By now you've probably seen accounts with cover photos on their Instagram story highlights.

Instagram story highlights can be used as mini video channels to showcase helpful information for your followers. I have some FAQ's, an about me channel, wedding tips, and my favorite portfolio images.

With highlights new followers can learn about you quickly and it takes away some of the pressure to post daily. 

I created my images in Canva and you could also use Phonto, Photoshop, or any other platform that allows you to create graphics. 

I created a Canva tutorial so you can make icon cover photos for your account!

1. In Canva go to the "Use custom dimensions" button on the top right. Enter 1080 x 1920 for the dimensions.

2. Next choose a background color for your image. You can choose any background you like but I prefer a solid color. You can choose from Canva's pre-selected colors or add you own custom color.

3. In the "search" bar enter the name of an icon you want to use. For instance, 'camera', 'house', 'leaf'.

4. Choose an icon, I prefer simple outlines. I center the icon in the middle of the page and enlarge it to about 230 x 230.   You can also change the color of the icon, I chose white for all mine. 

5. Save your image. Now it's time to upload to Instagram stories. There are many ways to do this, I prefer to add to my scheduled stories using Planoly on my desktop. I then post to my stories using the Planoly app on my phone. 

6. Once you've posted to your stories, go to your story and tap the 'highlight' icon 

7. Tap 'new' to create a new highlight.

8. Name your highlight whatever you'd like.

9. The new highlight will appear on your feed!

10. To change the cover image or adjust the placement go to the highlight and tap 'edit highlight'

11. Tap 'edit cover'

12. You can now change the cover image or recenter the placement of your icon.

13. To add to your highlighted story go into 'edit highlight' and simply tap any story you'd like to add to that section.

That's it for this tutorial! If you found it helpful let me know in the comments and if you make your own covers tag me in a story so I can see what you created @erica_pezente!