In today’s episode I want to discuss ManyChat a social media tool I have been using for over a year and it has been a game changer! It allows me to create automations on Instagram that drive email subscribers, sales and more.
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In today’s episode I want to discuss ManyChat a social media tool I have been using for over a year and it has been a game changer! It allows me to create automations on Instagram that drive email subscribers, sales and more.
Please subscribe to the podcast on your favorite platform, if you love it leave a review!
Join the Patreon community, your small monthly donation helps support me in creating this podcast, my blog at metalsmithsociety.com and sharing tips @metalsmithsociety on Instagram. You will also get exclusive discounts from companies like Rio Grande, Gesswein, PepeTools, Sunstone and many more! https://www.patreon.com/metalsmithsociety
Music attribution: Stock Music provided by RomanSenykMusic, from Pond5
Corkie Bolton:
Welcome to Jewelry Making Tips with Metalsmith Society the ultimate podcast for anyone passionate about the art of jewelry making. I'm your host, Corkie Bolton. Metalsmith Society is a community on Instagram that has over 240,000 individuals, from professional jewelers to small business artisans, hobbyists, students and even those curious looky-loos eager to learn about jewelry making. Together, we share tips, kindness and even those curious looky-loos eager to learn about jewelry making. Together, we share tips, kindness and support. In this podcast, I will discuss tips from the Instagram page, provide deeper insights, address questions and share bonus tips that often surface in the comments section. So, whether you've been making jewelry for a while or you're just starting your jewelry making journey, this podcast is your go-to resource for all the jewelry making tips. So grab your tools, dust off your workbench and join me. In today's episode. I want to discuss ManyChat, a social media tool I've been using for over a year and it truly has been a game changer. I will talk about how I've used it for Metalsmith Society and how I've also used it for my jewelry business, Corkie Bolton Jewelry. Now, I confess I've only been using a few of the features that ManyChat has to offer, so I will cover those today. I've used it to build my email list, get direct sales through DM, and I've increased my overall engagement. But first let's talk about what ManyChat is in a little bit more detail. I've had a lot of people asking me about it in our jewelry making community. Manychat is this super handy tool that lets you create chatbots and automated messaging for your social media. You can use it on Facebook and Instagram to set up automations that will help handle customer questions, send them updates and direct message them. It's sort of like having an extra team member who never sleeps because it's constantly running 24-7 on Instagram. So this is how I discovered ManyChat.
Corkie Bolton:
Back in 2023, I noticed an account or two that I was following had this new feature where, if I commented specific words on a post of theirs, they were going to automatically DM me a blog article or a product. And I thought to myself what is this feature and how can I get this? Because at Metalsmith Society, I'm constantly trying to serve and educate, and I can't tell you how many times people have DM'd me asking where did you get this tool, when did you get this product? And there's no way that I can get back to everybody's DM, and so there have been so many questions that have gone unanswered, that you know. I just simply couldn't get to, and so I thought oh my gosh, this is perfect for our community because it's not pushing anything. You know, the post is still going to be educational, but if there is a product involved and people are interested, they can simply comment and then I can automatically DM them. I'm like this is amazing. Comment and then I can automatically DM them. I'm like this is amazing.
Corkie Bolton:
The other thing that this action was doing is it was increasing the engagement on my posts, because I was getting, in some cases, hundreds and hundreds of people commenting on my post. Now there is a downside to this which must be discussed, and that's the bot-like quality of setting up an automation. So let's talk about that real quick. The term bot definitely has a negative reputation, particularly on Instagram. You know those irritating bot comments that pop up on your posts whenever you use certain hashtags. For me lately it's been people commenting random words but their profile pic is of their butts. Sorry, but that's just what's been happening. It's so weird and random. I guess it is engagement nonetheless, but this whole action of setting up an automation where someone comments on my post?
Corkie Bolton:
Manychat also allows you to set up an automated reply to that, and you can set up 15 to 20 different ones so that not every comment gets the same response, which is pretty cool, but it's still not me actually responding. So on one hand, it's a great time saver because I don't have to go through and reply to everyone ManyChat does that for me but it is definitely not as personalized as me going through each comment and interacting personally. However, when I go back to the limitations of my time and being able to get back to every comment and every DM, I will take this slightly less personalization to be able to give everyone the information that they need and also that acknowledgement of like hey, thanks for commenting. I sent you a DM Now for my jewelry making business, which has way less followers, and I use an automation like this. What's really beautiful about it is it's also opening up a DM with a potential customer in the case of selling your jewelry, and once they have DM'd for this information, you can personally reach out and be like hey, did you have a chance to check it out? Or thank you so much for your interest, or I hope you're having a great day, or there might even be a future post that you do and you know that this person was interested in a different piece of jewelry. But you can reach out and say, hey, I know you didn't snatch up that particular piece, but I have another thing that I think you might be interested in, and so, while this is an automation, it can really start the conversation and deepen the connection with someone in your community, one of your followers, one of your potential customers, and I think that part is really cool.
