Instagram chatbot is a hot topic in conversation among marketers and entrepreneurs.
What could be the possible reason for it? Do you have any idea? If not, stay tuned to this article to get deeper insights.
Here is what it covers-
- What are Instagram Chatbots?
- How to Put a Chatbot on Instagram?
- Why Should You Use an Instagram Chatbot?
Instagram’s ever-increasing growth and unwavering introduction of new features have made it a driving force for brands. Instagram till 2020 holds 800M users, and it is majorly used for 1:1 conversational purposes; with the introduction of stories, the Instagram users are more engaged with that feature.
Let’s start!
What are Instagram Chatbots?
Instagram chatbots help brands to provide a more personalized experience to customers by providing instant replies to their queries and increased customer engagement.
Let’s know how Instagram chatbots can help brands.
Consider an example-
Suppose a user scrolled its newsfeed and encountered a post from its preferred brands. He/she can directly chat with them using the let’s chat option to know the details of that particular product or service instead of just liking and commenting and waiting for a reply. Having a rich conversation can re-engage users with brands and optimize for personalization.
How to Put a Chatbot on Instagram?
Previously, Instagram didn’t have an official API, so it is impossible to create a chatbot on the Instagram platform.
So you might have got a question about how companies are used to build chatbots on Instagram profiles?
Probably they used to do some automation on their server. That is, breaking the rules of Instagram. And there used to be more chances of getting banned from Instagram.
So How Did they Used to Create a Chatbot on Instagram?
Most probably, they used to perform this operation by connecting to a Facebook Messenger chatbot on Instagram.
To start with this process, you need to first create a Facebook messenger chatbot. You can make this using any of this chatbot software like- SmatBot, ManyChat, Chatfuel, and others.
Once you have done with creating a Facebook messenger chatbot, you can connect it with Instagram. You can do it in these ways:
- Using Click-to-Messenger Ads in Instagram
- Share a Link in Your Instagram Bio
- Using any Instagram Autoresponder Software
1. Using Click-to-Messenger Ads in Instagram
Go to Facebook Ads Manager and click on Create to create a new campaign.
Then select campaign objectives as Conversions.
Once done, you need to ensure the destination of your ad is set to Messenger.
Here you can set to show the message inside Instagram only. You can perform this by setting the placements to “Manual placements” and choosing the particular placements you want.
After that, at the “Message Template” section, select “Start Conversations” and click on “Create”:
Finally, now you can decide on the type of message the user can see inside Messenger. You can select any content format like- text, audio, video, or image in it. Next, you can set the ‘user actions’ to ‘buttons.’
At last, you are required to fill in the Bot Payload. It is needed to link your Instagram Ad with your chatbot.
The way you can use bot payload differs from one chatbot software to another. In some bot payload, you must fill in a particular custom flow, while with others, you can set up your entire ad inside the software itself. Refer to this.
2. Share a link in your Instagram bio.
It’s effortless compared to the above process. You will get a Ref URL from most chatbot software like Manychat, SmatBot, and other software.
You can directly use that link in your Instagram profile bio, or you can take the short form of the link using Bitly software and use it in your bio. As shown below. Even you have link edit option in Bitly to easily identify its purpose.
You’re done! Whenever Instagram users click on this link, they will be redirected to your Facebook messenger chatbot.
Even you can use the Instagram quick reply option to share your link with Instagram users. You can get this quick reply option in the Instagram menu option. Here is the path to it- settings>business settings> Quick replies.
3. Using Any Instagram Autoresponder Software
You might have got doubts about how you can send links using Instagram autoresponder?
Let us explain you here-
Whenever an Instagram user interacts with a brand, Instagram autoresponders will send one welcome message to the customers; in that message, we can include a link.
Consider an example of Slide software-
A slide is software that can help you set up an auto-reply to new incoming Instagram messages. Here is what you can do-
- Log in to ‘Slide,’ set up your Instagram account on the “business settings” page.
- Enter the keyword you want to target in the incoming message.
- Enter in the response you want to send.
