You have seen the caption: "Comment GUIDE and I'll send it to you." It works because a comment is cheap for the reader and a DM opens a conversation. It fails when the link never arrives, or arrives the next morning.
What happens behind the scenes
- Someone comments your keyword on the post.
- Meta sends the comment to Postfjord within a second or two.
- Postfjord matches it against your automations. Whole words only, so "guide" matches "the guide please" but not "misguided".
- It replies publicly on the comment ("Sent you a DM!") so others see it works, then sends the private message.
- If the message has buttons, the person's choice runs the next step.
The person never has to follow you first. Meta allows a business to reply privately to a comment on its own post, once, within seven days.
Setting it up
- Open Automation and press New automation.
- Trigger: Comment keyword. Type the keyword, pick the posts (or all posts).
- Public reply: one short line that tells everyone the DM is on its way.
- First step: your message and the link. Add up to three buttons if you want to ask a question.
- Turn it on, comment the keyword on your own post from a second account, and watch the thread appear in the inbox.
Three things that make it work better
- Say the keyword in the caption and in the image. People comment what they can see.
- Ask one question with buttons. "Beginner or been at it a while?" doubles replies and tells you who your audience is.
- Leave the last word to a human. Turn on email alerts for new replies so a real conversation continues with you, not with a bot.
Opt-out is built in: STOP, unsubscribe and their equivalents in other languages end automation for that person for good.