Why should businesses pay attention to Instagram messaging?

Because millions of users already message businesses monthly, making it a high-intent and high-volume communication channel.

How does Instagram influence the shopping journey?

Most users research products, discover brands, and make purchase decisions directly on Instagram.

What can businesses send through Instagram messaging?

Photos, videos, posts, text, profiles, hashtags, locations, and disappearing media.

Why isn’t Instagram’s native inbox enough for growing businesses?

It lacks automation, scalability, shared team visibility, and advanced workflows.

How does Bird enhance Instagram messaging?

By enabling automation, AI-powered insights, agent collaboration, and unified conversation management.

What are auto-replies for Story mentions?

Personalized automated responses triggered when users mention a brand in Stories — ideal for engaging fans and driving conversions.

How can Flow Builder improve Instagram support?

It creates automated flows and canned responses to answer FAQs instantly and consistently.

How do businesses qualify leads via Instagram with Bird?

By capturing user-provided data during chats and routing them to the right sales or support team.

What role does AI play in Instagram messaging?

AI analyzes message content to determine intent and optimize routing or next steps automatically.

Can Instagram conversations escalate to live agents?

Yes — Bird allows smooth transitions from automated flows to human support.

How does Inbox improve Instagram operations?

It centralizes all messages from all channels, enabling multiple agents to collaborate efficiently.

How does Bird help businesses scale without adding more staff?

Through automation, shared inboxes, AI-powered workflows, and reduced manual effort for high-volume messages.

Elevate your communications directly on Instagram

Bird

2 Dec 2021

Instagram

1 min read

Key Takeaways

- Instagram is now a major business channel: over 1B active users, 500M daily Story users, and 150M people messaging businesses monthly.
- Social shopping is thriving: 81% research products on Instagram, 70% of shopping enthusiasts use it for their next purchase, and 72% buy products they discover on the platform.
- Customers want to engage with brands directly inside Instagram — not via email or websites.
- Native Instagram messaging alone is limited: manual responses, fragmented inboxes, no automation, and no scalability.
- Using Bird, businesses can unlock full Instagram messaging capabilities with automation, AI, and consolidated inbox workflows.
- Story mentions can trigger automated and personalized replies, eliminating manual handling and boosting engagement.
- Automated DMs allow businesses to respond instantly with customized flows built in Flow Builder.
- Lead qualification becomes easier by capturing user details directly from conversations and routing them to the correct team.
- AI can analyze incoming messages to determine intent, sentiment, or order context and dynamically shape the conversation path.
- Conversations can seamlessly escalate to live agents, improving customer satisfaction and driving conversions.
- Inbox enables teams to manage high message volumes with shared visibility, internal collaboration, and unified channel handling.
- With Bird, businesses can scale Instagram interactions without increasing headcount, maintaining quality while increasing engagement and sales.

Q&A Highlights

Why should businesses pay attention to Instagram messaging?
Because millions of users already message businesses monthly, making it a high-intent and high-volume communication channel.
How does Instagram influence the shopping journey?
Most users research products, discover brands, and make purchase decisions directly on Instagram.
What can businesses send through Instagram messaging?
Photos, videos, posts, text, profiles, hashtags, locations, and disappearing media.
Why isn’t Instagram’s native inbox enough for growing businesses?
It lacks automation, scalability, shared team visibility, and advanced workflows.
How does Bird enhance Instagram messaging?
By enabling automation, AI-powered insights, agent collaboration, and unified conversation management.
What are auto-replies for Story mentions?
Personalized automated responses triggered when users mention a brand in Stories — ideal for engaging fans and driving conversions.
How can Flow Builder improve Instagram support?
It creates automated flows and canned responses to answer FAQs instantly and consistently.
How do businesses qualify leads via Instagram with Bird?
By capturing user-provided data during chats and routing them to the right sales or support team.
What role does AI play in Instagram messaging?
AI analyzes message content to determine intent and optimize routing or next steps automatically.
Can Instagram conversations escalate to live agents?
Yes — Bird allows smooth transitions from automated flows to human support.
How does Inbox improve Instagram operations?
It centralizes all messages from all channels, enabling multiple agents to collaborate efficiently.
How does Bird help businesses scale without adding more staff?
Through automation, shared inboxes, AI-powered workflows, and reduced manual effort for high-volume messages.

Business on Instagram is booming — the social platform now has over one billion active monthly users, 500 million daily Stories users and 150 million people on Instagram have a conversation with a business every month.

From boosting engagement and building brand loyalty to delivering customer service throughout a buyer’s journey, connecting with users via Instagram messaging is critical to attract and retain customers.

As a business owner, it is imperative to make it easy for customers to connect and start a conversation where they already are, on Instagram.

While managing messages directly on the app creates various challenges, your business can now seamlessly deliver first-class support and drive more sales through Instagram messaging with Bird.

As a business owner, it is imperative to make it easy for customers to connect and start a conversation where they already are, on Instagram.

