Marketing on Meta’s Threads: What Lies Ahead for Businesses?

Meta’s latest venture, Threads, is stirring up the social media landscape. With an easy onboarding process and the promise of a casual atmosphere, Threads has already registered over 100 million users in the first five days alone, making it the fastest-growing social media platform in history. 

If you’re curious about using Threads for your business, keep reading. Our social media team has been working round the clock to provide you with the latest Threads updates and observations. 

Twitter vs. Threads: A Battle for Social Media Stardom 

Threads was built to mirror and compete with Twitter. And so far, it’s coming out on top. 

Both platforms are what we in the social media industry call a “microblog.” This means you can share a small amount of content with your audience to improve engagement. Although they’re alike in intent, they differ strongly in platform culture. 

Negative sentiments surrounding Twitter and the changes made by new leadership have been circulating for quite some time, causing companies to pull advertising dollars from the platform at record rates. In fact, Twitter’s ad sales have decreased by almost 60% in recent weeks. The reason for their disenfranchisement comes from the rise in hate speech and adult content on the social network.

Meta made note of these concerns and created Threads to do what Twitter failed to do – provide a safe space for users to share their thoughts and ideas creatively. This platform is equipped with tools to, in Meta’s own words, “tune out the noise.” Users can easily unfollow, block, or restrict users on this platform. Likewise, Meta has invested more than 16 billion dollars in technology to protect their users and uphold community guidelines. 

Threads for Businesses

Threads positive culture and its easy onboarding process have made it extremely popular for individual users and businesses alike. With millions of users joining daily, businesses would be foolish not to jump on the bandwagon. In fact, many companies have noticed more success in posting organic content on Threads than on Twitter. 

An extremely recent study conducted by WebsitePlanet analyzed thirty brands on both Twitter and Threads to see how their content performed on both platforms. On average, they found that the brands they studied got eight times more likes on Threads than on Twitter when posting the same content on both platforms. 

Although Threads seems like a clear winner, it is extremely important to note that Threads is not offering companies the opportunity to advertise on their platform at this time. They also do not have a web interface. Threads is only available to users via mobile app. 

Early Observations

We hope this goes without saying; it is still far too early to determine what the platform culture or user behavior will look like on Threads. Like the rest of the world, our social media team is closely monitoring this platform to see how it evolves with time before we make any rash marketing decisions.  

For now, we recommend our clients explore this new platform with candor, curiosity, and action. There is no reason not to start an account for your company, but we advise you to wait a few weeks before investing much effort or money into marketing on this platform. 

That being said, when you do post, here are some best practices to keep in mind. 

Learn more about RSM’s social media management services

1. Post Often

The more you post, the more likely you are to get noticed by Threads users. Our social media specialists encourage you to consider posting at least five times a week. 

2. Keep It Light

We have noticed that light and friendly content performs best on Threads. Consider sharing things like:

• Memes
• Gifs
• Photos
• Infographics 

3. Engage With Your Audience

When you get comments on your posts, respond to them. Engagement is clear to performing better on the algorithm and attracting new followers

4. Follow Other Accounts

Log on to your account and follow individuals and engage with their content. You can like, comment, and even reshare what they post. 

5. Ask Questions to Encourage Engagement on Your Posts

Users love to answer questions from brands they follow. We recently posted on our threads account and asked users to comment and share their favorite social media platforms, and we were pleased with the responses we got from our followers. 

6. Include Calls to Action When Appropriate

We recommend using calls to action with links to your websites on certain posts. For example, if you’re sharing a blog, encourage users to read the blog and give them a link to do so. That being said, please refrain from adding calls to action or CTAs to all your posts. That’s overkill. 

7. Don’t Include Hashtags

Spoiler alert, Threads does not allow users to use hashtags. So do yourself a favor and leave them off your posts on this platform. 

Final Thoughts

If you have the time to explore threads personally or professionally, please do. Get a feel for the platform and what kind of content is on there. But, if you’re investing company time or money in this endeavor, please do so with caution, as it is too early to know if this platform will take off and be popular in the future. 

If you have any questions about Threads or are interested in developing a robust social media marketing strategy for your business, reach out to us. Our social media team would be pleased to discuss the many ways we can assist you in reaching your ideal clients on social media.