Uma das perguntas mais frequentes que recebemos é: “O Manychat é oficialmente aprovado pelo Instagram? A minha conta vai ser banida porque estou utilizando automação e chatbots?”
Ficamos felizes em informar que você está seguro. O Manychat é a maior plataforma de automatização de mensagens diretas do Instagram do mundo, possibilitando conversas significativas para mais de 100.000 contas do Instagram que enviam milhões de mensagens todos os meses.

O Manychat é um parceiro comercial oficial da Meta [1] e está totalmente aprovado para uso pelo Instagram. Como parceiro oficial da Meta, apoiamos apenas o uso da plataforma de acordo com as diretrizes oficiais da Meta. Faz parte do espírito da nossa equipe criar produtos que nossos clientes amem e resolver os problemas que são mais importantes para você. E desde 2015, compartilhamos nossa visão coletiva de transformar a maneira como as empresas se comunicam com seus clientes.
Como parte da nossa parceria com a Meta, realizamos reuniões semanais com a equipe de produtos da Meta, focadas na inovação da plataforma e na solução de problemas. Se você tiver algum problema com a sua conta do Instagram, convidamos você a nos enviar para análise. Dessa forma, podemos encaminhá-los ao Meta e ajudar a facilitar a resolução em nome dos nossos clientes.

Para relatar um problema com sua conta, crie um tíquete de suporte e descreva seu problema em detalhes. Assim que tivermos essas informações, levantaremos esse problema com o Meta para garantir que você aproveite ao máximo a Automação de DM do Instagram.

Vamos continuar a construir juntos o futuro da comunicação com o cliente.

Obrigado,
Time Manychat

[1] O Instagram é propriedade da Meta (anteriormente designada Facebook)

The post O Manychat é oficialmente aprovado pelo Instagram? appeared first on Manychat Blog.

Ads that Click to Subscribe are the new and effective way for brands to build a loyal audience, capture leads, and drive sales!

Ads that Click to Subscribe are shown in the Facebook and Instagram feeds and are the easiest way for your audience to subscribe to your Messenger Lists in Manychat.

Here’s what they look like:

What are Ads That Click to Subscribe?

Ads that Click to Subscribe are shown in Messenger and Instagram Feeds but are only available for driving opt-ins to marketing messages on Messenger and are in an open Beta.

Ads that Click to Subscribe pair with your Messenger List on Manychat, so you can instantly obtain consent to re-engage every single subscriber who opts in.

When paired with Manychat Messenger Lists, Ads that Click to Subscribe are your shortcut to:

• Building a database for marketing purposes
• Sending marketing messages to your target audience 
• Re-engaging with your customers to drive more sales

Best of all, your leads will land directly on the opt-in message to easily capture more subscribers.

What is a Messenger List?

Formerly called Recurring Notifications, Messenger Lists are a smart and cost-effective way to communicate with your subscribers on Manychat after the initial 24 hours have passed.

Ads that Click to Subscribe are paired with Manychat Messenger Lists, which are the official way you obtain your subscribers’ permission to broadcast to them on a daily basis – directly in Messenger.

How do Ads that Click to Subscribe work?

Here’s how they work:

1. Create your Messenger List topic in Manychat (you’ll need it to connect it to Ads that Click to Subscribe in Ads Manager).
2. Next, you’ll set up Ads that Click to Subscribe in Ads Manager. These ads will appear on the Facebook and Instagram newsfeed.
3. When your audience clicks on the ad, they’ll be asked to subscribe to your Messenger List updates.

With Ads that Click to Subscribe, the ad, opt-in message, and opt-in confirmation are shown within the Facebook and Instagram apps. Your follow-up Messenger List updates are sent in Messenger.

What’s the difference between Ads that Click to Message and Ads that Click to Subscribe?

Unlike Ads that Click to Message, Ads that Click to Subscribe show the Messenger List opt-in invitation immediately after your audience clicks on the ad, streamlining the user journey and emphasizing the opt-in invitation. 

Ads that Click to Subscribe are also optimized for opt-ins, reaching people who are more likely to opt-in and delivering a more cost-effective solution for brands.

Build a high-quality audience, re-engage with your customers, and drive sales with Ads that Click to Subscribe and Manychat. Try it today.

Check out:
How to broadcast with Facebook Messenger

Ready to get started?

The post Introducing Ads that Click to Subscribe: The new way to capture and re-engage subscribers! appeared first on Manychat Blog.

One of the most frequently asked questions that we get is: “Is Manychat officially approved by Instagram? Will my account get banned because I’m using automation and chatbots?”

We are happy to say that you are safe.

Manychat is the largest Instagram DM Automation platform in the world, powering meaningful conversations for more than 100,000 Instagram accounts sending millions of messages every month.

Manychat is an official Meta Business Partner [1] and is fully approved for use by Instagram. As an official Meta partner, we only support the use of the platform in ways that are in full compliance with the official Meta guidelines.

Part of our team ethos is to build products that you – our customers – love, and solve the problems that matter most to you. And since 2015, you’ve shared in our collective vision to transform how businesses communicate with their customers.

As a part of our partnership with Meta we have weekly meetings with Meta’s product team which focus on platform innovation and issue resolution. If you encounter any issues with your Instagram account, we invite you to send them to us for review. This way, we can present them to Meta and help facilitate resolution on behalf of our customers.

