This post is entirely speculation and is not based in fact. So, take what you read with a grain of salt. But, here is my theory.
Last week Instagram suspended my Broke Agent account out of nowhere. Thankfully, I got it back in 30 minutes after an appeal and account review. You can read about my nightmare here.
Of course, Instagram didn’t give me the exact reason why they suspended my account, but they did send me a message that my account did NOT violate their community guidelines on Spam.
I did some research over the weekend and found I was not the only account this happened to.
I saw this post from Jeff The Entrepreneur, who said it also happened to him and his colleague. He says the reason is definitely because of ManyChat, the DM automation chatbot we all use instead of plugging links.
You’ve definitely seen me use it on both the BA and BAM accounts, where I say, “Comment the word BAM and we will send you a ____.”
The Problem with ManyChat Auto Replies
Specifically, Jeff mentions turning off the “Auto Comment Reply” feature on ManyChat. For those of you who don’t know, this is when someone comments the trigger word, and you automatically comment back with “Sent you a link in the DM” or whatever you choose the verbiage to be.
I like this feature because it notifies the commenter where you sent the link…and it doubles your comments.
To get more info on the subject, I immediately went to Brock Johnson’s Instagram (my favorite Instagram coach) to see what he had to say about it. Definitely follow him for IG updates and tips. Surprisingly, he hasn’t mentioned it yet, but I did send him a DM asking for his thoughts since he uses ManyChat on almost every post and is very connected within Instagram. I will keep you all posted when he responds (yes, we are tight and he will respond)…
Final Thoughts (for now)
DM Chat automation is much more effective than plugging links and leads to more engagement on posts and stories, so I really hope Instagram lays off this. The good news is they are quickly reviewing suspended accounts and correcting the “mistake,” but it’s still scary since we know their support can be all over the place and hard to reach at times.
So, if I were you, I would tread cautiously with ManyChat and would turn off the auto comment reply feature just to be safe. Also, I noticed that Brock Johnson doesn’t auto-comment back to people on his posts so maybe our theory is correct.
In the meantime, our BAMx members were the first to know about this.
In our platform, we give you weekly social media templates, email scripts, video scripts, and blogs for agents to brand and customize plus social media trainings and audits. We even have a full-blown course on how to use ManyChat and best practices.
If you are serious about growing your digital brand through social media, definitely check it out and become a member.
