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.
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.
Step 1: Create a New CommentChat Flow
- Hover over the side menu in your CommentSold dashboard.
- Locate and select CommentChat.
- Select Create Chat Flow in the top-right corner of the page.
Step 2: Select Social Account and Post Type
- Enter a name for your CommentChat flow in the Flow Name field. This name helps you differentiate this flow from others in your list of flows.
- In the Connect Your Account section, use the drop-down to select which Instagram this CommentChat is for.
- Next, choose the type of post to link the CommentChat to:
- The next post created on this account. This option will link the CommentChat flow to the next post or Reel posted to the selected account. It will not link to the next post if the post is a live sale. You must create the next post within 48 hours or the CommentChat flow will be deactivated.
- An existing post. This option will launch a selection panel that will allow you to choose which existing post or Reel to link to CommentChat flow to.
Step 3: Create Public Reply Responses
- Enter your Comment Trigger Words in the field provided.
- You can pick up to three trigger keywords. Separate keywords with a comma.
- We encourage you to use different words with each post to create a new and exciting commenting and shopping experience.
- Trigger words are not case-sensitive, so variations like "sold," "Sold," and "SOLD" are treated the same.
- Avoid using trigger words that are similar to your shop’s handle name, as this could result in sending unintended DMs to your customers.
- Enter at least three Public Comment Responses in the fields provided.
- Create responses that read conversational and have a personal feel to it
- CommentChat will choose from these options at random when replying to a comment containing a keyword.
- To add an additional response, select Add Response. You can customize up to 5 responses.
Step 4: Set Message Destination
- In the Select a Product field, search for the product you wish to link to in your DM. You can search by brand name, product name, or SKU.
- Once you locate the product, select the product tile. You’ll see a Selected frame around the tile.
Step 5: Customize DM Response
Your DM Response is the message a follower will receive via their DMs when they comment the keyword on your post or Reel.
As you customize your response, your changes will update the preview to the right of the fields.
- Enter the text for your DM message in the Message Text field.
- Enter what you’d like to appear as your button text. This is your “call to action” and the link button a follower will tap to be redirected to the product page
- Select Save Chat Flow to save your chat flow.
Your Messenger Response is the message the commenter will receive via their Messenger when they comment the keyword on your post.
As you customize your response, your changes will update the preview to the right of the fields.
Once you have set up the CommentChat flow, go to your Instagram account and post the reel.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 Submit 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.