Meta’s Threads May Finally Topple Twitter

The Background

While some of?Meta’s copycat attempts?have not succeeded in the past, there are early indications that Threads may just be one to succeed. Amongst the competitors vying to compete with Twitter (Bluesky,?Mastadon), largely in the decentralized social space, Threads emerges as the one with the existing infrastructure to easily attract new users. As the app is linked to users’ Instagram accounts, it makes it easy to join, and there is the benefit for many that instead of starting from scratch, your feed is made up of those you already follow on Instagram. While some have noted that you likely would follow different accounts on a text-based platform vs. a visual platform, this at least gives people somewhere to start, with the ability to follow/unfollow additional accounts as makes sense based on user behavior.?

While early adoption numbers aren’t always telling of long-term success (we all know how Clubhouse turned out), it is hard to ignore the staggering?30 million+ signups?that have already occurred, just one day after release.?Celebrities and brands?are already hopping on the bandwagon as well.

Some Takes from the News

• The Morning After: Twitter says Meta stole trade secrets to build Threads (Engadget)
• Threads, Instagram’s ‘Twitter Killer,’ Has Arrived (NYT)
• Instagram Threads is live, threatening Twitter’s reign: What to know about the new Meta app (NBC News)
• Will Threads Succeed Or Join Meta’s List Of Failed Projects? (Forbes)
• Meta’s Threads app is a privacy nightmare that won’t launch in EU yet (TechCrunch)
• Instagram flooded Threads with celebrities and brands at launch (The Verge)

KWT Global 's POV

While we usually recommend a “wait and see” approach with new platforms to see if they have staying power, we are recommending that brands that are already on Instagram and/or Twitter test into this platform, as it’s a low-lift effort to do so. Since it’s a text-based app, new assets aren’t needed, just some additional copy (in many cases that can largely be repurposed from other platforms). No new accounts need to be set up, and if your Instagram followers are heading over to Threads, they can choose to follow those they already follow on Instagram for a seamless transition.?

For brands that haven’t previously utilized Twitter, this could be a great way to see if a text-based approach works for your brand without a lot at risk since everyone is still in the test-and-learn phase here. There is no paid component at this time, so organic testing could be a great way to gauge engagement before paid competition becomes a factor. Additionally, even if the platform doesn’t have staying power, because of the high volume of early adoption, even getting on board for the time being could lead to additional engagement and following that can then benefit efforts on Instagram. For those paying attention to the?potential security concerns, as this is a Meta-owned app, we can likely expect the same level of security/personal information uses as other Meta apps and do not expect any new concerns.

If you’re a brand already on Twitter, we don’t necessarily recommend jumping ship just yet – while there has been a lot of volatility over the last few months, they have been making some movement towards stabilizing including hiring their new CEO and purging bots in an effort for a more authentic following. While they are still having quite a few issues (Google rankings,?TweetDeck?issues among these), usage is still high and without knowing where Threads will land, it’s best not to put all your eggs in one basket.

Threads' staying power will likely hinge on whether it can differentiate itself enough from existing platforms, and it will ultimately be important for brands to differentiate their channel strategy from Twitter and Instagram accordingly. Currently a lot of the content we're seeing is similar to those platforms, which makes sense as everyone dips their toes in the water. However, monitoring user behavior and modeling the channel approach accordingly will be key to seeing success on Threads.

TL;DR,?Threads provides a fairly easy, low-lift, low-risk test-and learn opportunity that we recommend brands already on Instagram and/or Twitter try out.