NEW in ubisend: Instagram Chatbots
Let's play a little riddle. Name the social network that is:
- the fourth biggest in the world, with over 1.3 billion users,
- growing its user base by 16% monthly, and,
- boasting over 200 million business accounts.
Did you say Instagram? Ding ding ding!
Today, we are extremely excited to announce the release of Instagram as a chatbot channel on the ubisend platform.
When you log into ubisend, go to Engage -> Channels. You'll notice Instagram as a new available channel. To connect your chatbot to Instagram, you will need:
- An Instagram for Business page
- An associated Facebook page
And that's it!
Read our documentation on connecting your ubisend chatbot to Instagram.
Instagram chatbots help you automate your DM interactions, turning this growing method of communication into a more efficient channel.
Why is Instagram such a big deal?
We've been meaning to integrate with Instagram for a long time. It's an incredibly popular social network, with a growing number of businesses using it for everything from customer service to sales.
Unfortunately, up until late 2021, Facebook (who own Instagram) had not made the integration to Instagram available to everyone. All we could do was sit and wait.
During the last F8 conference, the announcement was finally made -- and we immediately jumped into action.
What can an Instagram chatbot do for your business?
My clients have been waiting patiently for Instagram automation since it was first announced. ubisend now lets my clients reach this audience with the same amazing capabilities as they've enjoyed on both the web and Facebook Messenger. As a team, we are beyond excited to see how we can use conversation to drive engagement and sales within Instagram.
- Jim Rowe, ubisend partner
With 1.3 billion users and over 200 million business accounts, there's bound to be some cross-over. Interactions between users and business accounts are inevitable.
In our experience, businesses have three key use cases for Instagram:
- Pre-sale enquiries, e.g. When are you open? What is the price of a ticket? Is your band touring next year?
- Customer service, e.g. Where is my package? Can I get a refund? Can I exchange these jeans?
- Sales, i.e. actually purchasing items.
Instagram's shopping experience pretty much solves number three.
With pre-sale and customer service enquiries, though, there are incredible automation opportunities.
Considering 81% of people use Instagram to research products and services (source), it's certainly an opportunity you do not want to miss by being unresponsive or overwhelmed.
With an Instagram chatbot, you can:
Automate frequently asked questions
Save precious time and let the chatbot answer those repetitive questions. With ubisend's FAQ features, it's super easy to set up.
Automate enquiries
Do you like to capture a few details from potential customers before answering them or passing them on to your sales team? With our process mapping tool, this is now a breeze to automate.
Qualify leads
Make sure you only use your precious and limited human capital on worthwhile leads. Automate the lead qualification process through your Instagram DMs.
If your business is active on Instagram, consider automating some of the interactions with a chatbot. Through ubisend, you can, of course, also do this in multiple languages, unlimited integrations, and much more.
Limitations and roadmap
Instagram is lagging a little bit behind its older brother, Facebook Messenger. After all, Instagram as a chatbot channel was only made available about a month ago.
Understandably so, some of the features are lacking when compared to Facebook Messenger or even Telegram. For example, Instagram doesn't currently support action and video messages.
But that's ok. We are confident that the team over at Instagram are working really hard to bring its capabilities up to speed. In the meantime, at ubisend, we are keeping our ears to the ground, ready to implement changes as more features become available.
To learn more about message type compatibility, read our documentation.
Get started
Setting up an Instagram chatbot is incredibly easy. As long as you have the pages needed (Facebook and Instagram for Business), you can deploy an Instagram chatbot in just a few clicks.
A new era of businesses efficiently running on social media is upon us. Will you be the first to take advantage?
