[Transcript starts at 1:11]
Hello, hello, hello, my podcast people and thank you for joining me for yet another episode of my favorite podcast. If you're watching me on the big screen, hopefully you watch this on YouTube and you put on the big screen, you may, Oh, no, he has run away. He's just out of frame. I got Rupert here with me today.
I know better than to record with him in the room, but we're going to try it. So hopefully I can still do my little one take Jake and I won't have to stop this because he's acting a fool. But we got him with us today. If you are listening or watching when this drops, it is Monday April 29th, welcome to the final episode of April, as if it's the final episode, forever, JK, right?
You already know. Final episode of April. Hopefully April has treated you well, shit went by fast, it always goes by fast, so let's make sure we make the most of each and every day. Today we have a bit of a niche episode, um, and we're going to be talking about automating your Instagram comments and DMs.
How to do it, when to do it, who's doing it well. [00:01:00] Uh, but first. A few life updates. Biggest life update. One, Lex's parents left this morning, as of the morning that I am recording this, so it'll be last week. Um, their trip was so good. I'm saying this from my end. Hopefully on their end they agree as well. Um, but it was just so good to have them here.
We get to show them our routine. Went to the dog beach on Friday, which Moose loves. Of note, Moose is looking much better. Not that she's ever looking bad, but when she first came here, she was a little skinny. Uh, so she's put on some weight. She looks great. We went out to dinner. We caught a sunset. We had, uh, some actual sun during the day, which was great.
You know, May gray, June gloom has kind of come here early. But we did get some sun. Uh, we hung out on the patio. We had a fire table going. Her dad was just like out there every day. Helped her dad with her sh with his shoulder. Um, so we got to, you know, bust out the PT skills. Every now and again, we do that, but he'll, he'll be okay.
In case you're wondering. I'll keep you updated though. Um, we watched a ton of volleyball. So, you know, they just hung out. We hung out in the living room and it was It's phenomenal. We did a Sunday walk. Um, we [00:02:00] made dinner, Rupes and her mom calls him Rufus. So and then at one point was, they started calling him Rupus, and I'm like, that works.
Um, she knows it's Rupert, but she would get mixed up with Rufus and so it was Rupus and it was kind of funny. Um, but Rupes came out in the last day. He's just being super social. I think you can actually kind of see him now. Um, but he actually came out in the last day. I think if they had stayed one more day, he would be like kind of fully walking around.
Um, but it was just really great to share our life with them and have them here and also to be able to host them. Like, obviously if you had a really small space, we could still host them, but we have a big space and they have their own room and their own bathroom and the shower and things like that. And it was just really awesome.
Really nice. So the trip was amazing and yeah, it was just fucking phenomenal. Second life update, big switch of gears here. Don't forget about BossUp. That is the in person event of 2024. It's for online business owners who want to level up their, their online business, but also realize that they want to do business [00:03:00] differently.
It's October 10th through 11th. It's in Redondo Beach, which ties into the first point cause, come here. This is where I live. Redondo Beach. Let me show you what life is like here. Hopefully, fingers crossed, we'll get some, some sun. We will drop all the deets in the show notes. Um, but the link for that is going to be themovementmaesttro.com/bossup2024. All the things are there, all the information, all the tickets. I'd love to see you.
Third announcement. I am going to be coming out with the self paced version of my Instagram Business Blueprint. And I'm thinking about launching it, I guess it'll be next week when this drops.
Uh, but we're going to do a little Cinco, Cinco de Maestro. Oh, there's Rupert. He's playing. Of all the times to play with, I know better. I know better. So this is on me. I don't think you can hear it cause I'm using the mic, but he never plays with that toy. And now that we're recording, he's playing with the toy.
So, you know what? I'm going to leave him, let him have his fun. Uh, but I think I'm going to launch it on Cinco de Maestro. I have some Mexican friends. They said it was okay that [00:04:00] I use that, uh, that name. Uh, so. If you're interested and you want to get the discount because I'll probably just be like a one day discount I'm probably put my other stuff on sale as well.
You can add your name to the interest list. We'll link that in the show notes and this way you make sure that you don't miss out Okay, talking about Instagram. That is a perfect segue segue for today's topic, which is automating your Instagram comments and DMs. Shout out to my girl Andrea for I did put a CTA call to action in last week's podcast episode, um, asking for life topics, um, that you might want to have me chat about on the podcast.