In order to report an issue with your account, please create a support ticket and describe your issue in detail. Once we have this information, we’ll raise this issue with Meta to ensure you get the most out of Instagram DM Automation.

Let’s continue building the future of customer communication together.

Thank you,
Manychat team

[1] Instagram is owned by Meta (formerly named Facebook).

The post Is Manychat officially approved by Instagram? appeared first on Manychat Blog.

It’s a place to store your best content and make it easy for your audience to find what they need. Especially because it sits right at the top of your profile, making it one of the first things your audience sees. 

As a more permanent and accessible way for your audience to navigate your content, your Instagram Highlights has lots of potential. In this guide, we’ll walk through everything from using Highlights to adding and deleting content from your Stories. We’ll also walk through a few ideas you can use for inspiration. 

What are Instagram Highlights?

Instagram Highlights are the circular links you encounter at the top of every Instagram profile right under your bio. It’s a way to categorize and store any Stories, images, or videos you want to keep beyond a 24-hour lifespan. 

Not only is the Highlights area prime real estate to showcase the best your brand has to offer, but it’s also a great way to tell your brand’s story with plenty of images, videos, stickers, and links. 

Plus, there’s no limit to how many Instagram Highlights you can create, and you can title each of them by theme or category. Instagram also allows you to add covers to each of your Highlights. 

How to use Instagram Story Highlights

How to create a Highlight on Instagram

Creating a Highlight for your Instagram profile is easy. First, you’ll want to:

1. Navigate to your profile page and tap the + icon
2. Click on the Stories you want to add to your Highlights 
3. Tap Next and add a cover (optional)
4. Name your Highlight
5. Click on Add in the top right so it’s added to your profile

How to add new Stories to a Highlight

Say you’ve posted a new story and you want to add it to one of your Highlights. First, you’ll want to:

1. Navigate to your Instagram Stories
2. Find the frame you want to add to your Highlights
3. Tap on Highlight on the bottom right menu
4. Either add your frame to an existing Highlight or create a new one

How to add a custom cover to Instagram Highlights

Custom covers are a great way to keep your Instagram profile on brand. You might have noticed some brands have created covers with icons, cohesive images, or an aesthetic color scheme. 

Much like creating a Highlight from your profile or your Stories, adding covers is a similar process. 

Here’s how to create Instagram Highlight covers:

1. Either navigate to your Stories and click on Highlights on the bottom right menu of the frame you want to add, or create a new Highlight from your profile picture by tapping the + icon
2. Select the content you want to add
3. Click on Edit cover to add your custom cover
4. Tap Add to post it to your profile

How to delete an Instagram Highlight 

To delete an Instagram Highlight:

1. Navigate to your profile page
2. Find the Highlight you want to delete then tap it and hold
3. Tap Delete Highlight

How to delete a Story from your Instagram Highlights

To delete a Story from an Instagram Highlights simply:

1. Navigate to your profile
2. Find the Highlight that contains the frame you want to delete
3. Tap the three-dot icon labeled More at the bottom right of your frame
4. Click on Remove from Highlight then click Remove

What to use Highlights for

You can think of Highlights as a convenient way to save some of your best Stories. But there’s so much more you can leverage the Instagram feature for. Here are a few ideas, with examples to inspire your own Highlights content strategy: 

Add content with affiliate links. Highlights are a great place to keep your affiliate links. Especially if you’re constantly getting DMs asking about the products in your posts and videos, Highlights can be the place where you direct your audience when they want to make a purchase. Creator @caraloren’s highlights include categories like “Mirror links” and “TOP LINKS” to let her audience know where they can find her most requested product links. 

Create a highlight telling your story. Use Highlights to tell your brand’s story. How did your product come to life? What’s your latest collection? Who are the founders behind your brand? Using storytelling as a way to sell your products and ideas to your audience is a great way to connect and build trust with them. Dedicating a Highlight to your Story is a perfect way to do that. 

Save the most sought after questions. Any recurring questions you get should be given their own highlight too. Think of it as a Q&A highlight that you can point your audience to from your Stories, posts, or videos.

Keep a record of your best Instagram takeovers. Reuse any Instagram takeover content you generate by posting it to your Highlights as you create it. Don’t be afraid to draw inspiration from brands like @girlboss. 

Highlight your team. Let your followers in on who is who behind your brand. Grow that “know, like, and trust” factor essential to any brand’s success by creating a Highlight shining a light on your team. Nail polish brand @cirquecolors does a great job of this with its “OUR TEAM” category. 

Create a “sales” Highlight. Make one of your first Highlights a place to post all your latest sales. This makes it easier for your audience to find your product and make a purchase if they’ve been waiting on a sale. If you post on your Stories about it, you can also point your audience to your Highlights. 

Create a quiz. Did you know you can create a quiz and add it to your Highlights? @mybff did exactly that with its Knowledge Highlight. Consider doing the same with your brand as a fun way to add value to your followers. 

Highlight your behind-the-scenes process. Sometimes your audience wants to know how your product comes together. Plus, it’s yet another way to tell your brand’s story without having to think of the perfect way to do it. Just put together some behind-the-scenes footage in a highlight, like in this example from @theartfulgrimmer:

Create a Highlight for testimonials. Getting endorsed by previous customers builds credibility and helps you grow sales. Showcase your best testimonials so your followers can easily access them and learn more about what you offer. 

