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~5 minutes setup

What Comment-to-DM Is

The concept and how it compares to tools like ManyChat

All Posts vs. Specific Posts

The one decision that shapes your setup

What You'll Need

Prerequisites before starting

Step-by-Step Setup

Complete walkthrough (Steps 1–4)

Managing Your Automations

Edit, pause, or delete a configured post

Quick Checklist

Verify your setup is complete

FAQs

Common questions answered

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Introduction

You post on Facebook. People comment. Some of those commenters are warm leads — they’re curious, they’re asking questions, they’re raising their hand. But replying in the comments is slow, public, and almost impossible to scale. By the time you DM them back, they’ve moved on. This guide walks you through setting up Comment-to-DM in Irelia — from understanding what it does and which scope to pick, to activating your first live automation on a Facebook post.
Currently available on Facebook / Messenger only. Comment-to-DM in Irelia works with Facebook posts and sends the first message via Messenger. Instagram comment automation is not supported at this time.
By the end of this guide, you’ll have: ✅ A clear understanding of how Comment-to-DM works in Irelia and how it differs from tools like ManyChat
✅ One or more Facebook posts configured to trigger automatic Messenger DMs
✅ A first message written and ready to greet every commenter
✅ Optional keyword triggers set so the automation only fires on specific comments
✅ Your automation activated and running live

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💡 What Comment-to-DM Is in Irelia

In Irelia, Comment-to-DM is an automation that lives inside an AI agent’s Trigger tab. You point it at one or more Facebook posts and write the first Messenger message you want sent. The AI agent whose Trigger tab the automation lives in is the one that picks up the conversation afterwards. When someone comments on a configured post:
  1. Irelia detects the comment in real time.
  2. Irelia sends the first Messenger message you wrote to that person, privately.
  3. From the second message onward, the AI agent takes over and handles the entire conversation — answering questions, qualifying the lead, and pushing toward your goal.
The first message is fixed and written by you. Everything after it is dynamic and AI-generated.

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How it differs from ManyChat-style tools

If you’ve used ManyChat or similar tools, you already know the “comment X, get Y” mechanic: someone comments a keyword, the tool DMs them a pre-written message, and from there it’s a series of static replies and buttons. Irelia replaces the static part with a real AI conversation. The trigger and the first message work the same way — but instead of a scripted drip, your prospect lands in a live conversation with an AI agent who can answer follow-up questions, handle objections, and book the appointment. There’s no flowchart to maintain and no decision tree to debug.
The AI agent is the entire post-trigger experience. Comment-to-DM is just a way to start the conversation. Everything that makes the conversation useful — qualification, answers, booking, follow-ups — comes from the agent. Make sure the agent you assign is well-configured before you go live.

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🧭 Two Scopes: All Posts vs. Specific Posts

Before you set anything up, there’s one decision that shapes your entire configuration: which posts should trigger the automation? Irelia gives you two scopes:
ScopeWhat it coversWhen to use it
All postsEvery post on your Facebook Page — past, present, and future — handled by a single shared configurationYou want a set-once-and-forget default that runs on your whole page, so you never have to configure new posts manually as you publish them
Specific postsOne configuration per individual post, applied only to that postYou want different first messages or different agents for different posts (e.g., one config for a webinar post, another for a product launch)
You can have only one All-posts configuration active at a time — it’s your page-wide default. Specific-post configurations are unlimited and live alongside the All-posts one.
All-posts and specific-post configurations can coexist. A specific-post configuration takes precedence on the post it’s attached to, while All-posts handles every other post on your page. Use this combination when you want a baseline automation everywhere plus a tailored one on a few high-value posts.
Visual cue: The All-posts configuration is marked in blue in the list, so you can spot your page-wide default at a glance.

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📋 What You’ll Need

Before you start configuring Comment-to-DM, make sure you have:
  • ✅ A Facebook Page connected to Irelia through the Meta integration. If not, start with How to Connect Meta Messenger and Instant Forms to Irelia.ai. Required
  • ✅ The Meta Messenger toggle enabled in your Channels Configuration — Messenger needs to be active for Irelia to send DMs. Required
  • ✅ At least one AI agent created and configured. The Comment-to-DM automation lives inside the agent’s Trigger tab, and that same agent will handle every conversation it starts. Required
  • ✅ One or more Facebook posts already published on your Page that you want to use as triggers (only needed if you plan to configure specific posts — All-posts works without any pre-existing post). Optional

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🔧 Step-by-Step Setup

1

Open the Trigger tab on your agent

Go to the AI agent you want to assign the conversations to and open the Trigger tab. Scroll down until you find the “Direct message who comment your facebook posts” section.You’ll see two buttons side by side: “Configure new posts” and “Configure all posts”. Any post you’ve already configured (and the All-posts configuration if you’ve set one) will appear above these buttons.
Success! You’ve located the Comment-to-DM section. Now decide which scope to set up first.
2

Choose your scope

Pick the scope that matches what you want to do:
  • All posts (page-wide default) → Click the blue “Configure all posts” button. This opens the configuration popup directly, since there’s only one All-posts configuration per page.
  • A specific post → Click “Configure new posts”. Irelia pulls the list of posts from your Facebook Page and displays them as cards below the button. Browse the list and click the card for the post you want to configure.
Posts are pulled from Facebook in real time. The list reflects what’s currently published on your connected Page. If you don’t see a post you expected, make sure it’s actually published (not a draft) and that you’ve connected the correct Facebook Page in your Channels Configuration.
3

