You've probably seen those small circle icons on Instagram profiles, and wanted to get some made up for yourself. Those icons are cover graphics for Instagram stories that those profiles have published and chosen to show on their profile right below their bio. And if you've been wondering how to make them, good news!! They aren't as complicated as they might look, so you don't have to hire a graphic designer to do it for you. You just need a good graphics editor (we like PicMonkey) and an idea and you can make Instagram highlight covers yourself!!

[click_to_tweet tweet=”If you've been wondering how to make customer highlight covers for your Instagram Stories, good news!! Here is your step-by-step guide.” quote=”If you've been wondering how to make customer highlight covers for your Instagram Stories, good news!! Here is your step-by-step guide.” theme=”style1″]

(These steps are all done from the desktop, as the app does not have the same template options).

How to Make Instagram Highlight Covers

1. Open up PicMonkey

We're going to start with a blank template, near the bottom of the screen:

The templates are arranged in alphabetical order, scroll down to the I's, and choose the template for the Instagram Stories.

If you prefer to set the size yourself, the ideal size for an Instagram Story is 1080×1920

You'll then be face to face with your blank template:

2. Set your Background Color

For this tutorial, we are going to make a simple white icon over a colored background. On the left-hand side of the screen, select “Edits” (very first icon) and then choose “Background Color” to be able to set the color:

Next, you'll find an area to choose your background color. Type in the hex color code you want (we recommend using one from your branding):

3. Set Your Icon

You can find hundreds of white icons over at iconsdb, and most of them are free for both personal and commercial use. Scroll through the options until you find one you like and download the png version.

Back in PicMonkey, we're going to upload that new icon into our Instagram Story template by clicking on Overlays in the left-hand menu:

From there, we want to choose our own overlay (so we can upload that icon we just downloaded from the other site):

PicMonkey will ask you where you want to upload from. In this case, we are choosing computer, but if you have things saved to your Hub, this is where you would choose that instead:

Now go ahead and select the new file:

And when you're done, PicMonkey will have it placed in the very center of your Instagram Story image:

4. Move the Icon over to your Phone

One of the great things about PicMonkey is that it automatically saves everything you do to your Hub, so you can access it from anywhere. To get the icon moved over to your phone, open up the PicMonkey app:

To find your new icon, tap on the “My Hub” button. Your new icon will be the very first image there:

Choose your icon, then click on “Share” to move it out of your hub:

Choose “Save Image” to move your new icon into your photos:

Finally, check to make sure your new icon is ready to go on your phone, so you can get it up to Instagram:

5. Uploading Your Icon to Instagram Stories

Now that you've got your icon ready to go, it's time to get it up onto Instagram. First, make sure you have the archive turned on in your highlights settings. This will make sure that every story you upload will be available for you to set as a highlight.

Now, add a new story by clicking on the small “+” next to your profile picture:

This will open up your camera. Along the bottom, you'll see the button to start recording your short video or select a filter. The very first option on the far left will be the one to open up your saved photos:

Instagram allows you to upload any photos taken within the past 24 hours to your Instagram Stories. Go ahead and select your new icon:

Once your icon has been uploaded as a new Instagram Story, you'll see a red circle around your profile indicating there is a new Story:

Tapping on that red circle will pull up the icon. Choose to set it as a highlight:

Instagram will ask if you want to add this to an existing highlight or if you want to choose a new one. Since we want this to be the icon, we will choose a new highlight.

Go ahead and name your highlight. In this case, since we've chosen the cart icon, we will name this “Courses” and use it as a place to highlight our different courses. But you can name it whatever you like.

When you're all done, take a look at your profile and you'll see your new Instagram Story icon on your profile just below the bio. Repeat this process as many times as you like to set up an icon for any feature you like.

And that's it!!

Now you know the secret to getting those circle icons on Instagram profiles

Did you know it would be this easy to make Instagram highlight covers?? With just a few minutes and an amazing tool like PicMonkey, you can make your own and really get ready to rock your business on Instagram.

#EmpowerSocial