Social Capture helps you collect email subscribers from Instagram comments and direct messages through automated keyword replies.
It allows you to grow your email audience through an Instagram business account without manually collecting email addresses or sending followers to an external page.
💡 Already set up Social Capture? Learn how to engage subscribers collected from Instagram using special offers, Welcome Automations, and Email Campaigns.
What Is Social Capture?
Social Capture turns Instagram comments and direct messages into email subscribers in Omnisend.
When someone comments on your Instagram post or sends your brand a message containing a selected keyword, Social Capture replies automatically. It asks for their email address and adds them to Omnisend when they provide a valid email.
How It Works
Social Capture follows this process:
In Omnisend, you create a keyword reply. You choose the keywords that trigger it and the tag to apply to new subscribers.
On Instagram, you promote your VIP club or a subscriber-only offer and invite followers to comment or send a DM with one of your keywords.
A person comments on your Instagram post or sends your brand a direct message.
Their message contains one of the keywords in your keyword reply.
Social Capture automatically replies and asks for their email address.
The person replies with a valid email address.
Omnisend adds the person as a subscribed contact.
Omnisend applies the selected tag to the contact.
Note: Only contacts who provide a valid email address are added to Omnisend.
Benefits
Social Capture helps you:
Reach people while they are viewing your Instagram content.
Collect email addresses without sending followers to an external page
Add Instagram contacts to Omnisend automatically.
Tag contacts collected through Instagram.
Send a relevant Email Campaign or add contacts to an Automation Workflow.
💡 Example Use Case: Promote a Special Offer
Promote a special offer in an Instagram post and ask people to comment a keyword or send your brand a direct message to claim it.
Social Capture asks for their email address and adds them as contacts when they provide a valid email. You can then send them the offer through a Welcome Automation email.
Before You Begin
Make sure you have:
A paid Omnisend plan.
An Instagram business account or creator account.
Set up Social Capture
Connect Your Instagram Account
Step 1. In Omnisend, go to Social Capture and click Connect Instagram.
Step 2. Log in to Instagram.
After you log in, Instagram displays the permissions requested by Omnisend. If the account shown is not the one you want to connect, click the three-dot menu (...) in the top-right corner → select Switch account and log in to the correct account.
Step 3. Review the requested permissions and click Allow.
After you connect the account, Omnisend displays the Instagram account as Connected.
Create a Keyword Reply
A keyword reply is an automated response that Social Capture sends when someone comments on your Instagram post or sends your brand a direct message containing one of your selected keywords.
You can create multiple keyword replies for the same Instagram account, with different triggers, keywords, and messages. Repeat the steps below for each reply.
Step 1. Create a Keyword Reply
Under Social Capture, click Create keyword reply.
Step 2. Name the Reply
Enter a name for the keyword reply. This name is only visible to you and helps you identify the reply in your list.
Step 3. Choose the Trigger
Under Someone writes a keyword, choose when the reply should start:
Direct message – someone sends the keyword to your Instagram account.
Comment – someone comments the keyword on any Instagram post or Reel on your connected Instagram account.
You can select one or both options.
Direct Message vs. Comment:
Direct message: Starts the keyword reply in a Direct message conversation. Social Capture can send a reminder if the person has not provided a valid email address.
Comment: Starts the initial keyword reply, but Social Capture cannot send a reminder if the person does not reply to the Direct message. If they reply with an invalid email address or another message, Social Capture can continue the conversation and send the configured reminder.
💡 Tip: Use Direct message as the default trigger if you want Social Capture to send reminders. Enable Comment as an additional trigger to reach people who interact with your Instagram posts.
Step 4. Add Keywords
Under Keywords, enter up to three keywords. Press Enter after each keyword.
Keywords are not case-sensitive and can trigger a reply even when included in a longer comment or direct message.
Example: If your keyword is access, Social Capture will trigger when someone sends:
accessACCESSAccessHow can I access the offer?
Step 5. Ask for the Email Address
Under We ask for their email, write the message that asks for the person’s email address.
💡 For example:
Welcome! Reply with your email address, and we'll add you to the list.
Add consent text below the message. It explains that by replying with their email address, the person agrees to receive marketing emails. This text collects their consent.
Important: Make your consent text clear and specific. Explain how the email address will be used, such as sending marketing emails from your business.
Then, under Add tag to subscribers, select the tag for contacts collected through Instagram.
💡 This tag helps you identify contacts collected through Instagram. You can later use it to create segments and send Instagram-specific Email Campaigns or Automations.
Step 6. Confirm the Signup
Under We confirm the signup, write the message sent after a valid email address is received.
💡 For example:
Thank you, you’re now a subscriber!
Step 7. Add Messages for Other Replies
Under When it doesn’t go to plan, review the messages for people who do not provide an email address.
If the Reply Is Not an Email Address
Under They reply, but it isn’t an email, write a message that explains what the person should send.
💡 For example:
That doesn’t look like an email. Try again – [email protected].
Note: If someone replies without providing a valid email address, Social Capture sends the message configured under They reply, but it isn’t an email. This message can be sent up to three times. If the person sends three invalid replies without providing a valid email address, the email collection process ends.
If the Person Stops Replying
Under They go quiet, choose how long Social Capture should wait before sending a final reminder.
For a Direct message trigger, Social Capture can send the reminder when the person has not provided a valid email address. For a Comment trigger, the reminder is sent only if the person replies to the resulting Direct message.
You can set the wait time to up to 23 hours, as Instagram only allows Social Capture to send messages within 24 hours of the person's last message.
Note: The 24-hour messaging window applies to reminders, not the entire email collection process. The person has up to 48 hours from their initial keyword to provide a valid email address.
Adjust the reminder message sent after the selected wait time.
