11:27Maria Wendt · Tutorial
How to Use Instagram Stories for Business
A creator who says she's made $6M in four years off Instagram walks through the exact ManyChat keyword automations behind her daily Story pitches.
June 13th 2024The argument in one line.
Posting a highly engaging, reply-triggering Instagram Story about thirty minutes before publishing a Reel primes the algorithm with fresh engagement, so it distributes the Reel to the same warmed-up audience and can triple views, replies, and downstream sales.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- You already post Reels consistently on Instagram and want more reach without changing the content itself.
- You have, or are willing to set up, a ManyChat-style DM automation to hand out a lead magnet.
- You're building an email list or funnel off Instagram engagement and want a low-cost distribution lever.
SKIP IF…
- You don't post Stories or Reels regularly — the hack requires an existing daily posting habit to compound.
- You're looking for organic growth tactics that don't involve any kind of automation or opt-in funnel.
The full version, fast.
The core claim: Instagram rewards recent engagement signals, so a Story posted about thirty minutes before a Reel can pull the Reel further into distribution. The mechanism: the Story offers a free resource and asks viewers to reply with a keyword, which triggers a DM automation tool that delivers the freebie and adds the replier to an email list pitching a related paid product. The proof shown: a Story that normally pulls roughly 10,000-15,000 views jumped to 23,000-26,000 with 1,500 replies after being built this way. The actionable conclusion: sequence a reply-bait Story before every Reel, wire the reply keyword to an automation, and let the freebie-to-email flow do the selling.
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00:00 – 00:38
01 · The hook and the hack
Opens with a tripled-sales claim and a stated revenue stat, then states the mechanic: post a highly engaging, reply-triggering Story about 30 minutes before a Reel goes live.
00:38 – 01:06
02 · The bait Story example
Shows the actual reply-bait Story used: a free 'advice for beginners' Google Doc, reply DOC to receive it.
01:06 – 02:15
03 · Proof: the Story insights spike
Walks through an Instagram Story insights screen comparing a normal 10-15K view Story to a hack-boosted Story at 23-26K views with 1,500 replies.
02:15 – 02:56
04 · Proof: the Reel comment spike
Shows the following Reel pulling roughly 4,000 comments, and explains the theory: accounts that just engaged with the Story are more likely to be shown the Reel.
02:56 – 04:56
05 · The automation build and the pitch
Pulls up the live ManyChat dashboard to show the reply-keyword-to-DM-to-email flow, then plugs the paid course twice before a recap and sign-off.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- A Story posted about thirty minutes before a Reel can pull Instagram to distribute the Reel to the same audience that just engaged with the Story.
- A Story that normally pulls 10,000-15,000 views jumped to 23,000-26,000 views and 1,500 replies once it was built to trigger a DM reply.
- Instagram appears to treat a spike in recent Story engagement as a signal to show a creator's next Reel to those same warmed-up accounts.
- A reply-triggered DM automation turns Story engagement directly into email list growth without any manual message-sending.
- The free resource offered in the Story exists mainly to generate a reply keyword — the real value delivery happens after the opt-in, inside a nurture sequence.
- Posting a Reel every single day, paired with pre-seeding engagement, compounds reach faster than posting inconsistently with occasional high-effort content.
- When Reel engagement drops, the fix demonstrated here wasn't a new video format — it was manufacturing more Story engagement right beforehand.
Sequence a story before your reel, not after.
WHAT TO LEARN
Reach on a Reel isn't just about the video itself — priming the algorithm with a reply-triggering Story right before you post can be the difference between a few thousand views and tens of thousands.
- Posting a reply-bait Story about 30 minutes before a Reel can prime the algorithm to route the Reel to the same accounts that just engaged with the Story.
- A free resource behind a reply keyword turns passive Story viewers into active repliers, which is the engagement signal that seems to matter.
- Consistency compounds the effect — posting a Reel every single day means there's always a fresh audience to prime with a Story beforehand.
- When Reel performance drops, the fix tested here wasn't a new hook or edit style — it was manufacturing more engagement on the Story that precedes it.
- A DM automation tool can turn a single Story reply into an email list opt-in without any manual message-sending, so the hack also builds a funnel on autopilot.
- The free resource itself doesn't need to be complex — a single Google Doc was enough to generate 1,500 replies in this example.
Terms worth knowing.
- ManyChat
- A direct-message automation platform that watches for a specific comment or reply keyword on Instagram and automatically sends a preset DM in response, without a human replying manually.
- Reply keyword automation
- A DM automation trigger where a viewer typing a specific word (like "DOC") into a comment or story reply causes an automated direct message to be sent back, usually delivering a link or free resource.
Things they pointed at.
03:25toolManyChat
Lines you could clip.
00:00
“Okay. I'm gonna get right into the Instagram hack to three x your sales.”
01:37
“This one, when I took this screenshot, it had 23,000. I think it's closer to 26,000 now.”
02:31
“Post a highly engaging story because all the people that interact with your story, and Instagram's more likely to show your story than they are to show your reel.”
04:17
“That's the hack though. You can, whether or not you have my course, apply that hack to get more views on your reels.”
Word for word.
Read-along
Don't just watch it. Burn it in.
See every word as it's spoken — crank it to 2× and still catch all of it. The same dual-channel trick behind Amazon's Kindle + Audible.
