Conversation starters (also known as ice breakers) are an Instagram feature that helps businesses connect with new users more easily. In Manychat, conversation starters act as pre-set prompts that appear before a conversation begins, guiding users on how to interact with your account. They remove the friction of “what should I say?” and make it simple for people to start chatting with you.
By using conversation starters, you can encourage engagement, direct users toward specific actions, and create a smoother first interaction with your brand.
In this article, you’ll learn how conversation starters work and how to set them up in Manychat to get the most out of your Instagram conversations.
| Note: Conversation starters appear only when there’s no active conversation between the user and your Instagram business account. If you’ve already interacted with a user before, they won’t see conversation starters when they open your DMs. |
How to set up conversation starters
- Open your Manychat account and click on Settings in the sidebar.
- Then select Instagram from the list of channels.
- Scroll to find the Conversation Starters section.
- Click Edit to add new conversation starters or edit the existing ones.
- Next, click + Add Question to create your first conversation starter. You can add up to 4 questions in total.
- Type the question in the field that appears and click the conversation icon to add a response to this question. You can either create a new one by clicking the + Create New Message or select an existing automation.
- If you select to add a new message, Flow Builder opens, where you can edit a message node by adding text, links, or any other useful information.
- For the conversation starters to work, don’t forget to enable the automation by clicking Set Live.
- Once you do so, go back to Settings > Instagram > Conversations Starters > Edit and preview how the conversation starters look on your Instagram.
- Switch the toggle next to the Publish button, and then click Publish to go live with the automation.
You can also configure conversation starters for Instagram by clicking the Automations in the sidebar, switching to the Basics tab, and selecting Conversation Starters from the list of automations.
| Note: Due to Meta’s current limitations, Conversation Starters must be enabled in order for the Instagram Ref URL trigger to work for new users. If a user hasn’t interacted with your account before, the Ref URL trigger will only activate if conversation starters are set up. For users who already have an existing DM conversation with your account, the trigger will work as expected. |