Add Instagram as a source

Add Instagram as a source and start collecting content for your Flows

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Written by Davy Laudet
Updated over a week ago

Once you've connected your Instagram account to Flowbox, you can add Instagram as a source to your Flows by following these steps:

  1. Navigate to 'Visual Marketing' > 'Flows,' select the desired Flow, and click on 'Settings' in the bottom-left menu.

  2. Click on 'Create'.

  3. Select 'Instagram' as the social media platform to fetch content from.

  4. Select the type of source (hashtag, username, mentions, photo tag). See the descriptions of different types of sources below.

  5. Add the value for that type of source.

After adding a source, all new Instagram content will appear in the Inbox of this Flow and can be moderated and used for your Flows.

GENERAL LIMITATIONS

  • Due to Instagram's API restrictions Flowbox cannot collect content from Instagram Stories.

  • Posts that have been marked private by the user will not be collected due to API restrictions. Even if you are following a private account, Flowbox will not collect this content as the user has not allowed it to be public.

Instagram source types

Username

Collects public Instagram media from your own connected account. Flowbox will also collect and display the caption, username and user profile image.

Mentions

Collects public Instagram media that @mentioned your connected Instagram account. Flowbox will also collect and display the username and caption, but not the user profile image.

Photo tag

Collects public Instagram media that have tagged your connected Instagram account on the post. Flowbox will also collect and display the username and caption but not the user profile image.

Hashtag

Collects public Instagram media that include a specified hashtag. Flowbox will collect and display the caption of the post but not the username and user profile image.

To set up the hashtag source in your Flow, enter the hashtag without the '#' symbol.

LIMITATIONS TO COLLECTING CONTENT VIA A HASHTAG

  • You can query a maximum of 30 unique hashtags on behalf of an Instagram Business User (and per Flowbox account) within a rolling 7-day period. Once you query a hashtag, it will count against this limit for 7 days. Subsequent queries on the same hashtag within this time frame will not count against your limit, and will not reset its initial query 7 day timer.

  • Personally identifiable information such as usernames and profile pictures won't be included in the responses.

  • You cannot comment on hashtagged media objects discovered through Flowbox.

  • Emojis in hashtag queries are not supported (e.g., you can use #Flowbox but not #Flowbox💙).

  • Only content posted with the hashtag from the last 24 hours will be fetched from Instagram.

Additional information

You will not collect duplicate posts in Flowbox if someone tags your brand and uses your hashtag too for example. You will also be able to find the content when you filter for photo tags and hashtags in the search bar in your Inbox.

Additionally, if an already-collected post gets collected via a mention-source Flowbox will update all the occurrences of that post with the additional information that is collected via mentions (e.g. comments, username).

To exclude posts from the collected posts that contain certain words or hashtags, you can additionally use the 'Filters' settings. Read more about our blocked hashtag feature here.

BEST PRACTICES

  • In order to avoid duplicates in the system, we recommend only connecting a source to one Flow, such as your Masterflow, and then distributing the posts to other Flows.

  • Post your hashtag and photo tags on your social media profiles and encourage your customers to use them.

Collect older content

Flowbox can only collect new content that is posted on Instagram after adding a new source, due to API restrictions. To collect older content, we recommend installing our Chrome Extension.


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