Grow your audience with Instagram

No doubt Instagram is one of the best platforms to build and nurture an audience. That’s why it pays off to get familiar with everything you can do on the platform to grow an audience.

Hopefully, this guide shed some light on the ins and outs of leveraging Instagram Highlights to, well, highlight the best your brand has to offer. As a business or creator with an Instagram presence, don’t ignore Highlights as a mighty part of your overall Instagram marketing strategy.

Impress your audience and grow your Instagram account with ManyChat’s suite of Automation tools

Start for free today

The post What are Instagram Highlights? (+ How to Use Them) appeared first on Manychat Blog.

There are several ways to acquire clients from Instagram, but they don’t all work for a hyper-local audience. Furthermore, you often need to tailor the tactics that do work so you target only the customers who can actually use your service or visit your store.

This guide will take a deep dive into how to find local customers on Instagram. We’ll share some of our top tactics for building your presence with those audiences closest to you, so you can convert those followers into customers.

11 ways to find local customers on Instagram

To save you the hard work, we’ve put together a list of the best ways to find local customers on Instagram. Here’s how to do it:

1. Optimize your Instagram bio
2. Create tailored Instagram highlights
3. Tag your location
4. Engage with people who have tagged your location
5. Work with local influencers
6. Partner with other local businesses
7. Run a collection-only giveaway
8. Use with local hashtags
9. Share content from local creators and businesses
10. Sponsor or partner with a local event
11. Host an Instagram takeover

1. Optimize your Instagram bio

Your Instagram bio is one of the best places to share who you are, what you stand for, and what you sell. Consider it your virtual store window on the platform—a place that most people will look if they’re curious about you. It should explain what you sell, who you are, and position you perfectly for your local audience.

Make your Instagram business profile more attractive to a local audience by:

• Including your location within your bio description
• Adding your address to your Instagram profile—people can then click this to open up a map
• Adding your local phone number to your Instagram bio
• Mentioning where people can pick up their order

For inspiration, take a look at Tiny Paper Co’s Instagram bio. It displays the store address, phone number, and pick-up options—catering to the 30% of people who’ve used some form of buy online, pick up in-store fulfillment option over the past two years.

Optimizing your bio isn’t only useful for social media platform users; it’s also a great Instagram SEO hack. With these location hints in your profile, it’s easier for the algorithm to figure out that you’re relevant to a local audience—and therefore, show your content to people nearby (saving you from having to invest in ads).

2. Create tailored Instagram highlights

When someone lands on your Instagram profile, there are a few things they’ll notice straight away: your bio, your feed images, and your Story Highlights—the latter of which is an often overlooked feature that takes up a prime spot in your profile.

Think of your highlights section as a lookbook for your potential local customers to browse through. They can see examples of what you offer, customer testimonials, and lifestyle imagery that relates to the place you call home.

Not sure what to create highlights about? Consider your content strategy and what your audience comes to your page to see. Then think of a handful of categories you could turn into Instagram Stories Highlights, such as:

• What’s in store this week
• Local festivals and events
• Customer testimonials and reviews
• Location guides for your local area

As you share Stories, add any that are relevant to your highlights. You’ll soon have an always-visible collection of your best content. Chicago Explore, for example, breaks down its Instagram Story Highlights into activities its followers would enjoy grouped together by areas of the city.

3. Tag your location

Your Instagram bio isn’t the only place to share your store’s location. Instagram’s geotag feature is one of the best ways to discover and engage with a local audience. It allows you to find people based on their location, and makes it easier for people to find you, too.

“For every post you put out there on Instagram, use a geotag. This is the specific physical location of your business derived from your mobile phone,” says Ravi Davda, CEO of Rockstar Marketing. “If you want to build a local audience on Instagram, geotags are the way forward.”

Here’s how to use Instagram geotags to your advantage:

• Find posts to comment on and engage with
• Discover local content creators and influencers
• Encourage people to share user-generated content by tagging your location
• Add a geotag in your audience’s location—this is great if you want to target people in key cities before they visit for a vacation

Add these tactics to your local marketing strategy to acquire more Instagram followers in your local area. Combine them with other methods—like increased engagement with followers and giveaways—to drive customer growth.

4. Engage with people who have tagged your location

Find new local customers through the ones you already have. Make it a priority to seek out people who have tagged your location and engage with their content. If you make them feel special, they’re more likely to recommend you to others.

Be intentional with your engagement and try to avoid coming across as spammy. Your goal is to appreciate the Instagram user’s content in a natural way so they feel appreciated and valued. Avoid anything that might come off weird, like following all their friends or commenting on everything they post. Instead:

• Like their post
• Interact with their Instagram Story, if they’ve posted one
• Comment on their post with something relevant and upbeat
• Introduce them to your brand ambassador program, if you have one
• Repost their Instagram Stories to your own profile with a thank you note

These simple steps only take a few minutes, but can help you build long-term relationships with local customers. Dedicate some time in your week to seeking these people out and engaging with them to grow your community naturally.

Pro Tip: Want a more efficient way to engage with Instagram followers? The Story Mentions Trigger feature inside Instagram Automation by ManyChat automatically thanks people for tagging your account in their own Story.

5. Work with local influencers

The social media influencer industry is now worth a whopping $16.4 billion. It presents a growing opportunity for businesses that want to leverage influencers’ clout. 

