How Can Businesses Benefit From Using Threads By Meta?

Meta’s two-week-old social media app Threads has triggered a wave of curiosity as Twitter’s new rival.  Whilst still in its infant stage of publication, the new social media space is already becoming another marketing centre with big brand names such as Netflix, TGI Fridays and Oreo making their debut appearance on the app.

Zuckerburg’s intention to make Threads an app based around conversation ensures a more intimate, casual and unfiltered realm distinguishing it from other social media apps. The launch of Threads has caused a frenzy amongst marketers on how to utilise this space to host and pitch their campaigns. A popular strategy seen so far by many well established brands on Threads is to deliver witty and informal conversation starters with a side of self promotion.

Integration With Instagram

When signing up to the app, users inherit their Instagram followers instantly making for a seamless integration. This feature means that a users community essentially stays the same and there is no need to work on building a target audience as it is already present.

Therefore, when publishing a Thread the text feels all the more intimate and personal with a greater focus on direct communication to devoted followings who clearly already have an interest in the brand.

Marketers can no doubt take great advantage in the inextricable link between Threads and Instagram.

Through an almost backwards approach, whereby accounts are logged in at the ready instead of needing to grow a following organically, brands can interact with their audiences on a more personal and conversational level creating a surge of excitement and eagerness to start posting unique content for their followings knowing the interest and attention is already there.

How Is Threads Different To Twitter and Instagram?

It is known that social media rewards earlier adopters and whilst Threads still remains in its first month of publication brands and businesses should look at hopping on as soon as possible. As there are less people on the app, there is less competition to be noticed meaning that engagement and discoverability is at an all time high in this infant stage.

As many users still do not know how to use Threads to its full capacity, it seems as though many are just having fun with it making it a more enjoyable digital space to occupy. This takes a direct strike at Twitter which since Elon Musk’s ownership became associated with a lot of negativity and approval ratings have severely declined.

To profit from the negative perception that many people now have of Twitter, Meta ensures that Threads launched with zero ads and Zuckerburg has announced that he is not thinking about monetisation until the app reaches one billion users. Where Twitter has a negativity problem, Instagram has a discoverability problem which Threads solves through having no ads, no hashtags and no bots.

This is greatly beneficial for any brand or business as Threads appears to be a new haven with a fresh and likeable face. This may be the reason as to why engagement levels are currently so high on Threads compared to any other social media site which marketers are keen to prey on in order to build their brands.

Importance of Personality and Marketing

Threads is the perfect outlet to showcase brand persona and audience understanding rather than to showcase products or services. If we look at what current brands on Threads have posted such as Gymshark ‘my boss doesn’t know threads exists so i’m boutta go off rn’ and Oreo ‘born to eat OREO cookies, forced to join a new social media platform’ we can see the friendly and informal internet slang pervading their language.

The style of Threads centres around text based conversation. Without an edit feature, Threads enhances authenticity through forcing users to submit real time text updates with no filter.

This sense of authenticity is something that people have been craving from brands and businesses as they have become more aware of the fake and posed nature of Instagram posts and stories. In particular, the rise of TikTok affirms a greater value for sharing brief, real time posts and videos. Threads, therefore, fits perfectly into this desire for realness as it gives people the ability to peek behind the curtain of their favourite brands and big names.

Where Threads could potentially fit into a marketing strategy is through nurturing and converting followers into potential buyers, customers or clients without needing to heavily pitch or sell. The platform provides a dynamic and interactive environment, empowering marketers to directly connect with users through posts, comments and reposts.

Active engagement in relevant discussions and sharing insightful information on the site allows an effective establishment of brand presence as well as to foster relationships, and encourage brand loyalty. This direct and interactive approach to marketing holds immense long term potential in the sense that it positively impacts engagement and shapes a brand’s image.