Facebook & Instagram
Connect your Facebook Pages and Instagram Business accounts to Sift to ingest comments, mentions, hashtags, and DMs from both platforms in one inbox. Both run through the same Meta Business connection - set it up once, get both.
At a glance
| Inbound: Facebook Page comments + replies | ✅ |
| Inbound: Facebook mentions of your Page | ✅ |
| Inbound: Messenger DMs | ✅ |
| Inbound: Facebook reactions (sentiment signal) | ✅ |
| Inbound: Instagram comments + replies | ✅ |
| Inbound: Instagram mentions | ✅ |
| Inbound: Instagram hashtag tracking | ✅ (~30 hashtags/account, Meta limit) |
| Inbound: Instagram DMs | ✅ |
| Inbound: Instagram story mentions | ✅ |
| Outbound: Reply to comments | ✅ inside Meta's ~7-day window |
| Outbound: Send DM (Messenger / IG) | ✅ |
| Outbound: Post / schedule to Page | ✅ |
| Outbound: Image attachments | ✅ |
| Multi-Page + multi-IG account | ✅ |
| Auto-reply bots | ✅ |
| Facebook Groups | ❌ Pages only |
Set it up
Go to Settings → Integrations → Facebook & Instagram and:
- Connect via Meta Business Platform: sign in as an admin of the Business Manager that owns the Pages and Instagram accounts.
- Pick the Pages Sift should monitor (one or many).
- Pick the Instagram Business accounts linked to those Pages.
- Enable hashtag tracking (Instagram only) and provide the list of hashtags you want watched.
- Choose what to pull in per source - comments, DMs, mentions are toggleable independently.
You need admin access on every Page and Instagram account. Sift requests read + write permissions so it can ingest activity and post replies on your behalf.
What you can do
Reply to any comment, mention, or DM from the inbox - Sift posts back to the same thread on Facebook or Instagram, as your Page or Business account. Schedule or publish Page posts from Sift for marketing flows. Attach images to replies on both platforms.
Trigger workflows off any inbound signal - sentiment, language, hashtag match, post the comment is on. Route to the right team automatically. Apply auto-reply bots for FAQ patterns or off-hours acknowledgement.
Multi-Page brand families work without mixing channels: connect every Page + IG account under the same Meta Business Manager, and each becomes a source you can filter, route, and assign separately.
Meta-specific gotchas
- Instagram accounts must be linked to a Facebook Page in Meta Business Manager - Meta's requirement, not Sift's. Personal IG accounts won't work.
- Hashtag tracking is Meta-rate-limited (~30 hashtags per Business account, refreshed every 7 days). Sift surfaces the current limit during setup.
- Comments older than ~7 days can't be replied to via Meta's API - the reply window closes. Sift marks these as read-only in the inbox.
What Sift ingests
- Comments on your Page posts (top-level + nested replies)
- Mentions - any post that tags your Page
- Messenger DMs to your Page
- Reactions on Page posts (used as sentiment signal)
- Comments on your posts (top-level + replies)
- Mentions - any post or comment that tags your handle
- Hashtag matches across Instagram (per the list you provide at setup)
- Direct messages to your Business account
- Story mentions - when someone tags you in their story
Each inbound item arrives in the inbox with the source platform and the kind of match (mention vs comment vs DM vs hashtag) so you can filter and route on it.
Not supported today
- Facebook Groups: Sift handles Pages, not Groups.
- Personal Facebook / Instagram profiles: Business or Creator accounts only (Meta API requirement).
- Reels and Stories as standalone content: Sift surfaces mentions inside Stories but doesn't ingest the Reels/Stories themselves.
- Ad-comment moderation at scale: organic post comments are supported; ad-specific comment moderation needs separate setup.