Working with local influencers is a powerful way to reinforce your presence in the community and reach a relevant audience. Noelle Downing, for example, got a free stay at The Plaza Hotel through a paid partnership with Amazon Prime Video. Noelle shared a photo to her Instagram account and geotagged the location it was taken at to bring attention to the two brands involved: 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Noelle Downing (@noelledowning)

Not sure how to engage with local influencers? Take a look at these fun ideas for collaborative Instagram content:

• Host an influencer and press event to launch a new product, experience, service, or menu
• Shoot a lifestyle campaign together to cross-promote on your Instagram pages
• Ask the influencer to co-host an event with you, such as a masterclass at your store
• Partner on a sponsored contest in which you give away products created by local brands 
• Ask the influencer to style and showcase your product at key local landmarks
• Partner on a mini city guide

There’s a real art to doing influencer marketing right. Come up with a strategy that suits your business, then find and approach local influencers about a collaboration. Work together to come up with a concept that works for you both, then engage throughout to see the best results.

6. Partner with other local businesses

Influencers aren’t the only people you should be collaborating with when attracting local customers on Instagram. Explore partnerships with other nearby businesses to create amazing opportunities for you both to grow. 

Sweetride Bake Shop, for example, tagged three other local businesses in its recent Instagram post. There’s a good chance that these brands will repost the content to their own profiles, increasing brand awareness for each company in the group. 

Partnering with local businesses is a winning opportunity for everyone. Each party gets exposure to a slightly different audience and the opportunity to pick up some new customers. Your audiences also get to learn about another small business to spend money with. This creates a positive ripple effect through your community.

7. Run a collection-only giveaway

Giveaways are a powerful way to grow your audience on Instagram. They help you grow your following, increase engagement, and raise brand awareness with the right people. 

Tailor this Instagram hack for a local audience by making your giveaway collection-only—like Colone Saab, which hosted a contest to give a free Mother’s Day meal to one of its nearby Instagram followers.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Colonel Saab (@colonelsaab)

Want to help your giveaway reach a more specific audience? Here’s how to produce an Instagram contest that reaches the right people:

• Specify that the prize must be collected in person
• Offer a prize that’s only available locally—like tickets to a festival, concert, or show
• Ask a local influencer with a relevant audience to promote the giveaway
• Run Instagram ads promoting your giveaway to a local geographic audience
• Ask people to head to your store to earn a bonus entry

There’s no way to stop people outside your target area from entering your giveaway, but these tips should help you reach a more relevant audience. Once you’ve run one successful giveaway, you can repeat the process again in the future. Change the prize and wording to keep it fresh.

8. Engage with local hashtags

We all know that using Instagram hashtags is a great way to expand your reach and expose your content to others. However, they’re also a valuable source of content that you can engage with for a bonus way to raise awareness of your brand.

Try these tactics to engage with local content in relevant hashtags:

• Like someone’s post within the hashtag community
• Ask if you can re-share someone’s post in a hashtag round-up
• Leave a comment with a question to start a conversation
• Visit someone’s profile and like their latest post

The key with hashtag engagement is to find the right ones. Take a look at influencers and businesses around you, see which specific hashtags they use, and make a master list. This can be your go-to place to look for relevant content and accounts to build relationships with.

9. Support other local creators and businesses

Your Instagram account doesn’t exist on an island. You’re surrounded by multiple amazing creators and businesses that also have a presence on the platform. Embrace that community spirit and support the businesses around you by:

• Liking and commenting on their Instagram posts
• Re-sharing local followers’ content to your own Stories
• Tagging the business when responding to someone looking for a recommendation
• Working with local influencers and paying them a fair rate

If you’re generous about sharing other people’s content and recommending local businesses, people will soon start to return the favor. Not only will you get introduced to new audiences, you’ll be known for your warm attitude toward business and community.

10. Partner with or sponsor a local event

Most communities have annual events that attract a crowd and create a genuine feel-good atmosphere. A great way to build your presence in the local area is to get involved with one of these popular or trending events and promote it on Instagram, like this post from LCB Festival:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by London Craft Beer Festival (@lcbfestival)

Try these ideas to support local events:

• Buy a sponsorship or exhibition package
• Host a VIP, demo, or networking area at the event
• Provide your products at a discount to feature in goody bags
• Recommend your favorite suppliers and vendors
• Offer to share your knowledge or expertise—e.g., email marketing or digital marketing
• Host a giveaway for event tickets
• Run a special promotional offer to celebrate the event

Not all these ideas translate directly  to your Instagram content, but being active in your local events scene helps show that you care. 

Research shows that 58% of brands think their customers are more loyal because of the branded community they’re a part of. While building a community presence might not result in immediate sales, people who share similar values to your brand will have your products top-of-mind next time they need something. 

11. Host an Instagram takeover

We’ve talked about how partnering with businesses and influencers can help attract local customers. Take this a step further and create a real buzz of activity by hosting an Instagram takeover.

An Instagram takeover is when someone “takes over” your account for the day—either live or by providing the content in advance. They call the shots (within reason!) when it comes to content, sharing Instagram Stories and engaging with your business’s audience through comments and live video. Here’s an example from The Vinyl:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by THE VINYL (@thevinyl)

Successful Instagram takeovers benefit everyone involved. Results can include a boost in followers, engagement, and other key metrics, depending on your goals and collaboration. 

