# Follower-welcome without the industry lie.

If Meta does not provide a durable follow webhook, marketing always-on “DM every new follower” as a working product is fiction. This page exists so briefs, SOWs, and RFPs stop demanding magic.

## Overview

This is not a feature landing page pretending a platform capability exists. It is a ranked honesty page for a common RFP demand. Agencies and brands get burned twice: once when the feature fails, and again when someone “solves” it with scrapers. SocialReply documents the non-goal and redirects energy to entry points Instagram actually supports.

## Who needs this page

Anyone writing or receiving a brief that says “automatically DM new followers.”

You will recognize this if:

- Agency SOWs that must refuse gray-market workarounds in writing.
- Founders evaluating vendors who still sell follower-welcome as a checkbox.
- Marketers rewriting RFPs toward official-API entry points.
- Client education when the request is common but the platform cannot deliver.

## Follower-welcome theater creates two expensive failures.

Campaigns built on a missing platform event waste creative, media, and trust when nothing reliable fires.

Scrapers and session tools “make it work” until the account is at ban risk — risk the agency inherits.

Silence from vendors is almost as bad as lies. Teams deserve an explicit non-goal with alternatives.

## What to run instead

Refuse the fantasy. Scope working entry points. Document the non-goal.

### Write the non-goal into the SOW

Always-on new-follower DMs are out of scope until official webhooks exist. Link this page.

### Lead with comment-to-DM

Highest-intent hand-raises on posts and reels with a real private-reply model.

### Use story reply for ephemeral CTAs

Short-lived creative still starts durable contact paths when people reply.

### Ship keyword menus for evergreen demand

HOURS, LINK, PRICES, COLLAB — always-on without a follow event.

### Add multi-channel only when the relationship exists

WhatsApp and SMS after legitimate entry — not as a cold follower spray.

## Why an honest non-goal page helps you win

Trust compounds. Fantasy scopes do not.

### Cleaner kickoffs

Stop spending week one arguing about a feature the platform cannot deliver.

### Lower ban-risk delivery

No scraper “just for welcome messages” pressure from the account manager.

### Better alternatives in writing

Comment, story, keyword, and lead-capture scope that actually ships.

### RFP education at scale

Send this URL instead of rewriting the same paragraph for every prospect.

### Aligned commercial conversations

Packaging pages stay about packaging; this page stays about platform truth.

### Future-proof posture

If official follow webhooks arrive, this page flips to a real use case instead of hiding a past lie.

## What we will not claim

Platform capabilities change. Until they do, this remains a non-goal.

- No reliable official Instagram follow webhook for always-on welcome DMs today.
- Incumbent UIs have shown follower templates unavailable when the platform cannot deliver — verify live.
- Scrapers are not a SocialReply product path.
- We will update this page when official capability changes — not market fiction in the meantime.

## Working alternatives

- [Comment to DM](/en/use-cases/comment-to-dm)
- [Story reply](/en/use-cases/story-reply)
- [Keyword inbox](/en/use-cases/keyword-inbox)
- [Agencies](/en/solutions/agencies)

## Questions about follow-to-dm

### Can SocialReply DM every new Instagram follower automatically today?

Not via a reliable official follow webhook. We will not fake it with scrapers. Re-scope to comment, story, keyword, and ref-based entry points that work on official APIs.

### Why do some decks still sell follower-welcome as a checkbox?

Because the brief is common and gray-market tools claim it. Incumbent products have even shown follower templates unavailable when the platform cannot deliver. Verify in-product, not from outdated slides.

### What language belongs in an agency SOW instead?

Explicit non-goal: always-on new-follower DMs until official webhooks exist. Working scope: comment-to-DM, story reply, keyword menus, lead capture, multi-channel nurture.

### If Meta ships a reliable follow webhook later, what happens here?

We update this page from non-goal to real use case. Until then, the honest page is the product surface — silence would be worse than a non-goal.

### Why not just use a scraper “only for welcome DMs”?

Ban risk and ToS issues transfer to the brand and the agency. Scrapers are not a SocialReply product path and will not be packaged as a paid unlock.

### What should a founder do with an RFP that requires follower-welcome?

Educate with this page, rewrite the RFP around official-API entry points, and point packaging reviewers to /pricing and /compare for commercial rules — not for fake feature checkboxes.

## Scope what works. Document what does not.

Start free on real entry points. Put follower-welcome in the non-goals until the platform catches up.

[Start free](/en/signup) · [See working use cases](/en/pricing)