How Businesses Can Optimally Leverage Threads

How Can Threads Help Your Social Media Presence?

Unless you’ve been living off the grid, you likely have seen and/or heard about Threads, the new social media platform from Meta. Following the ownership change and wholesale changes over at Twitter, Threads was rolled out to serve a similar purpose. Today we’re focusing on the new platform, what and who it’s for, its shortcomings as of now, and how businesses can successfully leverage it for growth and interaction. 

Threads: What Is It? 

On July 5th, 2023, Meta launched “the initial version of Threads, an app built by the Instagram team for sharing with text.” They also went on to say that they were “working toward making Threads compatible with the open, interoperable social networks that we believe can shape the future of the internet.” 

So what does this actually mean?

With Threads focus on text, real-time updates, and public conversations, it’s quite apparent that Threads is Meta’s competitor to Twitter. It’s clear that this “initial” version is still a work-in-progress and we should expect drastic changes, new functionalities, and better compatibility with other Meta platforms in the future. It also means that we can all quickly get started on the platform, and doing so is as easy as logging in with your Instagram credentials – this has proven to be a master-stroke for Threads, as it gained over 100 million users in the first 5 days it was publicly available. 

Who Is Threads For?

In short, Threads is for everyone! Like Twitter, anyone can create a profile and start creating content, initiate conversations, or scroll to their heart’s content. 

More specifically, the initial version of Threads is targeted at those who leaned heavily on Twitter for interaction, short pieces of content, and scrolling. There is no explicit demographic for Threads per-se, but the younger crowd (20’s-early 40’s) have jumped in earlier. The platform is still being developed, but it is shaping up as a text-heavy (though there are still images and video!) stream of content and information that is organized chronologically, aiming to foster real-time conversations. It’s also, at least as of now, a little less serious and buttoned up – it’s full of funny musings, memes, and people exploring how to best portray themselves on the app. 

Threads vs. Twitter

As of now, less than a month out from the launch of Threads, the platform can be looked at as an alternative to Twitter for businesses, though there are a few differences. 

On the positive side, Threads is providing many of the elements that people liked, and miss, about the old Twitter. This includes general stability of the platform, the mix of demographics that make up the userbase, and even the ability to infinitely scroll your feed (in July, Twitter rolled out rate limits that restricted how many posts you could view in a day.) The userbase of Threads is much more engaged than that of Twitter, which has been plagued by abandoned accounts and influxes of bots in the last year.  

Threads is still lacking in a few core functionalities like a general search functionality, direct messages, or trending hashtags (thought we’re sure they’ll be rolled out soon.) Feeds within Threads do feel a bit more inorganic, in that the algorithm seems to give more preference to brands, celebrities, and specifically Instagram influencers than your friends and family. Threads also seems less interested in being a platform that breaks news and covers events in real time. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram and Threads, indicated that he wants to stay away from these things and that they can be more trouble than they’re worth.

How To Leverage Threads for Business

The number one way for businesses to leverage Threads at this moment in time is to simply be present: log in using your Instagram account and claim your username. Make sure all the pertinent information like your bio and profile picture is populated. 

The second thing to focus on is content. What is your brand’s personality? Does it make sense to throw a few one liners that are core to who you are and who you serve? Create a content strategy that pushes out a few posts a week focused on your company’s culture, engaging with your audience, and building relationships (and top of mind awareness!) with users. Be memorable, but above all, be authentic. 

The Future of Threads

Having just been born, Threads has plenty of developing to do. As mentioned above, there are a few core functionalities that should be coming soon, but beyond that, the sky’s the limit for what the platform evolves into. Will it truly replace Twitter? We don’t think so, at least not as a true 1:1 replacement. It seems much more likely that Threads will add more functionalities and end up as a distinctly different platform than Twitter that serves the needs of a different audience, but only time will tell.