Expose your business to a local audience on Instagram

The best Instagram local marketing strategy is the one that works for your business. Explore the tactics above, experiment with a few, and use them as a guide to help you build a powerful playbook you can use on repeat.

When you’re ready to jump in with your new Instagram local marketing strategy, add ManyChat to help you get even better results. Combine your personal comments with ManyChat’s Instagram DM features to deliver engagement at scale.

The post How to Find Local Customers on Instagram: 11 Techniques to Try appeared first on Manychat Blog.

Only that’s not entirely true. Instagram Story Highlights allow you to save Stories to your profile page, maximizing the mileage from your content and acting as a point of reference for followers. Here’s how to use them. 

What are Instagram Story Highlights?

Instagram Story Highlights let you group Instagram Stories into themes or categories and display them on your Instagram profile permanently (conveniently avoiding the traditional 24-hour Story expiry).

When viewed, Story Highlights appear just like traditional Stories. Users can tap on the right side of the screen to skip to the next Story, left side for the previous one, and hold the screen to pause the Story.

Highlights appear on your Instagram profile page, providing an additional opportunity to express your brand’s identity and personality. Businesses can use them to save and curate Instagram Story content, continually presenting them to followers browsing an account’s profile page. Check out ManyChat’s Instagram profile for a great example:

What are the benefits of Story Highlights?

Instagram Stories are a powerful way to build relationships with your target audience, engage with customers and drive sales. In fact, a massive 500 million Instagram users view Stories every day, with a quarter of Gen Z and Millennials relying on them to discover products and services.

Story Highlights, in particular, offer several benefits for both users and business:

• People who missed your initial Story can view the content after 24 hours.
• Followers can revisit content they’ve enjoyed, increasing follower engagement.
• Story Highlights contribute to your Instagram brand identity and profile aesthetic.
• They act as a point of reference for customers, delivering need-to-know information without forcing them off the Instagram app.

How to take advantage of Instagram Story Highlights

Instagram Story Highlights are relatively simple to set up. If you’re already using Stories as part of your strategy (as you should be!), just a few more taps saves the content to your profile.

1. Create great Stories

The first step for creating an Instagram Story Highlight is to have a Story worth saving. To achieve that, focus on crafting engaging content that captivates your audience. Try to build a Story that’s:

• Engaging
• Helpful to your target audience
• Relevant to your users’ needs
• Visually appealing
• Shareable
• Capable of generating a response

Fashion brand TALA, for example, uses Instagram Stories to showcase how its products are sustainable. Each snippet of content is compiled in a Story Highlight titled “sustainability,” resulting in a place climate-conscious followers can learn more about how TALA products help the environment.

2. Save your Instagram Story to a Highlight

To save an Instagram Story to a Highlight:

1. Open the Story on your smartphone.
2. Tap the Highlight button at the bottom of the screen.
3. Choose the Highlight you want to save the Story to—either a new or existing one. 
4. Hit Save and preview the new Highlight on your Instagram profile. 

3. Add an archived Story to your Highlights

It’s not just new Stories you can add to your Story Highlights. If your account is already set up to automatically archive Stories, open your Instagram settings and press Archive. 

Alternatively, head to your Instagram profile and hold down the cover of the Highlight you want to add to. Select Edit Highlight and navigate to the Stories tab. This will bring up all of your archived Stories, which you can add to your Highlight using the same button.

4. Categorize your Highlights

Categorizing your Story Highlights enables users to quickly navigate to the content they want to see. Try breaking down your Stories into categories like:

• FAQs
• Tips and tricks
• Product information
• Instagram livestreams, webinars, or events
• Sales and special offers
• Influencer takeovers
• Behind-the-scenes content
• User-generated content

Mindvalley, for example, groups its Story Highlights into five clear categories: Stories, Podcasts, Membership, Coming Soon, and YouTube. Followers know exactly what to expect when they scroll through each Highlight.

5. Create engaging covers for your Highlights

By default, each Highlight on your Instagram profile will have a thumbnail. Instagram automatically generates it from one of the Stories in your Highlight collection. 

To change this cover:

1. Click the Story Highlight you want to customize.
2. Choose Edit highlight.
3. Select Edit cover. 
4. Choose an image from any of the Stories in your Highlights, or a photo from your gallery.

To keep this section of an Instagram profile on-brand and engaging, many businesses choose to create bespoke cover images for their Story Highlights. If you’re using an Instagram grid theme, for example, create custom Story Highlights to keep things consistent.

For inspiration, take a look at how fashion retailer New Look uses blocks of color and simple iconography to create engaging Highlight covers:

If you have access to a graphic designer, great! But if you’re a one-person band or your budget won’t cover external help, don’t worry—you can still create some professional looking covers for your Highlights.

Canva has premade Instagram Story Highlight cover templates. Each is ready to go and sized correctly, meaning even inexperienced designers can pull something appealing together quickly.

6. Keep your Highlights well maintained

As your Instagram marketing strategy evolves over time, you may need to make updates to your Highlights—like deleting either the entire Highlight or a saved Story within one. The last thing you want is to show new followers outdated content that’s no longer relevant. 

Delete a Highlight

To delete an entire Highlight:

1. Go to your Instagram profile page.
2. Click the Highlight you want to edit.
3. Click Delete highlight.
4. Press Confirm.

