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Announcement

May 8, 2018

Making it Easier to Do Business on Instagram

BY: Instagram Business Team

San Francisco, CA

(Update on November 14, 2021 at 9:00AM PT: This blog post was published in 2018. For up-to-date information, please download our guide on how businesses can make the most of Instagram.)

People come to Instagram to connect and communicate with businesses they love. In fact, more than 200 million daily active Instagrammers visit a business profile each day.1

Instagram was Flour Shop's first home. My company might not have existed without the opportunity created through the platform. Instagram has been my CMO since day one.
Amirah Kassem, Founder and Flourist, @flourshop
Simplifying the Inbox

More than 150 million have a conversation with businesses through Instagram Direct each month, with a third of those messages beginning with an Instagram Story.2 To make messaging easier and more efficient, we're introducing a new set of features for businesses using Instagram Direct.

Starting today, businesses will have a better way to manage their messages. Now you'll see important new customer messages in your main Direct inbox, instead of in the pending folder. You can also star and filter your conversations to come back to messages you want to follow up on. Additionally, in the coming weeks we'll begin testing quick replies so that you can easily respond to common questions.

A lot of our customers find us through Instagram, and it is much more convenient for them to simply DM us through Instagram than open their mail app.
Alex Mazerolle, Writer and Yoga Teacher, @girlvanayoga
Moving from Discovery to Action

As more people continue to interact with businesses on Instagram and take action when inspiration strikes, we're making it easier to turn that discovery into action. Through our action buttons, people can now Reserve, Get Tickets, Start Order or Book through popular, third-party partners without having to leave Instagram.3 Take HomeState (@homestate) for example, a popular Texan restaurant, they've partnered with ChowNow to use the 'Start Order' button—letting their customers order their signature tacos right from their Instagram business profile.

We're rolling these buttons out with a range of partners, including:

• Acuity, Atom Tickets, Booksy, ChowNow, Eatstreet, Eventbrite, Fandango, GrubHub, MyTime, OpenTable, Reserve, Restorando, Resy, SevenRooms, StyleSeat, Tock and Yelp Reservations—all available now

• And coming soon: Appointy, Genbook, LaFourchette, MINDBODY, Schedulicity, SetMore, Shedul and Vagaro

Instagram is where I post stories of new dishes, specials, weather and/or mood specific dishes that guests love to respond to...Now that I have Resy’s 'Reserve' button on my profile, I’ve seen 15-20 additional bookings per week.
Annie Tucker, Marketing Manager, @thejonesokc

Learn more about how to add action buttons to your business profile here.

Some of these partners are also available for an action button on Facebook Pages; we recommend relevant businesses also look to enable there.

Getting Started

As businesses increasingly view Instagram as a place where business gets done, we're committed to making it easier for them to manage their presence on the platform. Whether through the recent expansion of shopping on Instagram,4 introduction of action buttons or updates to Instagram Direct, business have more opportunities to connect and communicate with their customers.

To get started using Instagram for your business, create a business profile here. And make sure to keep an eye out for our new series of in-product tutorials, where we'll share tips on how to plan posts, create engaging content and grow your community.5 These will be available in the settings of the app, under Tutorials.

BY: Instagram Business Team

San Francisco, CA