Your storefront to billions of business opportunities

For businesses of any size, Instagram offers robust features to market and sell directly on the app, providing you with a powerful way to expand your audience, showcase your products and drive sales.

Product discovery happens on Instagram: 81% of respondents in a recent survey said they use Instagram to research products and services — plus, two in three people said the platform helps foster interactions with brands.
Shoppers go to Instagram: 70% of shopping enthusiasts turn to Instagram for their next purchase
Social shopping leads to purchases on Instagram: 72% of Instagram users purchased a product they saw on Instagram

TLDR: Your customers are on Instagram and they want to engage with you there.

For businesses of any size, Instagram offers robust features to market and sell directly on the app, providing you with a powerful way to expand your audience, showcase your products and drive sales.

Product discovery happens on Instagram: 81% of respondents in a recent survey said they use Instagram to research products and services — plus, two in three people said the platform helps foster interactions with brands.
Shoppers go to Instagram: 70% of shopping enthusiasts turn to Instagram for their next purchase
Social shopping leads to purchases on Instagram: 72% of Instagram users purchased a product they saw on Instagram

TLDR: Your customers are on Instagram and they want to engage with you there.

For businesses of any size, Instagram offers robust features to market and sell directly on the app, providing you with a powerful way to expand your audience, showcase your products and drive sales.

Product discovery happens on Instagram: 81% of respondents in a recent survey said they use Instagram to research products and services — plus, two in three people said the platform helps foster interactions with brands.
Shoppers go to Instagram: 70% of shopping enthusiasts turn to Instagram for their next purchase
Social shopping leads to purchases on Instagram: 72% of Instagram users purchased a product they saw on Instagram

TLDR: Your customers are on Instagram and they want to engage with you there.

How can I use Instagram messaging for my business?

Instagram messaging lets your business send and receive messages from users. You can send the following things on Instagram:

Photos or videos you take or upload from your library
Posts you see in feed
Disappearing photos and videos
Instagram profiles
Text
Hashtags
Location pages

However, as a business owner, you can only tap into the full potential of Instagram messaging with the right communications platform — one that empowers your business to build strong connections with your customers through timely and personalized messaging.

"With Bird's Instagram DM solution, our support team can now address our customer inquiries on Instagram much more efficiently. We can automate frequently asked questions and allow our team to focus on higher priority tasks without incurring additional costs."
Arjan Spakman, Customer Experience Manager, Brandfield

Instagram messaging lets your business send and receive messages from users. You can send the following things on Instagram:

Photos or videos you take or upload from your library
Posts you see in feed
Disappearing photos and videos
Instagram profiles
Text
Hashtags
Location pages

Instagram messaging lets your business send and receive messages from users. You can send the following things on Instagram:

Photos or videos you take or upload from your library
Posts you see in feed
Disappearing photos and videos
Instagram profiles
Text
Hashtags
Location pages

How can I use Instagram messaging with Bird?

Using Instagram with Bird, your business can leverage the full potential of your Instagram interactions through consolidations with Inbox and powerful AI and automations with Flow Builder.

In other words, you can utilize Instagram messaging to provide better customer support, build brand loyalists and sell more products.

Story mention auto-replies

Instead of manually searching and replying to Story mentions, now you can instantly reply to them with a personalized message using our workflows.

A smartphone displays an Instagram direct message thanking a user for mentioning "Plantmore" in their story.

Use these quick replies to boost customer engagement or send personalized coupon codes to incentivize purchases.

Rapid direct message responses

Use Flow Builder to easily build automated communication flows and create canned replies to enable fast, personalized answers to common questions.

Instagram, displaying a menu of canned replies with various options for managing FAQs such as changing payment details, checking order status, and updating Instagram settings, aimed at improving customer service efficiency.

Qualify leads through information capture

When users engage with your brand on Instagram, capture customer-provided information to qualify and route them to your sales team.

Use AI to discover deep conversation insights

Automatically analyze incoming messages to customize the path of incoming messages — and empower your agents to do their best work by gathering order and delivery details up front.

Paths to Live Chat

Leverage AI and automation to ensure any conversation can escalate to a live product expert.

An Inbox built for the social media era

Organize your incoming messages with Inbox. Allow multiple agents to interact with your customers at the same time, through one platform.

Digital customer service shows notifications and messages, featuring WhatsApp and Instagram icons, an order tracking update, and a chat conversation discussing shipping times to Amsterdam.

"We are thrilled that MessageBird is launching support for Messaging on Instagram through API and Inbox. The Messenger API for Instagram will now enable all businesses to connect with customers on their preferred messaging channel, while integrating existing tools and data to drive business outcomes,” said Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, VP of Platform Partnerships at Facebook. “By integrating the Messenger API for Instagram, businesses and developers can effectively scale messaging workflows to better own the customer experience and build more authentic relationships.”

Using Instagram with Bird, your business can leverage the full potential of your Instagram interactions through consolidations with Inbox and powerful AI and automations with Flow Builder.

In other words, you can utilize Instagram messaging to provide better customer support, build brand loyalists and sell more products.