Earlier this month, Meta released its new platform “Threads, an Instagram app,” saying the Twitter (X) challenger “is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow.”
The app has already reached over 100 million users, thanks to its connection with Instagram, which allows users to quickly create accounts, follow their existing Instagram followers and populate their Threads feeds. Similar to Twitter, the app allows you to like, comment or “rethread” messages, as well as set privacy and visibility levels.
But the app is more than a Twitter clone with a slightly less rich CEO. It offers these unique features:
- Your Instagram handle name and verification will carry over with the option to customize your profile.
- Your feed will include Threads from people you follow and new creators you haven’t discovered yet.
- Your posts can be up to 500 characters, including links, photos and videos up to five minutes long.
Instagram CEO, Adam Mosseri, has also alluded to other functionality being added to Threads in the future, such as search functionality, hashtags, a following feed and potentially direct messaging. For now, advertising using media spend is not an option, but will likely be added as a capability down the line. While its adoption has been wide and rapid throughout much of the world, Threads has not yet launched in the E.U. due to data privacy concerns.
What should my brand do?
For now, we suggest registering and securing your brand’s account on Threads. This is a good practice on any new social media platform to ensure that your brand owns and maintains the official brand channel on this new platform. Note that you must own the Instagram handle name in order to open the Threads account with the same name—this means other brands can’t take your Instagram handle name.
Once you’ve done that, your brand has a decision to make:
- Jump in: Brands like Wendy’s, Duolingo, Lyft and Spotify immediately jumped on the opportunity and started posting. If you’re a brand with a large following or a robust content strategy on Twitter, then Threads could present an opportunity to easily adapt that content for a new platform. If you want to explore this new platform for your brand to test and learn what opportunities might be there, it’s pretty low risk. Threads has limited functionality so far, especially for brands looking for things like analytics or advertising options, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be beneficial to be an early adopter.
- Wait and see: Threads has taken off faster than other alternatives to Twitter in recent years thanks to the size and scale of Meta and the integration with Instagram, but it’s not yet clear how long this launch momentum will last nor how many users will continue using the platform after their initial curiosity. Keep an eye on user growth, but more importantly watch reports on daily active users and daily volume of Threads created or Thread engagements. As the new-app-stampede dust settles and we start to get a clearer picture of what Threads will become, brands will gain a better idea about whether the potential ROI will be worth joining a new social channel.
With either decision, there are a few things that are critical to execution.
What should you consider before posting on Threads for your brand?
- Think about what you want to get out of Threads, and whether or not that goal can be achieved by using existing strategies and tactics.
- Define your voice and purpose, have a clear idea of how your brand is going to be represented, and determine how that fits in with the rest of your social media and brand strategy.
- Understand what it takes for you and your team to execute your strategy. Discuss with your teams how things like publishing, community management and customer service will all happen, given the lack of tools and capabilities that many social teams are used to on other platforms.
The social media landscape changes rapidly—only a month ago, no one outside of Meta had even heard of Threads. Time will tell what Threads will bring, but until then, we hope the tips will help you stitch together a plan.
