Runs when someone mentions your account in their own story. The trigger behind thank-you and discount flows; why it carries no text, why it never falls back, and how to set it up.
Your customer put a photo of what they bought in their story and tagged you. That is the most valuable recommendation a business can get, and it should not go unanswered. The Story mention trigger catches that moment, sends the customer a thank-you message and, if you want, leaves a discount code. This guide covers how to build it, why the event arrives without text, and how to write the flow around that.
⚠️ Note: this trigger works on Instagram only and it never falls back to another trigger. Without a matching story mention trigger the event passes silently; keyword and default reply are not tried.
In this article you will find:
What it does
How it differs from the Mention trigger
Building the trigger
Fields and buttons
What the missing text changes
Limits and known issues
Common mistakes and how to fix them
What it does
When someone mentions your account in their own story, Instagram delivers it to you as a message. The trigger listens for that message type and starts the flow.
The three most common uses are:
Thanking and giving something back. "Thanks for sharing us! Here is 10% off your next order: THANKS10."
Asking permission to reshare. A "May we share your story on our account?" question with two buttons.
Marking loyal customers. Add an Action step to the flow and give the person a shared-us tag, then build a segment from it.
Because the mention reaches you as the person's own message, their identity is known and the messaging window is open. The flow's first message goes out with its buttons, card and file intact.
How it differs from the Mention trigger
The two names look alike but they work in completely different ways. To keep them apart:
Story mention — Someone mentions you in their own story. Their identity is known, you can send a private message, and you can write tags and fields onto the contact card.
Mention — Someone mentions you in another account's post or comment. No identity arrives, no private message can be sent, and the answer can only be posted under the comment.
So thank-you and discount flows go on the trigger in this article, and reply-under-the-comment flows go on the other one.
Building the trigger
Let us build a thank-you flow for a jewellery brand.
Open an empty flow with New automation from the Automations list.
On the Flow tab, click the When… box on the canvas.
Press Add trigger in the panel on the side.
Pick Story mention from the list.
If your account has more than one channel connected, pick the Instagram account from the Channel list.
Connect the start box's Next output to a Message step.
Write "Thank you so much for sharing us in your story 💛 Here is your code for the next order: THANKS10".
Add an Action step after the message and give the person the shared-us tag.
Go to the Settings tab and set Can the same person enter again? to Once per chosen period with a period of 720 hours (30 days), so the same customer does not get a code for every story.
Return to the Flow tab and press Publish at the top right. Your automation is now running.
Fields and buttons
The trigger card holds two items.
Channel — Which account the trigger runs on. It appears only when more than one channel is connected. Left on All channels it runs on every connected channel, though in practice it makes no difference because the event only ever comes from Instagram.
Remove — The cross at the top right of the card deletes the trigger.
The note under the card sums the behaviour up: "Runs when someone mentions your account in their story." There are no keyword, match mode or post selection fields here; with no text in the event they would have nothing to work on.
What the missing text changes
The mention reaches you as a story attachment; it carries no written text. That has three consequences:
You cannot build a keyword filter. That is why the trigger has no word field. The flow runs on every mention.
The Last reply condition stays empty. A rule saying "if the last reply contains…" is never satisfied.
The Incoming attachment condition stays empty too. A story attachment does not count as an image, video, audio file or document; the condition says "no attachment".
If you need to make a distinction, use conditions that look at the person: tag, contact field, follow state or First contact. For example, to send a code only to people sharing you for the first time, build a condition that checks the shared-us tag you give them.
⚠️ Note: this event never falls back to message triggers. Story replies, post shares and link/ad events are re-evaluated as ordinary messages when no trigger matches; a story mention is not. Without this trigger, the event does nothing at all.
Limits and known issues
The trigger works on Instagram only.
The event carries no text; there is no keyword, match mode or exclude filter.
With no matching trigger the event does not fall back to message triggers.
You cannot distinguish by the content of the story; the flow does not know which product was shared.
If the person's account is private or they have blocked you, Instagram never sends the notification at all. That is a limit on Meta's side.
Stories disappear after 24 hours; after that you cannot view the share.
It is an explicit trigger: it cuts the person's running session.
The trigger only runs while the automation is Live.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
Leaving the re-entry rule open. The default is Every time. A customer who shares you regularly gets a discount code with every story. Use Once per chosen period with a long period.
Building a condition on text. The event has no text, so a rule like "if the last reply contains…" is never satisfied. Use contact conditions instead.
Mixing up the two mention triggers. Post and comment mentions belong to the other trigger; this flow does not catch them.
Making the discount code a single fixed string. A code that is the same for everyone spreads by screenshot. For a per-person code, use the External request step and pull the code from your own system.
Sending the thank-you too late. Put a long Wait step in the flow and the story will already be gone. Send the message straight away.
Forgetting to write to the contact card. Without a tag you cannot list the customers who shared you later on. Add an Action step to the flow.
If you can see that you were mentioned but the flow does not start, see the automation never starts guide or get in touch with our Support team.