Should my business be on Threads?

Meta's Threads: A Friendly Space for Conversation

Meta’s Threads, a social media platform created to rival Twitter, is currently being described as a friendly place for conversation. It aims to create a new space for text and discussion and, by all accounts, right now it’s a bizarrely jovial space. If you’ve already heard of Threads and your business manages a few social media accounts, then no doubt the FOMO may be starting to set in a little. But is it worth setting up a Threads account and how might your business stand to gain from it?

Key Differences Between Threads and Twitter

As with so many of these sorts of questions, the answer to Does my business need to be on Threads? is, it depends. Firstly, are you currently on Twitter and does it work for you? If you have a successful strategy here then it will be possible to start to emulate it on Threads. After all, it offers a nearly identical experience to Twitter with a 500-character limit and similar reply, repost and quote functionality.

Where it differs slightly is that currently, there are no hashtags or trending topics and you can only search for connections. This undeniably impacts the User Experience, but keep in mind, the platform is also likely to evolve rapidly to look like something much more familiar over the coming weeks. Meta had this to say on launch:

...we’ll be adding a number of new features to help you continue to discover threads and creators you’re interested in, including improved recommendations in the feed and a more robust search function that makes it easier to follow topics and trends in real time.

Short-Term Strategy: Focus on Organic Reach

Another major difference is that there are currently no adverts. But, this being Meta, monetisation is likely to come into play in the future. In fact, Mark Zuckerberg has said that at the point where there is a clear path to one billion users, they will consider monetising Threads. Given that the platform gained 100 million organic users in one week, we’d say this is only a matter of time.

In the short term, however, we’d advise against any hard selling - even if Twitter is a platform that does work for you. In the absence of any clear demographics or tracking, now is a good time to test the water and focus on your organic reach. You can do this by making connections and engaging in conversations to build your brand.

Some of the bigger brands may be making quite an impact and it could be tempting to emulate this but, if you are a smaller organisation, it’s a great time to test things out and develop your tone of voice. Have a little fun, but be cautious of deviating away from your overall brand tone too much.

Key Takeaways for Businesses Considering Threads

• If your business benefits from Twitter, there may be an additional opportunity to engage people who are unhappy with that platform.
• Over time you may be able to replicate your Twitter strategy in full over on Threads.
• Threads will work well for you if it’s your goal to be a thought leader and you have the resources to engage in meaningful conversations.
• A lot of functionality will still be in development; things should start to settle down and look more familiar in a couple of weeks.
• Test the water but don’t put all of your social media eggs in one basket just yet!

If you do decide to join Threads you will need an Instagram account. You can find out more about this in our article Can I get Threads if I’m not on Instagram?
If you’d like help establishing yourself on Meta Threads then get in touch and let's start a conversation.