight Covers

Default Story Highlight covers automatically pull from a thumbnail of one of the Stories within the section. This often looks messy and off-brand. Creating custom covers elevates your profile's appearance, making it look cohesive and professional.

Why Custom Covers Matter

Your Highlight covers are like icons on an app - they should be simple, recognizable, and consistent. Using your brand colors, fonts, or a set of uniform icons helps reinforce your visual identity and makes your profile much easier for visitors to navigate.

How to Create and Upload a Custom Cover

1. Design Your Covers: Use a simple graphic design tool like Canva or Adobe Express. Create a design with dimensions of 1080 x 1920 pixels (the same as a standard Story). Center your icon or text, keeping in mind that it will be cropped into a circle. Use your brand's color palette and fonts for a consistent look. Export these designs to your phone's camera roll.
2. Upload the Cover to Your Story: To use an image as a cover, it first needs to be in your Story Archive. Briefly upload your finished cover design(s) to your Instagram Story. You can even delete it right after if you don't want your followers to see it, as it will still be saved to your archive.
3. Set the New Cover:
   • Go back to your profile and tap and hold the Highlight you want to update.
   • Select "Edit Highlight."
   • At the top of the screen, tap "Edit Cover."
   • Select the image icon at the bottom to open your phone's camera roll (if the cover image is there). Or just select the image from your recently archived items if you've uploaded to Stories.
   • Adjust the cover image so the icon or text is perfectly centered within the circle crop.
   • Tap "Done."

Creative Ideas for Your Brand's Story Sections

Stuck on what kind of Highlights you should create? Here are some ideas broken down by industry:

• For E-commerce Brands: "New In," "How to Style," "Sale Rack," "Best Sellers," "Customer Looks (UGC)."
• For Service Providers (Coaches, consultants, freelancers): "Testimonials," "How it Works," "My Process," "Book a Call," "Case Studies."
• For Restaurants & Cafes: "The Menu," "Happy Hour," "Staff Favs," "Reservations," "Private Events."
• For Local Businesses (Salons, gyms, studios): "Services," "Our Space," "Meet the Team," "Bookings," "Before & After."
• For Bloggers & Content Creators: "Travel," "New Post," "Q&A," "My Gear," "Brand Deals," "Daily Life."

Final Thoughts

Incorporating Instagram Story Highlights into your profile is a simple yet powerful way to elevate your brand's presence. They act as a permanent, organized welcome mat for new followers and a helpful resource for your existing community, letting you showcase your best content long after 24 hours have passed.

Of course, great Highlights start with great Stories. Having a solid plan for your daily content is what feeds into creating these valuable sections later on. That’s why we built Postbase to make a real difference. With our visual content calendar, you can plan out your Instagram Stories, Reels, and feed posts weeks in advance, making it easier to build a consistent narrative that you can later archive into perfectly themed Highlights.