- Click on “save” and repeat the same for other keywords you want to add. For multiple keywords, you can separate the keywords with commas; you can leave that field blank if you don’t want to use any keyword.
Now the problem with Instagram integration has been solved. The feature was first introduced as a closed beta in October(2020) with selected businesses. Overall it was for 30 developers and 700 brands.
From this closed beta release Facebook came to know that companies are more inclined towards managing better communication with their customer at one place and the other is that most of them are interested in investing in software to better manage their communications and workflows.
With respect to this, introducing messenger API to Instagram is a most needed thing for the companies for various reasons. For starters,
Facebook has been increasing the volume for quite a while on how it uses Instagram’s business potential, beginning with publicizing however venturing into regions like interaction between brands users, and most recently, improved shopping highlights. Facebook likewise takes note of that 90% of Instagram users today follow a minimum of one business, so making a superior course for dealing with those interactions is an intelligent move.
Simultaneously, Facebook has been dealing with methods of better connecting up its different apps and platforms — which incorporate Facebook itself, Messenger, Oculus, WhatsApp, and Instagram,not only for users to interact with them but also to help brands or companies influence them in a more brought together friendly system. Carrying out the Messenger API — made initially to assist brands with collaborating bots and manage conversations on Messenger — to incorporate help for Instagram finds a way into both of those greater techniques.
Good News is That-
Now, any brand or organization using Instagram to interact with customers can use it. The feature is first accessible for all developers globally with a phased strategy for businesses:
In phase one, it will see Instagram accounts with follower counts of more than 10,000 and under 100,000 connect to the API. Further aims to increase that to accounts with followers counts ranging in between 1,000 and 100,000 in July that is phase two, with rest accounts coming online by phase three.
The critical point here is that this integration shows an important move in how companies can take advantage with the wider Facebook platform.
Why Should You Use an Instagram Chatbot?
Let’s know some facts about Instagram that can answer this question, “Why Instagram Chatbots?”
- Instagram has more than 1 billion active users every month, which is more than Twitter, Pinterest, or other social media users.
- 63% of Instagram users sign-in at least once a day
- On average, Instagram users spent 28 minutes in a day in 2020.
- Two hundred million Instagram users reach at least one business account daily.
- One hundred thirty million Instagram users click on shopping posts monthly.
- 80% of Instagram users use Instagram to know trendy things for shopping. It will be an advantage for you if you’re there on the platform. (Source: Hootsuite)
You can leverage more out of Instagram by deploying Instagram chatbots.
Let’s know their benefits in detail:
- It will be effortless for Instagram users to directly reach brands by interacting while browsing Instagram and clarifying their doubts. This option helps the brands to improve their customer satisfaction rate and enhance sales.
- Helps brands to be available to customers in their preferred way that is being present on messaging platforms.
- Help your customer clarify all doubts regarding your products and assist your customer 24/7, leading to better customer service.
- Instagram chatbots help customers resolve their queries in no time, and that makes customers engage more with the brands.
- Brands can easily conduct surveys and take feedback for your products and pages and improve accordingly.
- Personalized messaging systems in chatbots help the customers take them to the next level easily with confidence, which improves lead generation, nurturing, and quality of service.
- Brands can interact and solve customer queries in any languages on a 24/7 basis across the globe.
- Scale business to new market segments without worrying about workforce to handle incoming requests.
- Chatbots can handle large numbers of queries simultaneously without delay, with no error, and with patience.
- It reduces overall customer support costs by reducing the number of executives needed to handle queries.
Final Note
Creating an Instagram chatbot was impossible before, and brands used to do this by integrating Facebook Messenger chatbot with an Instagram account. Or by using an automated chatbot software available in the market that is risky in the long run. The only option left for others is to sit and wait for the release of Instagram chatbots.
Initially, Facebook officially released closed beta with selected businesses and developers. And realized that brands are more inclined towards better managing communications in one place, and others are making investments more in software to manage their workflows and communications better.
All brands can now use the messenger API to communicate with users on Instagram with a phased strategy for businesses.
If you have any doubts, you can reach us. Our tech team is glad to help you.