In this article, you'll learn:
- How to automatically link an Instagram post to a product in CommentSold.
- How to manually link an Instagram post to a product in CommentSold.
- How to post a product to Instagram from CommentSold.
About Instagram
Instagram is a popular photo-sharing app that allows people to connect with friends, family, brands, celebrities, and more. Instagram helps shops grow brand awareness by sharing their brand personality and products with followers and people exploring their feeds.
With Instagram, retailers can promote products in a friendly, authentic way. They can interact with existing followers, target new followers, and convert those followers into loyal customers.
Before you post products to your Instagram feed, you will need to connect your Instagram account to CommentSold.
How Posting Products to Instagram Benefits Your Business
- Create curated product posts that match the look and personality of your brand.
- Allow shoppers to cart items via comments and check out via their Instagram DMs.
- Build rapport and brand loyalty with new and existing shoppers through regular posts, comment discussions, and general support.
Automatically Link Posts with Autolinking
You can automatically link a product to an Instagram post by including the SKU as a hashtag in the post description (i.e., #1230). To autolink Instagram posts, you will need to enable the Autolink to Post setting on the Facebook Pages tab of your Social Setup page. This setting allows for autolinking to Instagram.
- In Instagram, create a new post by selecting the + icon in the top-right corner of the app.
- Upload your video and/or images, and include a caption.
- You must include a # and the product SKU (e.g., #sku1234, #J1234) for the autolinking to succeed.
- Once done, select Share in the top-right corner of the app.
You can confirm the post linked successfully by visiting the Instagram tab of your Posts page. CommentSold will also send you an email alert if a shopper comments "SOLD" on a post that is not yet linked. This allows you to correct this so you don't miss out on any potential sales.
Manually Link an Instagram Post
Once you have posted to Instagram, you can manually link the post in CommentSold. You will need to link a post manually if:
- You plan to create a post with video content.
- You need to attach multiple photos to a single post.
- You create and publish posts through Facebook Business Suite or other third-party social media scheduling tools.
You have two options to manually link a post: link the post to the product and link the product to the post. We walk through both options in the below tabs.
In the options menu, you will navigate to your product listing and link the featured product to the Instagram post.
- Select Products in the side menu of your CommentSold dashboard.
- Locate the product you wish to link to the Instagram post and select the three-dot icon on the far right of the product row.
- Select Link to Post from the drop-down.
- On the Instagram tab, locate the post and select Link.
In the option, you will navigate to your Instagram posts and link the post to the featured product.
- Select Posts in the side menu of your CommentSold dashboard.
- Select the Instagram Posts tab.
- Locate the post you wish to link to a product and select the three-dot icon on the far right of the post row.
- Select Link Product.
- On the pop-up, scroll and locate the featured product, then select Link.
Post a Product to Instagram from CommentSold
Posting directly to Instagram from CommentSold allows you to create and schedule posts without leaving your CommentSold account. This method only allows for single-image posting, not video posts.
- Select Products in the side menu of your CommentSold dashboard.
- Locate the product you wish to link to the Instagram post and select the three-dot icon on the far right of the product row.
- Select Post to Instagram.
- On the post page, complete the following fields:
- Caption. Your caption pulls from the product description. It includes directions for how to comment to claim and the #SKU that will allow CommentSold to read the comments. The SKU is required for shoppers to shop the post. You can include additional hashtags (e.g., #crazywildebeest) and usernames of Instagram users (e.g., @natgeo).
- Aspect Ratio. Preview your image and select the aspect ratio for your image. The cropping tool indicates which parts of the image will appear in the post.
- Schedule Timing. Choose to Post Immediately or Schedule Later. If scheduling, you will be asked to choose the date and time for the post. Scheduled post times are based on the Shop Time Zone you defined on the Shop tab of your Setup page.
- App Notification Title & Body. If you have Post to App on Autolink enabled on your Instagram tab, you will need to review and edit the app notification and body.
- Send the notification? Deselect this checkbox if you do not wish to send an app push notification.
- Hide from your app's main feed? Deselect this checkbox if you do not wish for this post to appear in your mobile app's main feed.
- Once done, select Send to Instagram.
Below is the post as it appears on Instagram. Note the #SKU in the description–this means the post is linked so CommentSold can read shoppers' SOLD comments.
Learn More
- Go Live on Instagram. Learn how you can go live on Instagram as part of the CommentSold live selling process.
- Enable and Customize Instagram Auto-Replies. Learn how to customize the auto-reply shoppers receive when they comment on Instagram posts.
- Selling Through Instagram Stories. Learn how to create shoppable Instagram stories where shoppers can comment "SOLD" and purchase from the app.