Remove a Story from a Highlight

Whether a special offer has expired or your service offering has changed, it’s easy to delete Instagram Stories from a saved Highlight:

1. Go to your Instagram profile page.
2. Click the Highlight your Story is saved under.
3. Skip through to the Story you want to delete.
4. Select More.
5. Choose Remove highlight.
6. Press Confirm. 

7. Use Automation to capture DMs from saved Stories

As you begin saving Stories to your Instagram profile, you’ll begin to notice an uplift in the number of direct messages (DMs) you receive. That’s because 50% of all user-to-business messaging happens off the back of Instagram Stories. 

Don’t have time to respond to each follower individually? Instead of forcing people to wait for a response (or worse, ignoring them altogether), leverage Instagram Automation. It ensures each user receives a personalized, immediate response to their query that will push them further down the sales funnel—especially if you’re heavily promoting products through Stories. 

For example, you can:

• Use Conversation Starters to ease the pressure of writing individual DMs.
• Configure Keyword triggers that send an automated message based on the context of the DM.
• Set up a Story Mention Trigger to automatically thank people who tag your business’ account in their own Story. 

Level up your Instagram strategy with Story Highlights

There’s no denying that Instagram Stories are an essential element of any Instagram strategy. Regrettably, their short-lived nature means that producing Story assets may seem like a lot of effort for a scant 24 hours of attention. 

With Instagram Story Highlights, however, you can retain your best performing and most engaging content, re-using and re-sharing it on your profile to reach more followers.

Capture users who initiate DMs via Instagram Stories with ManyChat Automation

The post Instagram Story Highlights: How to Create, Save, and Customize Highlights to Boost Engagement appeared first on Manychat Blog.

While competitors might sound intimidating, healthy competition is a good thing; it keeps you from becoming complacent. Snooping on your competitors’ Instagram marketing strategy gives you ideas for improving your own. This guide will explain how to do it. 

What is an Instagram competitor?

An Instagram competitor is an Instagram account that shares the same or similar audience with your business, or that appeals to your target audience.

We can group them into three main categories:

1. Direct competitors: Other businesses selling the same products or services, and/or operating in the same locations as you.
2. Indirect competitors: Other business accounts selling services or products people can use instead of yours.
3. Influencers and key opinion leaders: Non-business users posting content related to your industry or area of expertise.

Each type of competitor is important to consider in your Instagram marketing strategy. They’re creating content that’s relevant to your target audience—an audience whose attention you’re fighting for.

Why do Instagram competitors matter?

It’s always helpful to have insight into what your competitors are doing as part of their marketing and sales strategies, whether on social media or other channels.. Being able to understand who your Instagram competitors are and what they’re posting can be valuable to your business for a number of reasons. For example, you can:

• Get inspired by their content: What are competitors sharing with their Instagram followers? Is it something you can use as inspiration for your own content strategy? Snooping on competitor pages can help you build a list of ideas for future reference, which you can draw upon when you need some new content for your social media calendar.
• See what their audience likes: Reviewing your competitors’ accounts allows you to observe which types of posts tend to generate the best reactions. Are they using video content or Instagram Reels that get lots of likes? Do they post quotes or questions that their followers respond to via comments? 
• Discover accounts to follow: If your competition regularly interacts and builds relationships with other Instagram accounts, you might be missing out on potential partnerships or collaborations you too can leverage.
• Identify which hashtags to use: Many of the hashtags your competitors use will be related to your business or niche, meaning your target audience will search them or follow them. Bring these hashtags into your own Instagram strategy to reach the same users.
• Uncover trending topics: You’ll get insight into trending topics by regularly analyzing competitor’s Instagram accounts. With this intel, you can also start creating content on them in a timely manner and become an industry leader in your space.

It’s not all about what they’re doing well; conducting an Instagram competitive analysis also helps you to understand what you can do better than your competition. For example:

• Do they post at the same time each day? Do some analysis into your audience behavior to find the best time to post (e.g., when they’re most active).
• Do they take advantage of all the content types Instagram offers? Try Reels, Stories and carousel posts for greater impact.
• Are they unresponsive to comments? Make sure you respond to each comment, automating the process with ManyChat’s Instagram Automation.

How to find (and beat) competitors on Instagram 

Although you’ll usually have a good idea who your main competitors are, there’s a chance that some may have slipped under the radar and may be surpassing you on Instagram. 

Here are six smart ways to find—and more importantly, beat—your Instagram competitors.

1. Do a keyword search on Instagram
2. Survey your audience
3. Monitor industry hashtags
4. Find influencers your competitors collaborate with
5. Create better content than your competitors’ 
6. Trial paid ads 

1. Do a keyword search on Instagram

One of the best places to start when finding your competitors is by simply searching Instagram for keywords related to your business and industry. 

Head to the Explore page and type your chosen keyword in the box at the top. Filter your search by account to see a list of accounts that mention your keyword in their name or bio. This list will include relevant competitors in your space:

2. Survey your audience

Your existing customers and followers are a great source of information. Use them to your advantage by asking them directly who they see as your competition. For example, you could:

• Ask your website visitors using a pop-up survey
• Run a focus group with loyal customers
• Use Instagram Automation to DM followers a question such as, “Which brands do you follow or admire?”

