Story replies and mentions: the messages that arrive with no context

An Instagram story reply is a DM about something that ceases to exist in 24 hours. Answered promptly it is the warmest lead you get. Answered two days later it is a message with no subject, from somebody who has forgotten what they asked.

Why they are worth answering first

A story reply comes from somebody who was looking at your content seconds ago. Intent does not get higher than that, and it decays faster than any other kind of message you receive.

What the inbox has to do

1. Show what they replied to, while it exists. The story thumbnail is the entire context of the message.
2. Keep a copy. If the only record of the story is Instagram's, the context is gone in a day and so is your ability to answer sensibly on day two.
3. Mark them as urgent. Not because the customer is impatient, but because the value is perishable in a way an ordinary DM's is not.
4. Handle the emoji-only reply. A large proportion are a single reaction. It is not a question and usually does not need a reply, and an inbox that treats it as an unanswered support request will bury the real ones.

The 24 hour clock, twice over

Two unrelated 24 hour windows are running: the story's life, and Meta's messaging window. They start at different moments and the second one is the one that stops you replying at all. A story reply left overnight can hit both.

What to say

Name the story. "You asked about the blue one in our story - it is in stock, 3,400." Without that line the customer has to remember which of several things they tapped on, and a message that makes somebody work is a message that gets ignored.