Shout out to my guy JoeJoe for shooting me a Voxer and we had a major conversation about that. Um, but I'm not sure if there's going to be more responses because I'm recording this the same day that that episode came out. It came out, you know, a few hours ago. So hopefully y'all come through with some suggestions on that.
But as it relates to automating your Instagram comments and DMs, what I'm referring to is what you, many of you may be seeing if you're in the [00:05:00] comments of things or you're seeing people's captions and where it's saying, you know, in the caption, it's like comment the word STRONG and I'll send you the link to the program.
Comment, the word STRONG and I'll send you the information on this. Comment the word whatever, and I'll send you X, right? The how, how people are doing this, how they're sending the things. It's a software called ManyChat. It has been around for a bit. I started using it a few months ago and I actually really do like it.
I was very hesitant to use it. I don't like outsourcing things. I don't love automating a ton of things. There's, you know, time and a place, but integrating things with Instagram, I get kind of nervous. Um, so I was slower on the uptake for that, but I love it. It's actually been very, very good. Um, it is, in my opinion, simple to set up and it is again, it's online.
It's called manychat.com we'll link in the show notes. I don't have like an affiliate link or anything like that. Um, but I think the price point is very fair for it. Um, it obviously, like most things, it increases the more people you're using it with, um, but I think it's, I think it's at like 15 a month for the Pro version, [00:06:00] which I do recommend getting because otherwise you have, like, limitations placed on, like, how many times you can use it.
So my suggestion, just go with the, you know, Pro, uh, whatever the upgraded version is. Um, but the kind of tech behind it, if you will, the simplified version here is that, you set a trigger, and that can be a comment on a post, it could be a DM, it could be a response to your Stories, whatever, and then what happens next, the automation that happens next after that, is up to you.
Right, the way you're likely seeing people using it is with that drop a comment, and that comment is a word, it could be a phrase, but it's easier if it's a word, and then the person, um, who, uh, posted the comment, they receive the link via DM. So your account will send that link to their DMs. ManyChat does that automatically, but you have to integrate it with your Instagram account.
It works with Facebook as well. I have not used it as such, but it does work with Facebook as well. Uh, but ManyChat will do that automatically. And then you can set up what it actually looks like as well. So like, it looks like a regular DM. You can have it, you know, have [00:07:00] buttons and stuff in it if you want, but it can also just look like a very plain, regular DM.
So you can make this as complex as you want, where you really kind of get like a back and forth conversation going, or you can just do it manually where it's one step. Meaning you could, if you're like, I don't even want to use ManyChat, but I want to use this concept, which is not what we're talking about today.
Cause we're talking about automating things, but if you're like, I don't have the funds to pay for that, or like, I don't get enough comments to make me warrant that you can still have the person just say, you know, comment, whatever word, and then you manually send them whatever links that is how I first did it.
And then I had one post where there's a lot of comments and I was like, this is kind of terrible. Um, also you can't really, who has the time to go back and look at that post. So unless you've changed the call to action in the caption of that post, then you have to keep kind of checking it. Or you're like, you know, those, those comments go unresponded to, whereas ManyChat will just run for as long as you have it turned on. So I do think that it's great from a business perspective. Um, I have used it at conferences, most notably [00:08:00] where people want slides. And so instead of having a QR code up on the screen, I am going to have them just DM me.
So it starts a conversation, right? And this is where we get that nice, like kind of hybrid approach where they'll, I'll tell them, Hey, DM me the word, you know, RCS 2024, and I will DM you. I'll send you back the slides right now. It's an automation. They know that it's not me. So they DM my account. ManyChat has already, the automation is already set up.
It sends them that link and they can download the slides and it works out perfectly because now I have a conversation started. So what I do is, after I'm done speaking I go and I respond to all the comments and I'm just like thanks for being at the at the chat today at the talk today. Let me know if you have any questions. So to me this is how we can kind of meet in the middle of not wanting everything to be really automated and hands off and you know inject or infuse that human side of things.
I wanted to share about ManyChat for three reasons.
One, people don't know what it is, and I've seen folks that have [00:09:00] big accounts, and I've seen them trying to do it manually, and I'm like, hey, use ManyChat. Um, so if you don't know what this is, you haven't heard of it, even if you have a smaller account, there are a lot of ways that you can use this.