3. Monitor industry hashtags

Discover your competitors by learning which business accounts post about topics that are relevant to your industry. Do this almost on autopilot by following hashtags related to your products, services, or niche. You’ll then see these posts in your feed—including competitors’ content.

Similarly, use the Explore feature to search for keywords in your industry. Navigate to the tags tab for a list of related hashtags to browse and follow. Popular posts—such as those tagged by influencers—appear first:

To help inform your strategy going forward, follow relevant industry hashtags and monitor which business accounts are using them. Make a note of the formats they’re sharing, testing similar styles as part of your content strategy. 

4. Find influencers your competitors collaborate with 

Partnering with influencers is a great way to expand your business’s reach and sales on Instagram. In fact, it’s the most popular tactic for marketers, 79% of whom work with influencers.

While browsing a competitor’s Instagram profile, keep a note of the influencers they’re collaborating with. Either approach those influencers to work with you, or find similar influencers (in terms of profile theme, engagement, and following) to work with you instead.

Clothing retailers, for example, might consider Primark their competition. In that case, add influencers like Yolande Macnon, Laura Dams, and Macy Fancy (or other accounts with similar audiences) to your influencer collaboration shortlist. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Macy | Minimalist creator (@macyfancy)

5. Create superior content (that’s better than your competitors’)

It’s one thing to know what your competitors are doing, but another to use that information effectively. To make your research worthwhile, use the insights you gain to create Instagram content that your audience will love.

Use your competitors as a source of inspiration, but don’t forget to leave your own creative stamp on your content. That could mean:

• Experimenting with different content formats
• Testing which types of content your audience engages with
• Partnering with industry influencers to amplify your brand awareness

6. Trial paid ads to steal your competitors’ audiences

Once you know more about your audience and your competitors, try running some paid ads on Instagram (if your budget allows).

Target users by demographic or interest, or through Lookalike Audiences, which Instagram creates based on your existing audience. Effective targeting will ensure your content gets in front of the right audience–who may well already follow your competitors.

If they like what they see, they’ll follow you, too… and may even turn into paying customers further down the line.

Start monitoring your Instagram competitors today

Competitors are likely already spying on your business’ account. Return the favor and check out what they’re doing, using the intel to beat their content and attract your target audience’s attention. 

Just don’t directly copy them—not only is it obvious when you do so, but an accusation of plagiarism can land you in hot water. Instead, use the insights you’ve gathered during your competitive analysis to create a stronger content plan that appeals to your target audience.

Engage new followers on autopilot with Instagram Automation by ManyChat

The post Instagram Competitors: How to Find, Analyze, and Beat Your Competition appeared first on Manychat Blog.

In this case study, ManyChat will take a look into the business of one successful entrepreneur/influencer who has accomplished all of the above, while overcoming some hurdles of her own to drive sales to her business.

Overview

Monique Lombardo is in the hot seat this week for a deep dive into her businesses and her success as an Instagram influencer. Monique runs not one but two successful businesses, and both have one thing in common: ManyChat. Based in Australia, Monique operates The Socialista and Rise With Reels, two coaching and online course businesses that assist other small businesses with getting their foot in the door. In the past year, she has welcomed over 850 students to her course due to her keen business sense and some fervent use of ManyChat tools. 

The problem

Monique stated that-“The problem was too many DMs, and it was hard to manage on my own. I wanted to utilize more organic content marketing without taking my audience off the platform.” 

A lot of people constantly talk about getting started on Instagram and growing their followers, but not many have a lot to say about scaling past your comfort zone and excelling past those “good challenges,” like having too many DMs, needing to respond to too many customers, or needing to assist more people than you’re able to. This was the exact problem Monique faced within her business as she continued to grow and scale her online business. 

“The problem then became, how can I service my followers while also running my business. The answer: ManyChat.” 

The implemented strategy

“My DMs were out of control!”

Monique found that she needed a way to keep the ball rolling with her customers instead of leaving them in the dark after they had sent her a message on Instagram. 

Here’s what path to success looked like for her:

1. Set up conversation starters: To keep her a step ahead in the DM game, Monique uses conversation starters to get a quick reply back to her audience to let them know she had received their inquiry. 
2. Have the customer select what service they’re interested in: Once they confirm what service they’re after, Monique is able to point them in the right direction for the next steps. 
3. Use the common growth tools to generate leads: With the common growth tools, Monique can create posts, carousels, and Reels, and then engage comment automation to get her audience to respond and opt in for her freebies.
4. Incentivize to capture customer data and build a database: Once they opt for the freebies, Monique is then able to capture their information, (name, email, IG handle, etc.) and market her services or products to them directly. 
5. Prequalify the audience: By using the “keywords” tool, Monique is able to prequalify her audience for her course by making sure they were in need of her services before she sent them off to a course that wasn’t suited for them. 

“It just streamlines the process, makes it so much easier and faster for me, so I can get back to doing my work and knowing that my Instagram and my inquiries are being handled by Manychat.”

The results

The outcome of Monique’s strategy implementation proved to win her an outstanding amount of hot leads to both her businesses and resulted in more than 850 students joining her courses. Through ManyChat she was able to drive new customers to:

• Her email marketing campaigns
• Her masterclass
• Her customer database
• Her webinars 

When asked, this is what Monique says was the best part about this influx of new customers.

