How to turn comments and messages into members

Meta publishes limits for software that replies for a business. Its Instagram page says that after a comment on a post or reel, "Only one message can be sent to the commenter", and it must go within seven days of the comment. After that, "Follow-up messages can only be sent if the recipient responds, and must be sent within 24 hours of the response". Its page for Facebook Pages sets the same limits: "Only one message can be sent to the person who commented", within seven days, and the conversation continues only when the person responds, "within the 24-hour messaging window".

Someone who messages you first has opened that window themselves. Meta's policy for the same tools says: "Businesses have up to 24 hours to respond to a user. Messages sent within the 24-hour window may contain promotional content."

The limits are written for software. Keep to them by hand too: the person left one comment, so they get one answer. Do not wait seven days either. Someone asking a price is deciding now.

The Instagram page also says a private reply reaches the person's inbox only if they follow your account. Otherwise it waits in their Request folder. So write a few words under the comment as well, to say a message is there.

The rules do not say how many commenters go on to join. We looked for a sound measurement and found none. The only figure worth having is your own.

Your join link opens your card program's page on your Business page. There a customer confirms an email address with a 6-digit code and adds the card to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. No app and no password. (How to get customers to join at the counter goes through that form.)

Give each place its own tagged copy, so you can tell them apart afterwards.

A Story's link sticker does not need a large following: in October 2021 Instagram opened it "to all accounts", apart from new accounts and those that repeatedly break its rules. On a Facebook Page the last two rows work the same way, through Messenger.

You can also paste the link by hand into a WhatsApp chat, though native.cards itself sends nothing on WhatsApp or by SMS.

You get one message, so it does three jobs in this order: it answers what they asked, says in a line what the card gives them, and carries the link.

Someone who wrote "how much for the pineapple tarts?" and gets an invitation to a loyalty program has not been answered. Someone who gets the price, the last day for orders and a way to earn towards a free jar has.

Be exact about what joining gives. A new card in native.cards starts at zero. There is no joining bonus, so the message cannot promise Points for signing up. It can name your first reward and how near it is, or a benefit you have set to come with membership (How to use perks, offers and events, not just points explains those).

An example with made-up details, for a bakery whose members earn Points:

Thanks for asking. The pineapple tarts are RM38 a jar, and orders close on Friday. If you would like to earn Points on yours, our card is added to your phone's Wallet, with no app to download: [your link]

Keep the wording in the notes of the shop phone, so that whoever answers comments sends the same facts under their own greeting.

Make the link before you send the first message. In the dashboard open Marketing, then Campaigns, and go to Create a tracked join link. Choose Instagram or Facebook, then Message. Under Name this campaign, type a name for the post, such as pineapple-tarts. The page shows how its line will read: "pineapple-tarts · Instagram, message". The builder only labels the link. You paste it yourself, and the line appears once someone joins through it.

The dashboard cannot see messages you send by hand, so keep a tally. As an example with made-up numbers:

If each message took a minute, that is under half an hour for nine members: about one member for every three messages. Four of the nine made two or more recorded visits in their first 30 days, which is what Came back counts. Do the same sum for an hour spent at the counter asking people to scan the sign, and you know where the next hour should go. One post with numbers this small proves little, so repeat it on the next.

Which sign, link or post brings you the best members? explains each column, the label Still counting and the page's blind spot: a person who saw the reel and joined at your counter on Saturday counts for the counter sign.

Auto-Replies appears only where the Instagram or Facebook connection is switched on for the business. Where neither is, it is not in the Marketing menu, and the owner's Integrations page lists the connection as Not available yet. Do not plan around it until you can see it.

Where it is on, the owner connects an Instagram professional account, a Facebook Page or both. You then add an auto-reply for each thing you want answered. Under Reply when, Instagram has six triggers: Comment on a post, Reply to your story, Message with a keyword, Mentions you in a story, Comment during a live and Opens a chat from an ad. A Facebook Page has three of them: the comment, the keyword message and the ad chat. Each sends what the editor calls "A private message with one button that takes them to join": a Message of up to 600 characters and Button text of up to 20, which starts as "Get my card". The page states the timing in Meta's terms: "Each comment gets at most one private reply, within seven days. Mentions, messages and ad chats are answered within 24 hours; live comments only while the live is on."

It keeps the tally for you, and adds a step you could not see by hand. Each auto-reply shows Replies sent, Opened the link and Joined for the last 30 days. Joined means joining within seven days of opening the link. One way to read them: if few people open the link, the message is the problem. If many open it and few join, look at the offer or the join page. On Campaigns each post is then listed with its likes beside the members it brought and what they spent.

It sends one message and is not an inbox: when someone writes back, a person at your business answers in Instagram or Messenger. Likes and new follows get no reply because, in the page's words, "Neither Instagram nor Facebook reports who liked a post or who followed you". And the message it suggests ends "(Automated reply)". Leave that in: Meta's policy recommends telling people when a chat is automated, "Even where not legally required".

The same line under everyone. When every comment in a thread carries the same reply, it reads as a machine. A join invitation sent in answer to a complaint reads worse. By hand, answer the comment in front of you. In Auto-Replies, choose Only ones with a keyword over Every comment ("Whatever it says."), and name the keyword in your caption. Fill in more than one Public reply under their comment: one is picked at random each time, "so your replies don’t all look the same". Then look at Reply to the same person at most once every. It starts at 7 days, so under Every comment a regular who comments each week is invited each week. 90 days is the longest it goes.

Chasing people who did not answer. Silence after one message is an answer. A tool is not allowed a second message. A person can send one, and should not: Meta's policy reminds businesses that "Users have the option to block or mute a conversation with a business at any time." The next thing that customer sees from you should be your next post.