Comments Automation on Instagram and How to Apply it to Your Profile

If you’re new to using Instagram DM Automation by ManyChat, you’re probably still exploring its many capabilities. Comments Automation is one of Instagram Automation’s most impressive features—it automatically extends your engagement beyond “liking” every user comment. 

This article offers a deep dive into Comments Automation, why you should use it, and how to apply it to your Instagram profile. 

What is Comments Automation? 

Comments Automation allows you to automatically send a direct message to any user who comments on a post. This feature is a great way to get Instagram users into your ManyChat flows and CRM. Even better, you aren’t limited to sending a single message. You can trigger a flow that may have many steps involved to nurture the recipient. 

Brands can control which posts to fire automation for, which post words/phrases will trigger a response comment, and which one-off message or conversation flow to send. 

Why should I use Comments Automation?

Comments Automation has several benefits, including educed time you have to spend crafting individual responses to comments and increased engagement on Instagram. Not only will the Comments Automation feature automatically send messages to those who leave comments on your Instagram posts, but it will also put them directly into a flow you created for sales purposes (or whatever goal you have). 

Here are some additional benefits you can expect to get from it: 

Improved communication efficiency

Automating particular marketing tasks reduces the risk of human error and redundancies; it also frees up time for teams to focus on more productive work that requires real skill. 

Easier delivery of personalized content

Comments Automation makes it possible to produce a personalized experience without individual effort. You can use a specific flow for certain posts or the same flow for all posts — it’s up to you. 

For example, you may set up a generic “Thank you” message flow for all of your Instagram posts, but have a “Congratulations, you’ve been entered in our giveaway!” flow for a specific giveaway post. 

Better customer experience

With Comments Automation, you can send relevant messages at the right time and delight your customers. David Gonzalez, founder of Astral Restaurant Systems, used the feature’s randomizer to do split tests, which is one way to see what messages best resonate with your followers. 

Using the randomizer helps you create more of these interactions and do away with whatever isn’t working. The outcome? Optimized and improved bot performance over time. 

Implementing a randomizer within your flow is simple: just double-tap or right-click anywhere in the flow’s background and choose the needed block. 

Improved scalability

You can’t reasonably grow a business relying on manual processes alone. Comments Automation takes a tiresome task off your plate while amplifying your efforts on Instagram. 

How to apply Comments Automation to your profile 

You can set up Comments Automation in two ways. If you’re starting from Growth Tools within the Dashboard, click New Growth Tool, scroll to the bottom, and click Instagram Comments. Then you can set up the flow. (A flow is ManyChat’s message sequence you’ll send your customers into when they enter your Instagram DMs.)

If you already have a flow you want to use, you can set up Comments Automation from the flow itself. The Instagram Comment then serves as the starting step for the flow, and you can create a giveaway or another flow from there. 

Comments Automation best practices 

Once you have Comments Automation set up, there are some things you can do to get the most out of the feature. Keep in mind that in order for the feature to trigger, someone has to leave a comment on one of your Instagram posts. Their comment will prompt the automation to send the user a DM, sending them into your flow. 

Follow these pro tips to get the most out of Comments Automation:

Encourage comments

We recommend encouraging users to comment on your post to get them into your flow. For example, if you’re hosting a giveaway, your caption can say, “To enter the giveaway, tell us your favorite food in the comments!” Anyone who leaves a comment will automatically get an entry into your giveaway and enter your flow. 

Get specific

Don’t forget: you have the option to apply a specific flow to individual posts or all your posts. For example, you may set up a generic “Thank you” message flow for all of your Instagram posts, but have a “Congratulations, you’re entered in our giveaway!” flow that only activates on a particular giveaway post.

Choose triggers

You can choose words or phrases that will (or will not) trigger Comments Automation. For example, you could set the Comments Automation to trigger anytime someone leaves a comment that includes the word “love.” So, if someone comments, “I love your brand!” the flow would automatically send them a direct message with a predetermined phrase, such as “Thank you so much! We love our customers too <3.”  

You can also set up a word or a phrase that will not trigger an automatic message. So, even if you set your flow to be a part of every Instagram post, you can determine words or phrases that you don’t want to respond to automatically. 

For example, maybe you don’t want to enter someone into your flow if they comment on your post with something spammy or inappropriate. Of course, these types of phrases may be different depending on the industry, so take them on a case by case basis. 

Let’s say you set your Comments Automation to trigger on every Instagram post except for when a comment contains the word “free” or the phrase “follow me.” You can set those parameters and edit them at any time to ensure the users who end up in your flow are the ones who should be there. 

We’re so excited to see how you use Comments Automation! Please mention the @manychat Instagram account if you want to share your results. 

Check out our video course to learn more about using Instagram DM Automation, or go to our Facebook community to learn more about the many creative ways people use this convenient feature.

Get started with Instagram DM Automation by ManyChat!