Hey girls! Recently, Instagram rolled out a fun new feature for Instastories! You can now save Instastories to your profile as highlights. They stay here until you delete them instead of the 24 hours they show on the home page. It’s a great way to organize your Instastories, extend the lifespan of content & allow your followers access to the things they specifically want to see! However, I know bloggers spend hours agonizing over their feed to ensure it’s cohesive. The images that are automatically generated from your Instastories don’t always fit perfectly into that cohesiveness. So I’m sharing 9 EASY steps to create Cover Photos for your Instastory Highlights. Discalimer: I am by NO means an expert or Photoshop genius- this is just what I used & what worked for me. There’s probably many ways to do this but for an amateur like me, it’s what worked best! So here are the 9 steps [with pictures!] to create custom Cover Photos for Instastory Highlights!
1. Open Photoshop! File >> New. Create a Canvas with the size 1080 x 1920 pixels.
2. Use the rectangle tool to create a new shape that covers the background. This is where you can use whatever color you want as the background! Be sure to use the color picker to access the most color options. Think about what color will best fit cohesively in your Instagram feed!
3. Use one of the MANY free image services to find what graphic you want for each cover! I used a camera, hanger, computer, etc. Save it to your desktop & easily drag them to the Photoshop canvas! Then- use the Magic Eraser to remove the white/background to get a solid image. Just click on the parts you want to delete! [NOTE: You don’t have to use an image! You could also create this with fun text as well!]
4. Make sure your image is the size you want [you don’t want it very large!] & centered! Then save the image! Make sure to select .jpg when saving. Then email or AirDrop it to your phone!
5. **Important step** Add the image to your stories! Yes, this will seem random to your followers but it has to be in your Story Archives to be added to the Cover.
6. Go to your Instagram page and click the NEW circle in your Highlights section.
7. Select which cover you want to use for your first Highlight! You can also add any other Instastories you want within this category. BUT– if it was an Instastory you added BEFORE the cover photo, when you ‘play’ the highlight, it will go in order that they were originally added to your Instastories!
8. You can then edit the Cover- use your fingers to zoom in or out on the photo! And add whatever text title you’d like!
9. Save! TA-DA!! You now have pretty cover photos for your Instastory Highlights!
Let me know if you have any questions! xo
Check out my other Blogging Tips & Tricks here.