Corkie Bolton:
Using ManyChat to build your email list is another really important use for it Because, let's think about it, Most times on Instagram, if you're asking people to join your email list which you should be doing you're going to tell them head over to the link in my profile. But this gives you the option to say, on a post or a reel and maybe one that's, you know, become quite popular, you can say comment join my list on this post and I'll DM you the link to join my list. And it's so much easier to convert when it's going directly into someone's inbox like that, and then all they have to do is click on the button and it brings them right to the form. So I love using it for that and I think every artist, small business, definitely benefit from growing their email list, of course, and using this automation to help make that happen. So I've briefly discussed how I use it to increase my engagement on posts, send DMs with actual links to products or my email list, which has really increased my conversion. And now I'm just going to run through some of the other possibilities on ManyChat, which I confess I haven't used them all, but they sound amazing.
Corkie Bolton:
You can send welcome messages automatically greeting new followers or subscribers. You can send instant replies that will quickly answer common questions and comments that are happening within your DM. So let's say, for example, someone is constantly asking where can I find your book? Just as an example, you can set up an automation where, if that, if those words DM'd to you, you can create an instant reply. And there's a whole, you know you can set up a whole web of responses as well. You can do reminders. You can do event notifications, surveys Within ManyChat. You can create customer groups based on how they're interacting with you Appointment reminders. You can share newsletters and updates, order updates. You can also follow up with people after they've bought something with you and, like we mentioned, lead capturing, getting people to sign up for your email list and, of course, doing all types of promotions.
Corkie Bolton:
One of the questions I had before I started using ManyChat is how is this allowed to happen? Because truly bot-like activity really isn't allowed on Instagram. But ManyChat is allowed to work on Instagram because it complies with Instagram's official API guidelines and policies, and Instagram provides an API, that's an application programming interface that allows third-party tools like ManyChat to integrate and offers features such as automated messaging and customer interaction, and so, since they're using it in a way that adheres to Instagram's rules, ensuring user privacy and maintaining a high standard of service, it's permitted to operate on the platform. So you don't have to worry that you're breaking the rules or doing something that's going to get your Instagram account in trouble, which I mean is definitely a concern, but I'm going to stop calling it bot-like activity, because it's truly not.
Corkie Bolton:
You really are setting up this thoughtful series of interactions that can take place with people who are genuinely curious, want to hear from you, want to see what you have to offer, and we know, as small business owners, it's impossible to get back to everyone in real time all the time, and so what's been amazing about this is there are new people constantly to Metals mith Society and Corkie Bolton Jewelry that are seeing posts for the first time, and ones that even happened weeks ago, months ago, and these automations continue to work. One of my favorite ones is and the biggest offer I have to get people to join my email list is I have a beginner's download for people that are beginners to jewelry making, and so I have a post that I put on Instagram that shows some of the clips of you know the beginner list and essentially says if you want to join, you know, comment, join the list. And it is continuously getting people to sign up months and months after the fact, because we're constantly finding new members of our community and so when they come across that and they're able to use it down the road, that's something that you know. If I was doing everything in real time, I would never be able to serve all of those new community members in this way. If you want to see some of the many chat integrations I've used in real life, you want to see some of the ManyChat integrations I've used in real life. I'm going to link a few examples in the show notes. Today, I will also link a sign up for ManyChat.
Corkie Bolton:
I hope you found today's episode helpful and thank you for listening. If you'd like to support the podcast, please follow on Apple or Spotify and leave me a rating and review. It would mean so much to me and it helps others find the podcast. You can also head over to metalsmithsocietycom and check out a bunch of merch I have. I've also been sharing that I now have a free membership on Patreon To join. Over there you go to patreoncom slash metalsmithsociety where I'm doing a weekly digest of all the tips we've shared over on Instagram. So be sure to check that out and tune in next time. Bye.