00:00Okay. I'm gonna get right into the Instagram hack to three x your sales. In case you don't know me, my name is Maria Went.
00:06I did 3,600,000 so far this year, mostly using Instagram reels, and this hack helps so much.
00:13So basically, what you're gonna do is thirty minutes before you post a reel, you have to be a little bit organized, but thirty minutes before you post your reel, you're gonna post a story that looks like this. So it's essentially a story that's very intentionally created to get them to reply to you, like to your story.
00:33These do really, really well. I have this hooked up with ManyChat comments, which I'll talk about a little bit later. It's an automation.
00:40And so essentially, you say, hey, I have got this free thing or do you wanna get this thing, um, for free, reply doc in this case below.
00:51So in this case, it says advice for beginners. I created a Google doc, um, of a bunch of students who successfully made passive income in all kinds of industries as total beginners. I asked them exactly how they made money selling digital products and what advice they would give to you.
01:02Apply doc below if you want me to send you a copy. It's a must read. So that I did thirty minutes before I posted my reels.
01:10I post reel, at least one reel every single day on Instagram. Then this is what happens. So you can see here this, um, it tends to get a lot more views and engagement than an average story.
01:25So my average story gets 10,000 views just like an average story of like me and my daughter doing something. Right?
01:3110,000, 15,000, certainly not 20,000. I think 10,000 would be my average.
01:37This one, when I took this screenshot, it had 23,000. I think it's closer to 26,000 now, and you can see here it has like 1,500 replies, 1,500 people wanting to doc.
01:48So quite a bit more engagement on my story than I normally would, and it interacts and engages with quite a few more accounts than it normally would.
02:00These accounts that it just engaged with are much more likely to be shown you're real when you post it thirty minutes later. And so if you do it right, and I teach you guys how to do all of this in my passive income with Instagram course, I'll put a link to it in the description, because what happens then is you'll get you can see here this reel got 4,000 comments.
02:22And I posted this reel a few days ago, so this wasn't the exact same story, but I posted a really I do this all the time. So the hack is thirty minutes before you go to post your reel, post a highly engaging story because all the people that interact with your story, and Instagram's more likely to show your story than they are to show your reel.
02:41That's what I've noticed, is that if you have bad engagement on your reels, you should try posting more engaging stories because that kinda lets Instagram know, oh, hey, this girl or guy or whatever, you should we should send her reels. We should send people to her reels as well.
02:58So thirty minutes before post it to your story, and I just wanna show you, um, kinda like what happens after they comment, so you get a sense of like, okay, but how does this how are you making money with all of this? So let me just oh my gosh. This is my old camera.
03:12Look at this. Hold on. Me switch this.
03:14It's weird. Hold on. Oh, I'm switching it on the other one.
03:19Oh my gosh. Okay. Let me edit this.
03:22There we go. My goodness. Come on.
03:27Here we I just wanna show you what this looks like. Oh my goodness. Well, now you guys know what it would look like if I didn't have this is just a it's a webcam, but it's just like a better webcam.
03:36Okay. So let me show you. Okay.
03:39So once they comment the keyword and I show you how to do all this by the way and how to set this all up in my passive income course, but I just wanna show you like essentially what happens. They get the guide and then in this case they get added to an email list that then sells them or like pitch like gives a lot of value, but then will also pitch a product that's related to the freebie that they just opted into.
04:03So there's a simpler an even more simple version of this. That's what I teach you in my passive income course. So if you are interested in all of this side of things, um, I'm very oh, I realized I didn't turn that off.
04:13Let me just turn off all of so much going on in this Ecamm. I'll delete this, turn this off.
04:19That's the hack though. You can whether or not you have my course, you can apply that hack to get more views on your reels, more reach with your reels, more engagement with your reels, and ultimately, if you do what I do and you're monetizing Instagram, you can also three x your sales.
04:35I noticed for me, when I don't do this hack, my engagement is significantly lower. So I try to be really really intentional about posting the story thirty minutes first and then doing the reel. Hopefully this made sense.
04:47If you have questions, leave them in the comments and I'll answer them. It's a really easy hack, really simple, but you'll see, you'll notice a really big difference.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
The opening line promises a specific multiplier, tripled sales, and backs it with a stated credibility claim before explaining a single sequencing tweak: what to post in a Story thirty minutes before a Reel goes live.
Named ideas worth stealing.
00:20list
The 30-Minute Story Primer
- Create a Story about 30 minutes before your Reel goes live
- Make the Story reply-bait: offer a free resource behind a reply keyword
- Hook the reply keyword to a DM automation (e.g. ManyChat) that auto-sends the freebie
- Post the Reel while the Story engagement is still fresh
- The accounts that replied to the Story are shown the Reel first, spiking reach
- Freebie recipients land on an email list that nurtures and pitches a related paid product
An engagement-priming sequence that uses a Story to warm up the exact audience Instagram then shows the next Reel to.
Steal forany Reels-based content or funnel strategy that wants a low-cost, no-extra-content way to boost initial reach
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
04:20product
“I teach you guys how to do all of this in my passive income with Instagram course, I'll put a link to it in the description”
Soft in-video mention repeated twice (once mid-video, once near the end) rather than a single hard pitch, each time explicitly framed as 'you don't need the course to use this hack.'
MENTIONED ON CAMERA
FROM THE DESCRIPTION
PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.
Visual structure at a glance.
