How To Increase Instagram Engagement (DMs + Comments)
Today we’re breaking down the strategy we’ve been using to increase engagement on every single post, specifically by getting more comments and DMs to increase our ranking in the algorithm.
The best part: it’s totally automated.
How Instagram Automation Works
We’ve been using this strategy over the past few months and it’s been working amazingly well for us. Recently, Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri explained on a podcast that Instagram values Stories and DMs more than any other element of the platform, which we broke down in more detail in the video below. So while we already knew how important DMs were, it hadn’t been confirmed so concretely until now.
The automation tool that we use to generate more comments and DMs is ManyChat, which is a platform used by some of the biggest brands and creators to automate their sales process, and it’s incredibly effective. We talked about how to use ManyChat with ads in the video below, and we wanted to give you an organic version of how to use ManyChat without using ads as not everyone is ready to dive into that world just yet.
Essentially, ManyChat allows you to set up what they call “flows” where you can dictate actions, triggers, logic and subsequent actions to set up a whole stream of activity that can and will lead to your desired outcome. So for example, you may have seen how we’ve been using ManyChat on the High Season Instagram. We’d post about a topic, say the latest Instagram features and updates as that was a recent video we want to promote, and then in the caption we’d say something like “Comment ‘updates’ to get a link to our new video in your DM!” Whenever someone comments the word ‘updates’, they would automatically receive a custom DM that we personally wrote (so it sounds authentic and not automated) with the link to the YouTube video.
What this does is immediately increase the comments on your post as you’ll have folks who want to learn about your offer by commenting who otherwise wouldn’t, and then that immediately leads to a DM. You can either automate the DMs with a full flow of questions and answers, or once you’ve sent them the link that you were promoting, it can very easily turn into an organic conversation, even if you follow up after a few days to see how they went with it
How to get more people to comment and DM you
So before we get into a walkthrough of how you can use ManyChat, in order to get more DMs and comments, people need to want something from you and the best way to do that is to give them something for free. There are a few ways that you can approach this - you can link them to a video as we did in the example above, it could be a sales or landing page on your website, it could be information on a new product before it launches, it could be a discount, offer or promotion, or even a free download (which is also known as a lead magnet). Almost every business should be able to come up with a lead magnet, or a series of them, to begin to generate a warm email list that you can directly market to.
Some examples of lead magnets that we’ve done include an Instagram Reels Checklist, and Instagram Checklist which covers all aspects of the platform, and an Instagram Ads Checklist which guides people through the basics of ad creation. Think about what you can offer your audience for free, but always provide value, that will encourage people to download it and want to learn more.
How to use ManyChat
OK so it’s time for the ManyChat walkthrough, which will break down exactly how you can do this for your Instagram profile. Head over to this link and use our code HIGHSEASON for a FREE trial of ManyChat Pro, where you can take advantage of the full suite of Pro features for a month, some of which we’re going to use in the walkthrough.
You can either watch the video below and follow along for the walkthrough, or login to ManyChat and follow the instructions below:
The first page you’ll see is the Home screen. ManyChat has a series of automations and templates that are the easiest way to use the platform, and the type of automation you use all depends on what you’re looking to do. Today we’re going to set up an automation that will send a DM with a link containing whatever you choose - a freebie, a video, etc - to a user who comments a specific word on one of your posts.
Next, navigate to the icons on the left, the little DNA looking one - Automation. This is where all your Automations will live once you’ve set them up, and you can go into them and edit or adjust as needed after the fact.
So let’s set up a new automation from scratch. On the top right, hit New Flow, and it’ll bring up a box with a series of template options. Templates are the best way to use ManyChat as they’ve already set up the basic elements for each of its main uses, so you can start with a template and edit as you need. That’ll save you time and hassle figuring out exactly what you want, which is great at this point in your journey. Keep in mind that as you progress in your automation skills, you’ll be able to set up a completely custom flow to match any of your business needs. The best way to learn how it all works in the beginning is to use a template, so we’ll start there. The one we love and that we’ve been using a lot is under Popular, “DM everybody who comments to increase conversions”. Hover over it and hit Use This Template. This will take us to the the main flow of the template, including all of the steps and some tips on what you could add or do to make it more effective.
Let’s hit the first box, Starting Step, which will open up a tab on the left side with all of the elements. First you’ll want to select the post on which ManyChat will activate. The free version lets you select a specific post, but the Pro version also lets you choose the next post or even all posts. Both of those are pretty handy - for example, you could have “all posts” selected and put “Comment FREE on any post to receive our free ebook” in your bio. We love the Pro plan because we often like to use the same triggers over and over, so we use the ‘all publications’ option. For example, we promote our free Instagram Checklist and Ads Checklist very often so this allows us to never have to set up ManyChat over and over; we just do it once and it’s good to go. We just have to make sure that we use the same trigger word, for example “ads” or “checklist”. So let’s run with that option so you can see how this can work for you. Make sure you hit the toggle button to turn the trigger on!
You can exclude comments with specific keywords in them, which is a way to avoid dealing with spam, or you could exclude similar words from other ManyChat flows. For example, we have two checklists with flows, so for the Instagram one, we could exclude comments that have the word “ads” or “ad” in them so that it doesn’t trigger the wrong one.
Then you’d add in your keywords to trigger ManyChat, and for this example we’re going to promote one of our recent YouTube videos using the trigger keyword “updates”, so let’s add that in there. Note that the trigger only works if the keyword or keywords are used exactly as they’re input here. We had some issues where people were commenting “check list” with a space instead of “checklist”, so the way around that is to add both variants so it’ll work either way.
Hit Next, and it’ll take you to the section where you add in an automated comment response whenever someone comments with your trigger keyword or keywords. You can add multiple responses so it doesn’t sound too copy and paste, and ManyChat will just cycle through them. Something like “Amazing, check your DMs!” or “Just slid in your DMs with the link 😊”. Have some fun with them!
Now that that’s set up, click over on the Message box in the flow to bring up a side bar with fields for what you’re actually going to send to people via DM once they comment your keyword.
Add your message, something like “Hey! Here’s our latest YouTube video where we break down all the latest Instagram updates and features:. You can then add the YouTube URL into the button below the text box. There are a ton of options, you can add audio, images, and more, so play around a bit and see how you can make your DM as creative and unique as you can. You can also click on any of these elements in black as you type to add things like Name fields, coupon codes and more, something you can mess around with and see what works. No need to overcomplicate things though - a lot of users don’t have their actual name in their Instagram settings so it might use a totally different word depending on what they’ve put, so just keep that in mind.
The Quick Replies are kind of like a multiple choice thing that you can set up for users to engage with, and opt in once again to your offer. These can be great if it’s a more casual conversation that you’re trying to start, but it might just be easier to send them the offer since they’ve already proactively commented asking for it (in this example). It’ll also require more steps to set up which we’re not covering in this video, but it’s good to know that it’s an option for future flows.
Then once you’re all done, you can hit Set Live. If you go back to the Automation tab, you can see your new automation in the list, you can go back in and edit anything if you like, and it’ll also present the stats for your as far as how many uses it’s received.
And that’s it! This is how you can generate more comments and more DMs using automation and ManyChat. If you didn’t already, head over to this link and use our code HIGHSEASON for a FREE trial of ManyChat Pro, where you can take advantage of the full suite of Pro features for a month. Happy selling!
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