Comment-to-DM
Someone comments "price?" under a post. A short public reply goes up so everyone reading the comments sees a brand that answers, and the same moment a private message reaches that person with the actual detail.
This is also the one way to reach someone who has never messaged you. Instagram doesn't let a business open a conversation out of nowhere, but a comment is the exception: Meta allows one private reply per comment, within seven days.
Everyone who comments is a lead, and there is one way to reach them.
Left unanswered
Answered within seven days
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Comment moderation
Every comment gets a reply written for it, not a canned line matched to a keyword.
Spam, abuse and the same off-topic reply for the fifth time can be hidden or removed without anyone scrolling. Hiding leaves the comment visible to whoever wrote it and nobody else, which usually ends the argument instead of starting one.
The agent decides in context and picks:
Running ads on a post makes this matter more, because the comment section under a paid post is the first thing a new visitor reads.
