C-Com News - Say hello to your customers on Instagram

Facebook is expanding the Messenger API to start supporting Instagram messaging.

This means businesses no longer need to go into the Instagram app to reply to Instagram Direct messages.

Our customers already use Charles to connect with their customers via WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Google My Business. Now Instagram Direct messaging is the next messaging channel we will offer soon.

"Instagram is just an incredible destination for brands to build lasting relationships with people. It's really cool. How important the role messaging is playing in brands and people interacting on Instagram. As Instagram messaging continues to grow businesses will need tools to manage the communication on Instagram at scale."

Ankur Prasad, Director of Product Marketing, Business Messaging, Facebook

Charles for Instagram Direct Messages

Conversational Commerce gets now more powerful and scalable than ever by the Messenger API for Instagram.

The integration enables brands to communicate with their customers via Instagram messaging directly via the Charles operating system and thus in a central “inbox” together with WhatsApp and Co. But there are way more features now provided.

Our development team is working hard to react and provide you with the newest features. Instagram is a new integration and still in a BETA phase. Here comes a list with all the features that are provided by the Instagram API:

Send and receive direct messages from your customers from Instagram in Charles OS.
Manage messages from different channels in one place. WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Google My Business, or Instagram DM are directly connected with shop systems like Shopify, Shopware, and more.
Receive and send media like pictures, videos, voice messages, and files from all places on Instagram (Stories, Feed DM)
Your customer information gets updated in the customer widget based on their Instagram profile details
If your customers comment on your posts, you can reach out to them directly on messenger

How businesses use Instagram messaging

IG direct messages play a central role in connecting businesses and brands with their customers. Several interactions like replying to Stories, direct messages, and mentions create way more interaction possibilities like in any other channels. Last year, the number of daily conversations between people and businesses on Messenger and Instagram increased by over 40%.

With the expansion of social commerce features on Instagram, it is also expected that customer service on Instagram will become even more important for businesses in the future. And that's not all.

First case studies showed a 20% higher conversion rate and a 30% increase in qualified leads compared to other channels.

How and when Charles customers can use the Instagram Integration

Since Instagram restricted the onboarding based on follower counts, any IG business account with between 10,000 and 100,000 followers can get access. From July 2021, any IG business account with between 1,000 and 100,000 followers can access the API.
And by the end of Q3 2021, All business IG accounts can access the API.

About Charles

Charles is the conversational commerce solution for consumer brands: all you need as a business to offer shopping via WhatsApp and alike. With the original idea of building a consumer-centric brand, our founders quickly reached the limits of traditional e-commerce systems. They recognized this problem, and the idea of Charles was born: a novel chat-centric approach to selling products and services, all combined in a modern software solution, which combines chat, shop, contact management, campaigns, chatbots, and many more.