So, one, I wanted to just make sure that it's on your radar, uh, and it is 100 percent Maestro approved. I want you to know that. Number two, I have suggested ManyChat for quite a few one on one clients and maestro meeting clients who want to organize their DMs. So I know that we're talking about comments right now and how you can respond back to the comment.
I actually didn't say that. Okay. Uh, what ManyChat will do, you can set it so that yes, when they comment, it sends them a DM, but it also responds to their comment with whatever comment you want. You can put as many different comments in there and it'll cycle through those comments and it'll post them automatically.
So Rupert is here. I'm waiting for him to step on something and stop the recording. I know better than to do this, but I was just like, you know what? I'm loving him so much. He's been so good. So I was like, let him, let me, let me let him in today to the recording studio. And [00:10:00] now he's not making me regret it yet.
So he's jumped to the window. I think we're in a good way.
So for point number two, the reason that I'm talking about ManyChat is I have suggested this to quite a few one on one clients who want to Organize their DMS and that's the next part that we're gonna get into, and the third reason that I'm recommending this is Is that I do think Instagram is going to start cracking down on the reach that it gives posts that use this.
So let's enjoy it while it lasts. Get in before Instagram cracks down. Because we already know that when you put, you know, see link in bio, it, it suppresses those posts. It doesn't send it to as many people. So. I mean, algorithm's going to do that, Instagram's going to do what it's going to do, but I also think the flip side of that is that what I have noticed and I was really surprised by this is people are more likely to just comment a word than they are to go to the link in your bio.
So from a business perspective and really leaning on a call to action and getting people to take that action. Um, having them drop the comment is probably better, right? And again, you can [00:11:00] do this with comments. You can do it with your DMs. You can automate so much within, uh, within ManyChat. So, let's tie that into point number two, which was using it to organize your DMs.
Here's the thing. I personally really enjoy responding to comments and DMs and spend a lot of time on Instagram. Um, and I coach, um, people to do that, to manually respond, especially in the beginning, looking to build that trust, build that audience. I want you to manually be in there. I want you to be responding to people and you know, answering questions and things like that.
And really fostering that human engagement and connection, which is what Andrea was asking about. She was like, Hey, what do you think about these automations in terms of like the human component and like the true engagement component and will it suppress it and things like that. So there's the, the both end of it of, yes, it's going to suppress your reach.
And I think there's a time and a place when we're using it to respond to comments. We're using it to respond to DMs. And it's mostly from the business side of it. Uh, yes, you can make this like as advanced as you want, but nothing replaces like the human [00:12:00] factor, right? So again, great from a business perspective, sending out a link, something like that.
Um, and then because it's in your chats, right? It's in your DMs, you can follow up as a human. And I think that's a great way to kind of hybridize things. I think that it is a phenomenal tool for folks who get a lot of inquiries in their DMs and a lot of like asks for resources or next steps and this person may feel like they're repeating themselves a lot or they're feeling overwhelmed or they feel like they always have to respond and they're like, ah, I'm getting overwhelmed because I can't get back to these in a timely fashion like I would like to.
So my suggestion to these people is automate it instead of outsourcing it because I've had a few people be like, I'm going to like have, you know, hire someone to be in my DMs. And I was like, don't do that. You can automate this. I just, I really do feel like if you are a personal brand and your Instagram is top of funnel, I would love to see you as the person that's in your Instagram.
So what you can do to automate, uh, and organize, automate things and organize your DMS is you can set up [00:13:00] triggers. that are words or phrases. And then when people DM you with that word or phrase, right, it can be a whole entire comment, a whole entire message. But if it has that phrase or it has that keyword in it, the automation will get triggered.
So you can set that up and then ManyChat will reply, you know, as you within the DMs and you can reply with buttons. You can reply. So if you have buttons and it can be multiple links, so it could be like, Hey, I see that you asked about, Uh, sofas. I don't know. It's the first thing that popped into my fucking head, right?
So let's say you're trying to get a lot of questions about what's that sofa you have. I love it. Cool You can set up an automation such that anytime you receive a dm that has the word sofa in it this pre recorded, you know pre whatever scripted um message goes out that says hey, I see you asked about sofas Here are the links to the ones that I use the most Good luck with your searching with your shopping or whatever. And that goes out to them automatically. I fucking love that.
