Episode 161: Use Instagram Highlights? Must Listen Tip
If you use Instagram for your business, you may have created Instagram highlight reels. In this quick tip episode, Fiona talks about the cover art of your highlight reels and how you can use it to drive your brand's message.
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
How to support Aboriginal legal service
Ideas on how to use the cover art of your highlight reels to promote your brand
How to share highlight reels privately and use it
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business Coach
Resources and Recommendations mentioned in this episode:
Bianca Velavesca
Hello, and welcome to episode 161 of the my daily business coach Podcast. Today is a quick tip episode. And if you're listening to this in real time, I know how hectic this week is going to be for so many of you, particularly if you sell products, and it is the last week before Christmas, and the crazy gifting season so and you know sale time as well. So, if that is you just take a big deep breath, relax, know that it's going, you're going to get through it, you always do that is exactly what I tell myself all the time. Killackey you will get through it, you always do. So just know that it may be hectic, but it's not going to last forever. Take a big deep breath.
So today is a quick tip episode. And it has to do with Instagram. So if you use Instagram for your business, and I know that so many people that listen to the podcast, do, a lot of you are in the creative space, visual space, product space service based, where it's things like graphic designing photography. You will want to know this tip because it's just a good one, it's a good one to have in the back of your pocket. I just Yeah, had to share it.
So before I get stuck into that I want to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the land of beautiful land that I am lucky enough to be looking out at right now while I record this podcast. There are 100 people of the Kulin nation and I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been seated.
And on that note, if you like me have been watching some of the stuff that's been going on in the US at the moment, and you just feel absolutely sickened by it. And you're also very aware that this also happens in this country where I come from Australia. Then if you're thinking what can I do besides get angry, get frustrated, get sad post repost things on social media. One of the things that you can do, if you have the means and I know that not everybody does. And therefore you know, whatever you can do, like posting, talking about it with your friends, you know, looking at ways that you can change as well. But one of the things you can do if you've got the means is to donate to the ALS, which is the Aboriginal legal service. And you can find more information at alsnswact.org.au/donate. We'll link to that in the show notes. But that is really you know, you're donating to help the Aboriginal legal service stand with Aboriginal people in their fight for justice. And you know, from their website it says every dollar you donate is used fighting for a fair go in court and pushing for reform of bad laws that harm our communities. Together, we will achieve justice for Aboriginal people in communities.
So I just wanted to put that out at the front. Because I know that a lot of people are thinking, oh my goodness, what can we do? How can we change things? And one way that we can change here in Australia is to provide what we can and donate through to Aboriginal legal service.
All right on with today's quick tip episode.
All right, so if you use Instagram for your business, this is a tip you want to know. And a reminder this one is, it may sound a little bit complex, just stay with me and know that if you want them the full show notes will be available at mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/161.
So if you use Instagram and you use that a lot for your business, you may have created Instagram highlight reels so these are stories that you've kept in reel. So the reel is those mini circles that you see underneath the text information on an Instagram bio. Some people will you know have nothing as a cover art for them. Other people will have colors other people will have icons. I know I'm a good friend, Natasha Ace, who runs the Private Practice Alliance actually has covered on all hers that spell out ace PP as in Ace private practice, which I think is really clever. Just driving that brand message again. Other people will have you know, icons such as question mark, you know, frequently asked questions or sizing or you know, other things.
And so whenever I talk to clients about Instagram highlight reels and they're like, I don't understand them, what should I put in there? An easy way to think about them is to reflect on your website navigation. So if you have testimonials, if you have about, if you have worked with us, if you have frequently asked questions in your navigation on your website, then feel free to you know, mirror that on your heart highlight reels. And if you haven't used highlight reels, definitely I will probably do another episode on highlight reels, what they are, why you should use them. But the thing that I wanted to share today is about the cover art of your highlight reels. Now on the My daily business coach Instagram. So if you are able to and you can pick up a phone or have a look, you'll see what I'm talking about. If you go @mydailybusinesscoach, and you see the kind of circles, the little circles underneath the profile and before the grid. So we feel good. We've got my book, we've got tools, podcast, work with me, testimonials, and then Obama because years ago, somebody from Obama's like social media team followed me on Twitter, and I just was like, oh my god, Barack Obama follows me. This is insane. And so you know, just made it a highlight reel kind of out of fun. But yeah, anyway, that's beside the point. And I think that was definitely a mistake. Who knows, but who knows? Maybe Barack is listening. Hey, Barack. Back to the episode. Sorry about that diversion.
