---
title: 'How to Automate Your Instagram DMs and Comments with AI (Step-by-Step Guide)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=6BN1i0Leqo0'
video_id: '6BN1i0Leqo0'
date: 2026-08-10
duration_sec: 671
---

# How to Automate Your Instagram DMs and Comments with AI (Step-by-Step Guide)

> Source: [How to Automate Your Instagram DMs and Comments with AI (Step-by-Step Guide)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=6BN1i0Leqo0)

## Summary

This video is a step-by-step tutorial on automating Instagram DMs and comments using ManyChat, a tool the creator personally uses and which sponsored the video. The goal is to help creators turn engagement (comments, story replies, DMs) into leads and sales by setting up automated keyword-triggered DM sequences, follow-ups, and lead capture. The creator emphasizes that most creators leave money on the table by not automating their comment and DM responses, and provides a clear workflow to fix this.

### Key Points

- **The Problem: High Views, No Leads** [00:01] — Creators often post reels that get 50,000+ views but generate no money or leads. The video contrasts a post that performed well but drove no business with a creator who gets tons of comments, leads, and sales from every post, with AI handling comments and DMs.
- **The Automated Funnel Flow** [00:51] — Step one: someone comments a specific keyword on your post. They instantly get a DM with a link (guide, webinar, checkout). That DM is captured as a lead and moved into a follow-up sequence that nurtures and asks them to buy. All of this is automated.
- **Why ManyChat** [01:54] — ManyChat is the tool used; it's a Meta-verified business partner, trusted by millions of creators, and proven to increase growth by 140%. The creator discloses sponsorship but states they personally use it.
- **What to Give Away in DMs** [03:04] — Don't just send 'Thanks for commenting.' Send a valuable resource: a free guide/PDF/checklist, a webinar/training sign-up, or a direct link to your course/product for high-intent posts. Match the giveaway to the post content.
- **Setting Up the Comment-to-DM Automation** [03:56] — In ManyChat, create an automation for 'DM links from comments.' Choose 'any' post type, set a specific keyword (e.g., 'empire'), and craft an opening DM that acknowledges the user and asks them to click for the link. Then set up the resource link and a follow-up DM if they don't click.
- **The Follow-Up Is Critical** [05:43] — Most creators miss the follow-up DM if the user doesn't click the link. This follow-up is where the automation becomes effective. Customize it to be specific to your offer.
- **Other Automation Options** [06:10] — ManyChat offers story mention replies, default replies for incoming DMs with keywords, and many other automations like responding to all DMs, growing followers from comments, automating conversations with AI, and growing SMS/email lists.
- **Story Replies Automation** [07:14] — Set up a similar automation for story replies: users reply with a keyword (e.g., 'empire') to a story, and they get a DM with a resource. You can also follow up on heart reactions, ask for email, etc.
- **Real-World Examples** [08:09] — Examples include a creator getting comments for 'game plan' to increase credit score, Amy getting comments for 'recipe' to send a recipe (and later selling a recipe book), and Jasmine Porterfield growing her business to $130K and offering a training for six-figure female founders.
- **Posting Frequency and Systems** [09:37] — Post this type of content 3-4 times a week, not every day, to avoid seeming transactional. Successful creators post like this and let automations handle the rest. The real secret is building systems to avoid burnout.

### Conclusion

Automating your Instagram comments and DMs with a tool like ManyChat can turn casual engagement into a consistent stream of leads and sales. The key is to provide real value, set up follow-ups, and build systems that prevent burnout.

