Last updated 9/26/23
On July 6th, Meta released their app “Threads” as part of the ongoing feud between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, adding a new layer of complexity to organic content strategies (and effectively raising the blood pressure of your social media manager.)
Here’s what you need to know before you invest time and resources.
TLDR OF THREADS
Here’s an overview of everything you need to know, explained in detail in the sections below.
→ Pros of Threads: TThe potential to reach a large audience via text-based conversations, good resource to speak to a young male audience, and integration with Instagram makes it cheaper and easier than Twitter.
→ Cons of Threads: You cannot delete your Threads account without deleting your Instagram, big lift of content and community management, lack of performance data/metrics, and a slow rollout of key platform functions likely correlate to large drops in activity.
→ What you need for a Threads account: A rock-solid community management/risk mitigation strategy, a trusted social media manager, and a fast activation of experimental/unhinged content.
PROS OF THREADS
1. Organic engagement/brand awareness are expected to skyrocket (for now.) Historically, organic reach across social platforms is declining. Research indicates that on Facebook only 0.07% of a page’s fans engage with the average post, with Instagram and Twitter (we refuse to call it X) experiencing a similar decline. Two days following the launch, Meta reported that Threads was in high organic demand, with over 70 million downloads and 49.3 million active daily users. Within its first week, Brands were competing for first-mover advantage, and many experienced an immediate flux of followers and organic engagement; however, these numbers have shifted.
In August, Threads had 10.3 million users, with average daily use time dropping from 21 minutes to 6 minutes. The dip of activity appears to have gradually slowed down as of September, which indicates the platform has found a steady baseline. As the competition has decreased due to the initial drop in active users, your brand can more easily break through a space that is less saturated; however, the audience you will be addressing is incredibly niche.
2. Great resource to reach a younger male audience. As of September 8, 2023, reports indicate that 68% of users are male, and 37% of users fall in the 18-24 age bracket. This is an interesting comparison to Twitter and Instagram, whose majority of users fall in the 25-34 age range, and gender breakdowns are 71.2% Male and 50.7% Male (respectively.)
3. The seamless metaverse makes optimizing content cheaper and easier than Twitter. Your Instagram followers who have downloaded Threads, your verification badge, and branding (profile picture, handle, and bio) all carry over from Instagram to Threads. While Threads is almost identical to Twitter, you do not have to grow your audience from scratch. Your Thread followers already have a valuable familiarity and loyalty to your brand. Twitter is already losing an audience. (Their web traffic was down 11% a week after Threads launched, and their poorly executed rebrand has done little to bring it back up.) Additionally, users can cross-post a Thread as an Instagram story or post on the organic feed, and receive in platform previews and notifications for recommended threads. As social platforms are experiencing an engagement shift toward static content (61% of consumers found static images to be the most engaging in-feed content), a cross-posted Thread could be an effective static addition to your feed.
CONS OF THREADS
1. Once you download Threads, you cannot delete your account. While you may deactivate your Threads account at any time, you can only do so by deleting your Instagram account. Additionally, you can only operate one account at a time. You cannot switch accounts without logging out entirely.
2. The platform predictably has a BIG lift. Threads lacks discoverability features such as hashtags and keyword searches. An extremely active presence will be essential to increasing reach and growing your audience in platform. As Threads is comparable to Twitter and TikTok, we estimate it will require a similar posting cadence. Based on how often you should post on TikTok and Twitter, we recommend you post on Threads 1-4 times a day.
3. Limited performance data. The launch of Threads was seemingly rushed in an effort to capitalize on the turbulent climate of Twitter. While you can see likes, replies, and follows in platform, Threads lacks essential KPIs such as impressions and engagement rate. Determining success and ROI on the channel is difficult. Additionally, there are no data-backed insights into the average audience demographic and use cases of the platform.
Key user features such as web version, keyword search, a following feed and 24-hour notifications per post have been implemented post-launch of the app, but the roll-out has been painfully slow. The app’s poor user experience is a likely contributor to the steep usage decline in July and August.
3 Things You Need BEFORE You Create A Threads Account
At the end of the day, including Threads in your organic content strategy is dependent on the goals and resources of your business, and your comfort with investing time and money into a risky platform with high potential for reward. If you DO create your account, here’s what we recommend you have:
- A rock-solid community and risk management strategy. The conversational nature of the platform not only gives users a new space to engage with brands, but encourages it; however, threads does not currently have a direct messenger inbox. You will have frequent and public conversations with your followers.
- A trusted social media manager (who’s also savvy with copywriting.) Planning a Threads calendar will be difficult due to the lack of a desktop version, the inability to draft posts/schedule them in platform or via third party softwares, and the unfiltered real-time conversations that sit at the core of the platform. You need talent you trust to represent your brand at a moment’s notice.
- Fast activation as an early adopter and experimenter. As the platform is still new and finding its demographic and tone, your opportunity to position yourself as a leading voice and creator is narrowing. How will you be remembered?
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Should we activate our threads account?