“The best thing about this is the follow-up. There are so many times with DMs you send people a link and they don’t actually follow through. What I love about ManyChat is you can create a smart delay for another message.”

By implementing the follow-up, Monique was able to recapture a large percentage of her audience that hadn’t followed through with their purchase and retarget them to complete the process. 

Key takeaways

If there’s anything to be learned from Monique, it’s how to not let your followers fall on deaf ears. Monique excelled at:

• Engaging with her audience using ManyChat
• Capturing information from them using freebies
• Following up with the clients who may have not followed through with their purchase right away

By sticking to a strategy, utilizing the many features ManyChat has to offer and not letting client data go to waste, she managed to turn her businesses into profitable and scaling entities.

The post How this influencer grew her online business with ManyChat appeared first on Manychat Blog.

Below, we’ll discuss hashtags and explore how they can help expand your brand reach. We’ll also answer more of your dire questions, like, “How many hashtags is too many?” and “What are the trending hashtags in 2022?”

Before we get going, if you are new to the ManyChat platform, visit our homepage for more information or click the button below to sign up for an Instagram-boosting experience. 

Why should you use hashtags on Instagram? 

Instagram hashtags have many benefits, the main one being increased performance. Instagram hashtags act as a search engine of sorts—they help filter content to specific niches and industries based on the tags you use. Let’s look at some other benefits of using hashtags. 

• Reach: As we mentioned above, hashtags are the powerhouse that fuel the Instagram discovery algorithm. Hashtags give you consistent reach to users who may never have before crossed paths with you and your brand. This allows for more potential followers and engagement. 

• Engagement: Speaking of engaging, according to research from Influencer Marketing Hub, brands that used at least one hashtag in their post saw on average 12.6% more engagement than those that went without.

• Branded hashtags: Instagram has openly stated that it prefers you to create brand-affiliated hashtags. They allow you to see who is participating in giveaways and promotions and referencing your brand in general. 

How can you research the right hashtags to use on Instagram? 

If you want to research the right hashtags, you need to use the Instagram app as your research tool of choice. Under the search bar, click on Tags and Instagram’s algorithm will populate numerous popular hashtags that relate to the theme of your post. It will also incorporate how many posts are linked out to that tag. 

Other ways of conducting hashtag research include:

• Surveying your customers
• Using audience insight tools
• Using Google suggested terms
• Looking at competitors and influencers

What kinds of hashtags should I use?

Brands should be focusing on hashtags that produce a return and link up with their target audience. Here are some questions to ask to filter out the good from the bad:

• Does it suit your type of content? You don’t want to be linking out to food-related hashtags if you’re talking about fashion. It defeats the purpose. 
• Does your target audience follow it? You want to be where your audience is, cut down your hashtag list to only include tags where your audience is active.
• Is the hashtag trending? Ride the wave of popularity. If you happen upon a trending hashtag that is used by your followers and your competitors, you likely need to hop onboard. 

How many hashtags should I use?

According to research, the best number of hashtags to use ranges from 9 to 12, although you will find some “experts” who suggest two to three or 11 or 30. The best course of action for you is to research your niche and test out different hashtag strategies to know what works best for your brand. 

What hashtags are trending in 2022

As for 2022 trending hashtags, we pulled a report from Influencer Marketing Hub to guide you through the top 100. 

1. #love
2. #instagood
3. #photooftheday
4. #fashion
5. #beautiful
6. #happy
7. #cute
8. #tbt
9. #like4like
10. #followme
11. #picoftheday
12. #follow
13. #me
14. #selfie
15. #summer
16. #art
17. #instadaily
18. #friends
19. #repost
20. #nature
21. #girl
22. #fun
23. #style
24. #smile
25. #food
26. #instalike
27. #likeforlike
28. #family
29. #travel
30. #fitness
31. #euro2020
32. #tagsforlikes
33. #follow4follow
34. #nofilter
35. #life
36. #beauty
37. #amazing
38. #instamood
39. #igers
40. #instagram
41. #photo
42. #music
43. #photography
44. #makeup
45. #dog
46. #beach
47. #sunset
48. #model
49. #foodporn
50. #motivation
51. #followforfollow
52. #sky
53. #lifestyle
54. #design
55. #gym
56. #f4f
57. #toofunny
58. #cat
59. #handmade
60. #hair
61. #vscocam
62. #bestoftheday
63. #vsco
64. #funny
65. #dogsofinstagram
66. #drawing
67.  #artist
68.  #f4fl
69. #flowers
70. #baby
71.  #wedding
72. #girls
73. #instapic
74. #pretty
75. #photographer
76.  #instafood
77. #party
78. #inspiration
79. #lol
80.  #cool
81. #workout
82. #likeforfollow
83. #swag
84. #fit
85. #healthy
86. #yummy
87. #blackandwhite
88.  #foodie
89. #moda
90. #home
91. #christmas
92. #black
93.  #memes
94. #winter
95. #pink
96.  #sea
97. #landscape
98.  #blue
99. #london
100. #holiday

If you would like to learn more about hashtag strategy and how to incorporate it into your Instagram marketing, check out the articles below:

• The Social Media Marketer’s Guide to Instagram Hashtags
• Instagram Hashtag Strategy: How to Find and Use Hashtags That Will Grow Your Audience

The post Trending Instagram Hashtags in 2022 appeared first on Manychat Blog.