All right, you could send them to a website. You could send them, you can tell them to submit an inquiry. You could do whatever you want. Whatever makes sense for you, right? Especially if you're [00:14:00] answering the same questions over and over and over and over again. Automate the response. So at least something goes out to that person.
And then you can follow up with you as, you know, as a human.
The person who I see using this the best and probably most efficiently is DocLyssFitness. I got to bring her on the podcast. I will. Guest episodes, they bring me some friction, even though my guy JoeJoe has taken over all of the like producing and such of it.
Uh, but I got to bring her on. But she has the brain for this and really loves to, you know, she's a PhD. I feel like maybe that's not enough to say, but it also feels like it is enough to say that that's how her brain works. Um, and she basically has an automation for everything, which is, I asked her, I was like, yo, are you using ManyChat for this?
And she was like, yes. She was like, if I can automate it, I'm going to. And I love that for her. All right. I don't use it in that same capacity because. I don't get questions like that. Um, and I also love being in my DMs but literally anything that comes up, you like tag her in something, there's an automation that says like, thank you.
Right. So there's always something being answered, always something, um, going, and it's, it's very transparent that it's like, you know, an automation, but [00:15:00] it gives her peace of mind and I love that. Again, this could be particularly helpful for folks, those of you listening and watching, who feel bad for not responding to every DM like immediately.
I don't feel bad about that and I will get back when I get back. But if it's stressing you out, you can use this. I do personally recommend this approach over the native Instagram autoresponder because when you use that autoresponder it's just one thing all the time. You can't like choose what it says and like choose what it's responding to.
Which means that every single DM that you receive or like even if it's just a reply to a Story, they get the same automated response. And to me, I think it's the fucking worst. So I will, hands down, times a million, recommend ManyChat over the automated DM response. Um, you know, Instagram, whatever, Instagram autoresponder, all right.
Something that I want to point out, and I feel that I'd be remiss if I didn't say this, is that we teach people how to treat us. So it's kind of just tying into that last point of like, if you feel bad, not getting back immediately. [00:16:00] Like, okay, I hear you. And also, we teach people how to treat us, right? I hated when people used to ask to pick my brain.
I fucking hated it. I still hate it I hate it a little less now because I don't get asked that but I hated it when people would ask to pick my brain so I legit I made a post that said that I didn't want you to ask to pick my brain unless you want me to pick your pocket. Like I was like, I don't want, I don't like this phrase. Like I get that it maybe comes from a good place, but I don't like it. Literally no one asks to pick my brain now, right?
So I made that post and also when people would say that I'd be like, yo I don't like that you're saying this and you know, let's have a conversation around it or like, I'm gonna teach you, I'm gonna tell you how I would like to be treated. Obviously in a very like respectful way, we teach people how to treat us, right?
So my suggestion with this is show up the way that you want to show up and tell people how you want them to treat you, how you want them to DM you. Don't ask for DMs if you don't want DMs. Tell people that you'll take, you'll respond when you respond or just also respond when you respond. That's totally [00:17:00] fine.
And the probably the biggest thing here is just ignore people who ignore your boundaries, all right? And I almost like hesitate to use the word boundaries because it's just become like, it's become so like, I don't know, fucking gross and just like people are like, I'm like boundaries and like they're just like I'm just being assholes and there's a difference there, but if people are like, if you, if you don't respond to something and then they keep like nudging you and like, my friend, just ignore them.
Like, I don't, this is a free platform. I don't have to respond to you and you're being annoying about this. So protect your peace, ignore the folks who don't respect your boundaries.
So let's zoom out and then finish this up. The big picture here, the big picture point here, uh, is that. I want you to run things in a way that feels good for you.
DocLyssFitness has a brain that works, you know, that loves that structure, that loves automations. Uh, and so I love the way she's using it. My brain isn't really like, like that. [00:18:00] I don't love doing things that way. So I don't do it that way, right? We're running very different businesses as well. But the cool part is that we're both using the same tool, but in a way that works for each of us.
Okay. So those are my two pennies and maybe a little bit more on automating your comments and DMs. Hopefully you have gained, gleaned some insight about how, you know, the how, the why, and now you get to go and decide if and when you use it. That's good. That's good. All right. Don't forget about BossUp.
Don't forget about Cinco de Maestro. And don't forget to have a great day.
As always, endlessly, endlessly, endlessly appreciative for every single one of you. Until next time, friends, Maestro, out.
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