Unraveling Threads: 8 tips to get the most out of Meta’s Twitter competitor

Sarah Baumann, managing director at The Wild by Jungle Creations, says after the “rip-roaring success of the Threads launch,” the industry is now at the “nail-biting stage” of seeing if engagement will be maintained. Marketers generally seem optimistic about the long-term potential of Threads. Baumann explains its success lies in catering to a “whole cohort of young Gen-Zers and creators who Twitter passed by, but who really want a text-based platform.”

It’s still very early days, with the industry all learning together what works and what doesn’t, but there is some basic guidance to get you started with a more concrete plan.

1. Don’t overthink content right now. Start “light-touch” testing.

2. Early adopters will win.

3. Without ads, brands should be working hand-in-hand with creators.

4. Remain vigilant to new updates.

5. Measure with engagement metrics.

6. Just because audiences are automatically migrated from Instagram, don’t copy and paste content.

7. Although Threads is a text-centric platform, don’t neglect visuals.

8. Don’t put too much effort into Threads just yet.

Thomas Walters, Europe chief executive officer and co-founder of Billion Dollar Boy: “We’re closely monitoring how it [Threads] progresses and remaining vigilant to new platform updates introduced by Meta and we’d advise brands to do the same. For now, we’re advising brands to use the opportunity to dip their toes in the water. There’s no need to overthink the content too much. Start light-touch testing, have fun with it and find out what works for this version of your audience. Even if it’s a case of simply resharing Instagram content to Threads. While we wouldn’t always advise repurposing content between platforms, it offers a short-term solution to help brands gauge how audiences on the platform behave differently.

“For those that do lean in, creators need to be the focus. Meta has already hinted that it won’t monetize Threads in 2023, meaning the next six months offer a huge opportunity for brands to work with creators instead.”

Tamara Littleton, chief executive officer at The Social Element

"If a brand is going to take up space on the feed, it needs to spend time reading the room to understand the vibe. Take advantage of the fact that it’s currently ad-free, pretty random, and fun. This is an opportunity for brands to lean into their tone of voice and ensure the brand is authentic and true to its identity.

"At the moment, it’s a light-hearted and fun space so brands should keep this in mind when experimenting. Use it as a space to play with creative content to showcase brand personality and jump into the conversation - it’s all about consistently showing up and letting go a bit."

Lindsey Gamble is the associate director of Influencer Innovation at Mavrck:“Due to the early days of Threads, and the low volume of branded content, there’s no defined strategy for strong branded content on Threads. Yet, leveraging text and visual content, such as photos and videos, looks to be effective. Threads is text-centric, so creators’ text/captions can potentially have a greater impact than on Instagram, which is more visually oriented. However, visual content, specifically “tall” photos and carousels, also make sense on Threads as they can capture people’s attention in the feed. With clickable links in posts, having creators include relevant links in their content also makes sense.

“The absence of standard post metrics, such as impressions or reach, on Threads poses challenges for brands in accurately measuring the impact of sponsored content. As a result, brands should primarily rely on available engagement metrics, such as likes, replies, reposts, and link clicks via tracking links, as key indicators.”

James Hacking, founder of Socially Powerful: “Early adopters win. We’re in an element of testing right now, where you can try things you ordinarily wouldn’t and “play” to test what your audience reacts best to. Being on there now gives you immediate access to a ready-made audience. Currently, competition is low, which means you can reach audiences who perhaps aren’t aware of you due to Threads pushing organic content further than other platforms usually do.

“Don’t put too much effort into Threads yet. There is mass interest right now, but people will slowly lose that initial buzz, then disappear. Brands could see Threads as a huge opportunity with this early interest, put too much effort into it and suffer as a consequence.”

Rachael Goulet, director of social media at Sprout Social: “Because Instagram audiences can be automatically migrated to Threads, brands can immediately begin testing and learning on the platform. While the early days of emerging platforms are usually pretty quiet on engagement, especially for B2B brands, the built-in audience on Threads has made its launch very different. However, just because there is a significant audience overlap doesn’t mean that B2B brands should copy and paste their tone and content approach.

“The brands we’ve seen be most successful on Threads, such as Zoom and Bitly, use a professionally casual and enthusiastic tone.”