Story Automation Templates

The template gallery carries one story automation: Respond to story mentions. Open it from + New automation → Browse templates, on the Basic tab — the card is labelled Story automation at the foot.

Respond to story mentions

Send a thank you message, offer, or link whenever someone mentions you in their story.

Someone tagging your account in their story is the warmest signal Instagram gives you, and it’s the one most accounts answer late or not at all. This template answers every one of them instantly.

The template opens with the Story card already set to 'apply for story mention'

What it arrives with

• Story card set to apply for story mention, showing Story mention selected. That’s the whole trigger.
• No Trigger card at all. A mention needs no keyword to match, so the editor drops straight from the Story card to the DM — one card fewer than a reply-based story automation.
• A plain-text message with five variations already generated, opening on something like helloo.. {{username}} Thank you for mentioning us.. — 51 of the 900 characters used.
• The four optional steps unused — Opener message, Collect info, Ask to follow and Follow up message are all there to add.

What to change before publishing

Rewrite the message. The placeholder is deliberately bland. A thank-you on its own is a dead end; the mention is worth more if the reply carries something — a discount code, the link to the thing they tagged you about, or a question that keeps the thread going.

Then re-open the variations. They were generated from the placeholder, so they’ll paraphrase text you’ve just deleted. Regenerate or rewrite all five once your copy is final — message variations only help if every version is one you’d have sent.

Keep {{username}}. On a mention it lands well: the person tagged you by name, and being answered by name reads as a person noticing rather than a system firing.

Consider what comes next. People who tag you unprompted are the most likely to follow, subscribe or buy, so this is a natural place for Collect info or a follow-up — neither of which the template adds for you.

Mentions only reach you if the account is public

A story mention from a private account, or from someone who has restricted who can tag them, may never generate the notification the automation listens for. Nothing is misconfigured when a particular mention doesn’t fire.

The story automations with no template

Only mentions ship as a template. The other three story triggers — all stories, next story and a specific story — take about the same time to build from an empty story automation, since the Story card and one keyword are most of the work:

• A link on every story — apply for all stories, trigger on any word, DM the link. Set it up once and every “link?” reply is answered from then on.
• A launch story — apply for next story with a specific keyword, built the night before you post.
• A poll or a quiz — a specific story, intent match on the answer you’re looking for, different DMs for different stories.

Create an Instagram story automation walks the editor end to end.