💡 For example:
Still here when you’re ready. Reply with your email to get the code.
Step 8. Review and Launch
Review the conversation preview on the right. You can preview the different automatic keyword replies based on when the person:
Replies with email
Sends something else
Never replies
Once done, select:
Save draft to finish setting up the reply later, or
Launch to activate the keyword reply.
Once you launch your first keyword reply, you'll see a prompt to set up a Welcome Automation for subscribers collected through Social Capture. Learn how to Engage Subscribers Collected From Instagram.
Track Social Capture Results
After you launch a keyword reply, use the Social Capture page to review email collection results and identify subscribers collected through Instagram.
Review Keyword Reply Results
Review the completion rate for each keyword reply from the Social Capture page.
Go to Social Capture.
Check the Completion rate column.
The Completion rate shows the percentage of email collection attempts that were successfully completed.
💡 Example: A completion rate of 75.00% (3/4 submissions) means that the email collection process was triggered four times, and three of those attempts resulted in a valid email address being collected.
Note: Each attempt is counted separately, even if the same Instagram user triggers the keyword reply multiple times.
Identify and Engage Collected Subscribers
When Omnisend adds a contact with a Subscribed status, Social Capture applies the tag selected during setup. Use this tag to identify subscribers collected through Instagram.
To learn how to create segments and engage these subscribers with Automation Workflows and Email Campaigns, see Social Capture: Engage Subscribers Collected From Instagram.
Manage Your Social Capture Page
Use the Social Capture page to manage individual keyword replies or your connected Instagram account. You can pause or delete one keyword reply at a time, while disconnecting Instagram affects all live keyword replies.
Note: Already collected subscribers remain in Omnisend.
Manage Keyword Replies
You can edit, pause, or delete a keyword reply from the Social Capture page.
To edit the keyword reply, click its name, update the settings you want to change, and click Save and close.
To pause or delete the keyword reply:
Click the three-dot menu next to the keyword reply.
Select one of the following options:
Pause – stops the keyword reply from responding to comments and direct messages that contain its keywords. The reply stays saved and can be launched again later.
Delete – removes the keyword reply from Social Capture.
Disconnect Instagram
Disconnect Instagram when you want to remove the current connection or connect a different Instagram account.
Go to Social Capture → click the three-dot menu next to your connected Instagram account → select Disconnect → confirm by clicking Disconnect.
Important: Disconnecting Instagram automatically pauses all live keyword replies. The replies stay saved, but nothing is sent until you reconnect Instagram and launch them again.
To resume your saved keyword replies, click Connect Instagram, reconnect your account, and launch the replies you want to activate.
FAQ
How is Social Capture different from Signup Forms?
Signup Forms collect contacts from people who visit your website. Social Capture collects contacts from your Instagram audience, including people who have not visited your store.
What do I need to get started?
You need a paid Omnisend plan and an Instagram business or creator account.
Do I need to run Instagram ads?
No. Social Capture works with comments and direct messages from your organic Instagram activity.
Can I collect SMS subscribers through Social Capture?
No. Social Capture currently supports collecting email subscribers only.
What triggers the reply?
A selected keyword triggers the reply when someone:
Sends the keyword to your Instagram account in a direct message.
Comments the keyword on an Instagram post or Reel.
You can use comments, direct messages, or both.
Do people know they are joining my list?
Yes. Social Capture lets you include consent text with the email request so people can see what they are agreeing to before submitting their email address.
What happens if the email address already belongs to a contact in my Audience list?
If the email address already belongs to a contact in your Audience, Social Capture processes the existing contact again when they provide their email address.
Already subscribed: The contact remains Subscribed. If they trigger a new keyword reply, Social Capture applies the tag configured for that reply.
Not subscribed: The contact becomes Subscribed after they provide their email address, and Social Capture applies the selected tag.
Unsubscribed: The contact becomes Subscribed after they provide their email address, and Social Capture applies the selected tag. Providing their email address through the consent flow indicates that they want to receive marketing emails.
Can I write my own messages?
Yes. You can customize the email request, consent text, confirmation message, invalid-email message, and final reminder.
Can I use the same keyword in multiple keyword replies?
No. You can use a keyword in only one keyword reply. If you try to use a keyword that is already used in another keyword reply, Omnisend notifies you that the keyword is already in use. Choose a different keyword before saving or launching the reply.
Does a keyword need to match exactly to trigger a reply?
No. Keywords are not case-sensitive and can also trigger a reply when included in a longer comment or direct message. For example, the keyword access matches both ACCESS and How can I access the offer?.
When does the email collection process end?
The email collection process ends when:
The person successfully provides a valid email address.
The person sends three invalid email replies without providing a valid email address.
48 hours have passed since the person sent the initial keyword, without a valid email address being provided.
Note: Social Capture can send a reminder after the configured wait time when the keyword was triggered by a Direct message. If the keyword was triggered by a Comment, the reminder is sent only if the person replies to the resulting Direct message. The person can provide their email address until the 48-hour messaging window expires.
Can I see how many contacts came from Instagram?
Yes. Assign a dedicated tag to your Social Capture reply, then use that tag to identify and segment the subscribers collected through it.
Can an existing subscriber trigger a keyword reply again?
Yes. After a person completes the email collection process, they can trigger another live keyword reply by sending one of its configured keywords.
Each keyword reply can offer a different incentive, apply a different tag, and trigger a different Automation Workflow, depending on your setup.
What happens if someone sends a keyword instead of their email address?
If someone is in the email collection process and sends a keyword instead of an email address, Social Capture treats the reply as invalid. It sends the message configured under They reply, but it isn’t an email.
Need help? Our award-winning Support Team is available to assist you through the in-app chat or by email at [email protected].