It’s been two weeks since the launch of Meta’s newest social platform, Threads. The response has been huge. In fact, Threads is the fastest app to reach 100 million members ever.
If you haven’t heard yet, Threads is a new, text-based social network.
It’s been positioned as a direct competitor of Twitter – but there are some key differences (as of right now).
- While Twitter has made a strong stand on free speech in the app, Meta seems to be continuing its move away from news and political discussions.
- It’s directly linked to your Instagram account. As of right now, all your Instagram followers can carry over into Threads and you can’t delete Threads without also deleting Instagram.
- You can have up to 500 characters per post in Threads, whereas Twitter is sitting at 280 characters for the regular user.
- With Threads, Facebook, and Instagram, Meta is now tracking many different types of data. They could use all that data to curate the content you see on each platform.
- As of right now, there is no DM feature within Threads. That means you can’t message an individual or send threads within the app.
- Many users are asking for this feature, so it’ll be interesting to see what Meta does. They’ve been working to integrate the three messaging platforms in their ecosystem, so it would seem counteractive for them to do this.
- There are no hashtags, search abilities, or advertising… YET.
- The feed that users see is a combination of people they follow and content curated for them – although Instagram’s CEO, Adam Mosseri has hinted that separate feeds are on the platform’s roadmap.
Like other social media platforms, Threads is collecting web browsing history, phone contacts, financial information, precise location, and health/fitness information. While the app isn’t displaying ads just yet, this information is likely enriching Meta’s dataset, making future advertising buys more targeted.
So how should the introduction of Threads impact your organization’s social strategy? Should it even be included at all?
If your organization already has an Instagram account, it makes sense to go ahead and create a Threads account while it’s still new and shiny. The way that Threads is letting users carry over followers from one platform to the other gives you an easy opportunity to engage with your audience on another platform at some point – even if you don’t start posting to it right away.
Threads is much more conversational than Facebook and even Twitter. And your posting strategy should treat it as such. The majority of your content on Threads should be focused on stimulating conversation. Although they haven’t said this publicly, it’s very likely that Threads will prioritize content with the most responses.
However, if capacity is an issue for your team, then cross-posting any text-only content you have slated for Twitter or Facebook is a good place to start.
If capacity on your team allows, it would be wise to have a strategy for replying to the users who respond to your posts. Not only will this increase your post’s performance on Threads, but it also gives you the ability to better cultivate relationships with followers who could turn into donors.
Your strategy for organic social content should now be twofold:
- Primary: Short-form vertical video (60 seconds or less) for IG/FB Reels, YT Shorts, and TikTok
- Secondary: Short-form text only for Twitter, Threads, YT Community, and FB
Time will tell how much effort should be devoted to a content strategy on Threads specifically, but if engagement is anything like initial adoption, the platform isn’t going away anytime soon and those who lean in now will likely reap the benefits later.
Oh, and while you’re checking out the new platform, be sure to follow the D+C account!