So the highlights like yeah, tools, podcast, work with me, etc. And the cover art for those is brand colors. So you've got the mustard yellow, the pink, the navy blue, kind of rusty red. And those cover art are made also from Instagram stories. And so what happens is, and I say this all the time, and I did this, I definitely do this the first time. And then I have to do a shout out to Bianca Velavesca, who was the first person to tell me hey, do you know you can do it differently. So thanks so much, Bianca. And I'm sharing this now with others. And I've shared it with so many people since and yeah, thank you. Thank you, Bianca.
So instead of me sending a story that is basically a pink tile, that doesn't make sense to anyone. And then a navy blue tile with no wording, no context, no gifts, nothing, I can just send those stories. So if you're making a whole bunch of Instagram, highlight covers, just send those stories, the Instagram stories, to close friends rather than your whole account. So Instagram allows you to send private, you know, stories kind of privately, or I know some of the people that I follow that I'm friends with, they all have like pictures of their kids and stuff, but they'll only share that with close friends. So when you post a story to Instagram, you can choose whether you send it the whole, you know, everyone that's following you potentially can see it. Or you can click the like, I think it's like a little green kind of button with a star on it. And that means that story is only going to people in your close friends list. And you can check who's in your close friends list. So I think in mine, I've got I'm not sure like maybe most definitely my husband, maybe my personal account, probably a couple of friends. And so instead of me sending it out to like 11,000 people potentially to look at, I can sort of be like, Why am I saying like 50 colors, just going by with nothing on them is there like a point to this, I can just send those stories to my close friends by clicking the little green button instead of to everyone. And then once they have gone to my close friends, I can then save them to whichever highlight reel they need to be saved to, and then make them the cover art.
So if you are somebody who regularly updates the cover art of your Instagram highlight reels, or maybe you're doing highlight reels for the first time. And you're thinking okay, I want to you know, people are always asking this question, I should just put it as a highlight reel so that, you know, I could just send people in the DM straight to the highlight reel. Or I can forward what's in there just straight to somebody through a DM, then definitely heed this tip around, take your cover art, make it in Canva or however you make it, upload it to Instagram stories, share it to close friends only. Then once it's been shared, you can click the little button ‘Add to highlight’, add it to the highlight and you can make it the cover.
So I know that might be hard for some people, particularly if you've never kind of done highlights, or you're new to Instagram to gather. So we will link to the actual information from Instagram as well in the show notes. But yeah, I know that it's something that even you know, really seasoned people. Even somebody that I know that their entire business is Instagram, Instagram coaching and stuff. I've seen them do it where and usually it's late at night, it's usually like 11 o'clock at night you'll see people in there suddenly sending like 17 or like six or seven kind of stories that just have an icon in them. And so yeah, just sort of putting it out there. You don't have to send it to everyone. You can just make it and send it to your close friends. Then once it's been sent to the close friends, it can still turn up in a public highlight reel on your Instagram profile. Hope that makes sense. Let me know if it does. You can send me a DM @mydailybusinesscoach or if it doesn't, and you still need more information I can get back to you that way. Or of course, you can always email us hello@mydailybusinesscoach.com and like I said the show notes will be available at mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/161.
Thank you so much for listening. And thank you again, Bianca Velavesca for sharing this tip with me years ago, when I sent a whole bunch of like icons and circles and things through my Instagram stories, and she politely emailed sent me a DM saying, you know, you don't have to do that, and then explained exactly how to do it. So shout out again to Bianca Velavesca, thank you for sharing. And that is it for today's quick tip episode. If you have enjoyed this, if you found it useful, feel free to share it with a friend. And we would love love, love if you could hit subscribe. And if you have five seconds, two seconds, even, you know one second to hit the stars and leave a review. It just really, really, really helps this podcast get found by other small business owners and who knows maybe they're dealing with Instagram highlight challenges themselves. So, thanks so much for listening. I'll see you next time. Bye!