Configure the automation in the popup

Whichever scope you picked, the same configuration popup opens. It’s split into two sides — what triggers the automation on the left, and what gets sent on the right.
Fill in the popup as follows:
  1. Write the first Messenger message — In the “Send this message” text area on the right, type the exact message you want sent privately to anyone who comments. Keep it warm, short, and human — it’s the first thing your prospect will read in their DMs. Mention what they commented on so the message feels personal and relevant.
  2. Choose your trigger condition — Under “to anyone who comments with”, decide what counts as a trigger:
    • Any comment → Pick the option that fires the DM on every comment, regardless of what the person wrote. Use this when the post itself is the qualifier (e.g., a post that says “comment anything to get the guide”).
    • Specific keywords → Add one or more trigger words using the “new word…” input, then confirm. Each keyword appears as a chip. Only comments containing one of those words will trigger the DM. Use this when you want to filter for real intent (e.g., trigger on “info”, “price”, “book”).
Only the first message is fixed. Everything the prospect sends after that first DM goes straight to the AI agent whose Trigger tab you’re configuring, who responds dynamically. This is what makes Comment-to-DM in Irelia different from a static drip — the conversation is real, not scripted.
Match your first message to your trigger condition. If you trigger on the keyword “price”, your first message should naturally pick up that intent (e.g., “Hi! Saw you asked about pricing — happy to share the details, want me to walk you through it?”). A generic first message wastes the qualifying signal the comment already gave you.
4

Activate the automation

When the popup is configured the way you want, click the “Activate” toggle on the bottom-left of the popup to turn the automation on, then click “Done” to close the popup.
The configured post (or the All-posts configuration) now appears in the list above the two buttons in your Trigger tab — that’s your confirmation it’s saved and live.🎉 Congratulations! Your Comment-to-DM automation is live. From this moment, every qualifying comment on the post(s) you configured will trigger a private Messenger DM, and your AI agent will handle every conversation that follows — automatically, around the clock.

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⚙️ Managing Your Automations

Once a configuration is saved, it appears in the list above the “Configure new posts” and “Configure all posts” buttons in the Trigger tab. From there you can manage it at any time.
  • Edit — Click the configured post (or the All-posts entry) to reopen the popup. Change the message or the keywords, then click “Done” to save.
  • Pause — Reopen the popup and toggle “Activate” off. The configuration stays saved but stops triggering DMs until you turn it back on.
  • Delete — Reopen the popup and click the red “Delete” button to remove the configuration entirely. Use this when you no longer want that post to trigger any DM at all.
The All-posts configuration is the one in blue. If you have multiple entries in your list, you can spot your page-wide default at a glance — it’s the one highlighted in blue, while specific-post configurations use the standard styling.

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✅ Quick Checklist

Before you consider your Comment-to-DM setup complete, verify:

Prerequisites

  • Your Facebook Page is connected to Irelia through the Meta integration
  • The Meta Messenger toggle is enabled in Channels Configuration
  • You’ve chosen the right scope (All posts, specific posts, or both)
  • Your first Messenger message is written, warm, and matches the trigger context
  • Your trigger condition (any comment vs. specific keywords) is set correctly
  • You’ve configured the automation inside the Trigger tab of the AI agent you want handling the conversation
  • You’ve clicked “Activate” and the configuration appears in the list above the buttons
  • You’ve commented on the post yourself (or asked someone to) to test that the DM arrives

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❓ FAQs

Yes. The All-posts configuration acts as your page-wide default — it handles every post that doesn’t have its own specific configuration. Specific-post configurations override the All-posts default on the post they’re attached to. This combination lets you set a baseline automation for your whole page and then customize the experience on individual high-value posts.
There’s no limit on specific-post configurations. You can set up as many as you need. The only configuration with a one-per-page limit is the All-posts default.
The blue highlight is a visual cue to help you instantly spot your page-wide default among the rest of your configurations. It’s not a status indicator — it just marks which entry is the All-posts one.
Only the first message is fixed. From the second message onward, the AI agent takes over and responds dynamically based on what each prospect actually says. Two people who comment the same word will get the same first DM, but their conversations from that point on will be completely different — shaped by their own questions, intent, and replies.
Yes. Each Comment-to-DM automation lives inside the Trigger tab of a specific AI agent, so the agent that handles the conversation is simply the one whose Trigger tab you configured the post under. To route different posts to different agents, open each agent in turn and configure the relevant post inside its own Trigger tab. For example, configure your webinar post inside an event registration agent and your product post inside a sales agent. This is a core building block for multi-agent workflows in Irelia. See How to Start Conversations with Irelia for the full agent-routing model.
Not at this time. Comment-to-DM in Irelia currently works on Facebook posts only, and the first message is sent via Facebook Messenger. Instagram comment automation is not supported.
The automation will be saved but the DMs won’t actually go out, because Messenger is the channel that delivers them. Make sure the Meta Messenger toggle is enabled in your Channels Configuration before relying on any Comment-to-DM automation.
Yes. Like any other conversation handled by your AI agent, Comment-to-DM conversations appear in the Chat Panel alongside the rest of your leads. You can monitor them, take over manually, or analyze them just like any other Messenger conversation. See The Chat Panel — Monitor, Analyze, and Manage Your Leads for details.
No — that’s the whole point of the All-posts scope. Once it’s set up and active, it automatically applies to any new post you publish on your connected Facebook Page, with no extra work on your side.

🆘 Need Help?

Irelia.ai Support:
  • Contact support in the WhatsApp priority support group or send an email to info@irelia.ai
  • Include: screenshots of your Trigger tab and the automation popup, the post you’re trying to configure, and what you expected vs. what happened