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: The potential to reach a large audience via text-based conversations, good resource to speak to a young 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, and lack of performance data and discoverability features.
→ What you need for a Threads account: A rock-solid community management/risk mitigation strategy, a trusted social media manager, and fast activation of experimental 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 experiencing a similar decline. However, Meta reports Threads is in high organic demand, with over 70 million downloads only two days after launch with 49.3 million active daily users. As Threads is in its early stages, Brands are competing for first-mover advantage and many have experienced an immediate flux of followers and organic engagement. For example. Mattress brand “Casper” is one of the many who flocked to the platform. Their account, which utilizes real-time conversations with fans, gained 14,000 followers in four days.
2. Great resource to reach a younger audience. On average, the typical social media user interacts with 6.6 social platforms, and Gen Z and Millennials are the most frequent users. Additionally, 73% of Gen-Z buy or advocate for brands based on their beliefs and values and 58% want to see “light-hearted” content. While Threads is too new to pull data on the average user demographic, the “slightly unhinged” approach brands immediately adopted on the platform is an authentic voice that young consumers crave.
3. The seamless metaverse makes optimizing content cheaper and easier than Twitter (we refuse to call it X.) Your Instagram followers who have downloaded Threads, your verification badge, and your 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 is down 11%.) Additionally, users can cross-post a Thread as an Instagram story or post on the organic feed. 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 your reach and growing your audience in the 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 2-4 times a day.
3. Limited performance data and audience insights. 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 the 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 to average audience demographic and use cases of the platform.
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 the platform or via third-party software, 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 brand new and steadily increasing in users, your opportunity to position yourself as a leading voice and creator is narrowing. How will you be remembered?
Should we activate our threads account? Vote below.
Should we activate our threads account?
