Create an Instagram Story Automation
A story automation replies to the people who react to your story, answer it with a word, or tag you in a story of their own. Unlike a comment, all three of those arrive in your DMs already — so the automation isn’t opening a conversation, it’s answering one, which is why story replies convert well and why they’re easy to miss when there are two hundred of them.
Before you begin
- An Instagram account connected to LinktoDM
- A story currently live on the account, if you want to point the automation at one specific story
Start a story automation
Section titled “Start a story automation”Click + New automation and pick Story automation — replies to story replies and reactions — from the Quick automations row.
The editor opens as an unpublished draft in two halves: Setup triggers and public reply at the top, Setup direct message below. Stories have no comment section, so there’s no public reply step here — the whole automation is the DM.
1. Choose which story it watches
Section titled “1. Choose which story it watches”The dropdown on the Story card decides what wakes the automation up. There are four choices, and they behave quite differently.
| Option | When it fires |
|---|---|
| apply for story mention | Someone tags your account in their story |
| apply for all stories | Anyone replies to or reacts to any story you post, now and in future |
| apply for next story | The next story you upload, and only that one |
| a specific story | One story you’re running right now, picked from the grid |
apply for all stories is the set-and-forget option — post as usual and the automation keeps answering. a specific story suits a single campaign: a poll, a launch, a link you only want handled today.
Story mentions are their own case. Choose apply for story mention and the Trigger card disappears entirely — the mention is the trigger, so there’s no keyword to match and nothing to set. The editor drops straight from Story to the message.
2. Set the trigger
Section titled “2. Set the trigger”For the three reply-based options, the Trigger card decides which replies qualify.
- any word — every reply and reaction qualifies. The right pick when the story says “reply anything for the link”, and the only one that catches emoji-only reactions reliably.
- a specific word (s) — add keywords as chips, one per line, pressing Enter after each. Any one of them matching is enough.
- intent match — describe what a reply should mean and let LinktoDM judge it, instead of guessing every spelling of “price”.
One DM per user sits below the keywords. With it on, someone who replies to your story five times still gets a single DM. Stories invite rapid-fire replies far more than comments do, so this is worth switching on more often here than on a post automation.
3. Write the DM
Section titled “3. Write the DM”The Message card is the reply itself — plain text by default, with the dropdown offering the same layouts as a post automation: buttons, image cards, carousels and attachments.
You have 900 characters. Use {{username}} to drop in the replier’s name —
it renders live in the preview on the right. Add variations generates up to
five wordings of the same message that
rotate automatically, which
matters more on stories than anywhere else: the people replying to your story are
often the same regulars, week after week.
4. Add the optional steps
Section titled “4. Add the optional steps”Four buttons under the message add the steps that turn a reply into something more than an answer:
- Opener message — a greeting with a button before the real DM
- Collect info — ask for an email or phone number and save it to Contacts
- Ask to follow — hold the content until they follow you
- Follow up message — a second message for people who didn’t open or didn’t click
Enable delay in the top right spaces the steps out so the reply doesn’t land the same second they tapped send. See Add a delay between automation steps.
5. Publish and test
Section titled “5. Publish and test”Rename the draft from the breadcrumb, then hit Publish. Test it from a second Instagram account: reply to your live story with one of your keywords and watch the DM come back.
The preview panel has two views — the phone icon shows your story as the replier sees it, the send icon shows the DM thread. Switching between them while you edit is the quickest way to catch a message that reads fine in the box and badly in a chat bubble.
You should now have
A published story automation that answers replies, reactions or mentions on the stories you chose — with the keyword rule, the DM and any follow-up steps set, and a test DM received on a second account.