## Transcript

Instagram post to more than 4,000 different email leads. I helped this creator automate her entire course funnel so that she's not living in her DMs and comments. And I helped this creator scale his digital product while
wedding. And the crazy part, they all I'm going to be sharing with you in this video. Because here's what nobody tells you, creating content is just the beginning and monetizing your Instagram
and building your empire happens after somebody actually comments on your content. And right now, 95% of creators are leaving money on the table and I think you're one of them. So, if you have a course, a digital offer, a
coaching product, or you're trying to grow your email list, you're going to it, you're going to know exactly how to automate your comments and your DMs on Instagram to help you drive more sales.
happen. You post a banging reel, it gets more than 50,000 views, but you make no money from it and you drive no leads. For example, just like this creator did right here. This post performed amazing,
but didn't drive any business for them. Instead, you want a process like what this creator has going on right here, where they're getting tons of comments, tons of leads, and tons of sales every single time that they post. And on top
of that, after they post their content, both their comments and their DMs are handled for them with AI. And they don't stress about whether or not the content because they get consistent engagement. top of that, they're not
worried about working their leads or closing sales because AI's handling that a high level so that you know where we're going. Step one, somebody comments a specific keyword on your post. They instantly get a DM from you, like a
link, a guide, a webinar sign-up, or a checkout page. And then that DM is captured as a lead and then from there, they're moved into a follow-up sequence that nurtures them and asks them to buy. And the best part, all of it's
tool that we're going to be using today is ManyChat, and full disclosure, they did sponsor this video, but it's a tool that I personally use and it's trusted by millions of other creators that make a full-time living on Instagram. On top
literally over a year because they're a meta-verified business partner. And it's been proven that using ManyChat actually increases your growth by 140%. And by the pinned comment below if you want to grab it and follow along with what we're
about to do. Okay, now once we're actually inside of ManyChat's dashboard, here, and I don't want you to get overwhelmed because we're only going to that we're going to be touching going to be these automations right here, which
automations. In addition to that, we're going to be coming over here to goldmine. These are going to be people that have reached out to you, raised interested in whatever you're doing. And then in addition to that, we have your
going to be all the different conversations that are being had in your responded to by a human. Now, before we decide what you're giving away in the DMs, and this is something that most
want to just send people, "Hey, thanks for commenting." That would be a complete waste. You want to send them a resource that's actually going to provide them value and get them to take the next step to them becoming a client
could send them is a free guide or resource like a PDF, checklist, or a swipe file. The second thing would be a webinar or a training sign-up, get them on a live call, or third, just a direct link to your course or product for
higher intent posts. Now, here's a rule that I follow. I always try to actually match what I'm giving away to the actual post itself. So, if your post is teaching something and a free guide goes deeper, that would be great. If your
then getting people on a waitlist or a webinar would be awesome. And if your post is about whatever it is that you're selling, then going directly to that could be useful also. Okay, so the first automation that you want to make sure
DM links from comments right here. This is going to actually make it so when somebody comments on one of your posts, they get that DM. So, you could choose post or reel, or your next. I always do any so that you can reuse the same
thing that we're going to do is a specific word or words. Ideally, you posting about. For the sake of this, we're going to choose empire right here because again, today's focus is you building an empire and not you
continuing to feed the algorithm, but instead the algorithm feeding you and your business. And then what I ideally want my post to say is I want it to say comment empire and I'll send you some free resource or guide. And as a pro
tip, you ideally want to say whatever word it is, in this case empire, in You want to say it in the beginning, the middle, the end, and you also want to have it inside of your description. Now, the first thing we want to do is set up
this opening DM right here. Basically, you want this to like acknowledge the user. So, we could say something like, "Thanks for commenting empire. Want me to send you the link?" And then this right here is
actually be able to click that then sends them the link. And the reason that you want to acknowledge them and you want them to take another step. It's basically like getting somebody to keep saying yes, so they're more likely to
convert. And then what you do is set up what they're going to get. So, you could say something like, "Thanks. Here's your free resource." And then if we click on add link right here, you'll be able to add in what the button label is. For
example, click here. And then we can actually put whatever the link is right here to that free resource. Now, we're going to be able to click on save right here. And now, this is the part that most people mess up, but is really the
that you you a follow-up DM if they don't click on the link. For example, if tap the link. I think that you'll love it. But, you could also customize this to make it whatever you want, so that it's more specific to your actual offer.
And most creators miss this last part right here, so please don't be like most creators because the follow-up is really where it's going to make this effective. going to click on go live in the top right-hand corner right here, and your
automation will be set up. In addition to that, if we come under basic be able to see that you could come over here, and you could also do story mention replies, so you could reply to users who mention you in their story.
You could set up default replies, so you could send instant replies to incoming direct messages that match specific keywords, and you can also assist your incredibly quickly, like discounts, where to get specific things, or all the
free resources that you have. And what's crazy about all this is that ManyChat handles all of this. In addition to that, if we come over here and click on automations again, we'll be able to see all the different types of automations
ManyChat. For example, you could respond to all your DMs by auto-sending customized replies. You could grow your followers from your comments. You could respond to all your DMs. You could automate your conversations with AI. You
could auto-send links in DM and do so much more. As we can see right here, there are literally tons of different automations, in fact, dozens of them that you could begin to use. You could even grow an SMS list or your email
>> But, comments are only one channel. There are two others that I want to make sure you have set up. The first one of those is going to be story replies. So, here, we could see generate leads with stories. This is going to work pretty
much the same exact way. So, we have any story right here, any word or reaction. We're going to add in empire right here, and then we could choose when they'll actually get right here. So, here's your free resource. Again, we could come over
here and say click here. We could add in whatever link it is that we actually want to add in right here, and we could click on save. And then, we could also reacts with a heart, we could follow up to actually grow engagement. We could
link, or we could ask for email. I personally like to turn on this one Again, just to make sure that you're following up with the individual. So, I could use in order to make sure that that happens. And first one is going to
does right here. He's trying to get you to comment game plan, and then he's strategy to increase your credit score. So, this right here is incredibly valuable, and it's actually getting people to take the first step for free
example I wanted to show you right here is how Amy gets people to comment recipe, and she is going to send you a recipe for how to make what she's the first one that we had is going to be Nick. Basically, what he's doing is he's
steps. So, you were actually going to get something in return for information is a little bit more passive because she's just sending over the recipe for On the back end, she's actually selling a recipe book. So, again, she's getting
somebody to take the first step towards something and getting value. And then, follow-ups, she sells you something else. But then, the last thing you could Porterfield is doing right here. She says that she grew her business to $130
six-figure female founders grow theirs. So, basically, if you comment training, going to walk you through how she actually did that, how you could do that. And this is another example of what you could do. So, you now are armed
examples of things that you could give away, things that you could actually do. three of your bases covered. We got DMs covered, we got comments covered, we've got stories covered, and now you've got automations built to handle pretty much
want to do is make sure posting this type of content three to four times a because it's not going to seem transactional and you'll be able to do all of your other posts which are going to be solely just value-driven. And the
creators that are actually having the most success from this aren't running a they're doing is just posting like this three to four times a week and letting the automations handle the rest. And now, here's the real secret. If you
into an empire, you need to make sure that you have systems built out because creators that are going and burning out and trying to handle everything, the same thing happens every single time.
They might see some success, but then they have burnout. A real empire has systems, has automations, and that's exactly why I'd strongly suggest using ManyChat. Again, if you go to the pin comment below, you could get started
absolute no-brainer. It's completely changed my business and can help you turn your Instagram page into an empire, also. Because empires treat every comment, every story, every DM like what it actually is, a person raising their
hand and telling you they're interested in what you have to offer. And now, your job is to build out the systems that actually turn those leads into sales. So, if you're ready to start owning your empire and not renting it from the
algorithm, go to that pin comment below and get started with the 30-day free trial of ManyChat today. And if you enjoyed this video and you want to learn algorithm works, I would strongly suggest you check out this video right
here that walks you through exactly how it works. I'll see you over there.