Story replies and mentions can start a DM too

Most people set up a comment flow in Instoly, watch it work, and stop there. The same flow can be started by someone replying to your story, or by someone tagging you in theirs, and for anyone who posts stories daily that is usually the busier door.

Here are all five ways a flow can start, what we would use each one for, and the single rule that works differently for stories than it does for comments.

What are the five triggers?

1. An exact keyword. The whole comment has to be the word and nothing else. Strict, and the right choice when a loose match keeps catching the wrong thing.
2. A keyword anywhere in the comment. The common one, and what most flows should use.
3. Any comment at all. Everyone who comments gets a reply, which is what a giveaway or a launch wants.
4. A story reply. Someone answers your story and the flow sends them what you promised.
5. A story mention. Someone tags you in their story and the flow responds.

Underneath they are the same machinery, so a story trigger in Instoly sends the same message, buttons and link that a comment trigger does. What changes is who opens the conversation, and how long we have to answer it.

Why is a story reply worth automating?

Because a story reply is already a private message from someone who was watching closely enough to answer. In our experience that is a warmer signal than a comment on a post, and it lands in a place you cannot keep up with by hand once stories start doing well.

The pattern we would use is the one people already understand: put a poll or a question sticker up, say "reply with the word and I will send it", and let the flow answer everyone while you carry on with your day. We like it because it costs the viewer one tap and a word, which is about all anyone will give you mid-story.

How long do you have to answer a story?

This is where stories differ from comments, and it is worth knowing before you plan anything around them. A comment can be answered with a private reply for seven days. A story reply is a message, so the ordinary conversation rule applies instead: once someone has messaged you, there are 24 hours to respond.

In practice the flow answers in seconds, so the window is not something you will run into. It matters when you are deciding whether to go back through yesterday's story replies by hand, and the honest answer is that a day-old story reply may already be outside it.

It is also why we would not build a campaign around answering story replies manually the next morning. By then the conversation may have closed, and the person who asked has moved on to whatever else was in their feed.

Which plans have story triggers?

Story reply and story mention triggers sit on Pro and Business rather than the free plan. Comment triggers, which are the whole comment-to-DM loop, are on every plan we sell, including free.

We would not move up for this on its own unless stories are genuinely where your audience lives. If you post one story a week, your comment flows are doing the work. If you post six a day and answer replies until midnight, this is the feature that buys our evening back, and yours.

How would we set one up?

1. Decide what the story is asking for. A single word works better than "DM me", because the flow needs something to match and the viewer needs something to type.
2. Keep the word short and easy to type with one thumb. Story replies are written faster and more carelessly than comments.
3. Write the DM to sound like a continuation of the story rather than a fresh introduction. They were just watching you.
4. Use a story mention flow to thank people who tag you, and keep that one plain. A hard sell in reply to someone showing off your product reads badly.
5. Check it from a second account, the same way you would a comment flow.

The rest of the setup in Instoly is identical to a comment flow, which we walked through in how to auto-reply to comments with a link.

Stories are where a lot of buying conversations actually happen, and Instoly can be the thing that answers them at eleven at night instead of you.