Thread Lightly: How to Choose the Right Social Media Platforms for Your Business

Listen to the podcast or read the edited, short transcript below:

Last week, ‘Threads’ suddenly jumped on the scene (even quicker than Meta was anticipating).

But is this simply another case of shiny object syndrome?

Because it’s popular, does that mean your business suddenly pivots your strategy and jumps on the bandwagon??

So today, I wanted to explore some ways you can determine what platforms your business should focus its marketing efforts on.

The challenging question we face is this:

"Where should my business be marketing?" and “Should I jump on sudden trends like 'Threads'?"

There isn't a one-size-fits-all answer.?

I'd suggest that you carefully consider a few key points to help guide your decision. (Here's a high-level look at each suggestion, and I'll dive into each point in greater detail a bit deeper below).

Know your audience: Understand their online behaviour and preferences.

Set clear goals (and stick to them): Your marketing channels should align with your business objectives. Don't get distracted with shiny object syndrome.

Evaluate your industry and offerings: Determine which channels are most suitable based on what you're selling and who you're selling to.

Assess your resources: Ensure you can support your chosen marketing strategies over the long term.

Remember, digital marketing isn't about being everywhere - it's about being where your audience is and engaging with them effectively.?

So when it comes to 'Threads', should we all suddenly be 'threading'?

Here's my personal take so far with the details we know at this early stage (which isn't a lot).

Sure, go ahead! Jump on 'Threads', test the platform and develop a voice and an audience.

However, ensure you're sticking to your core marketing strategy and not getting distracted.

Make sure you constantly test engagement and effectiveness with your core audience, and you ensure that the time and investment you’re putting into the platform (or any new platform, for that matter) is helping you to step closer to achieving your overall strategy and goals.

Hold up, what are ‘Threads’ anyway?

For the uninitiated, let's take a step back.

‘Threads’ is a new micro-blogging platform created by Meta, the owners of Facebook and Instagram.?It is dubbed a "Public Conversations App" and offers a similar experience to Twitter.

Threads has experienced significant growth since its launch - under a week ago at the time of writing - with many users transitioning from Instagram due to the easy sign-up process.?

The launch has been great news for Meta, as they’ve already surpassed 100 million users.

The question for users (and businesses and their marketing strategies) is whether it’ll stick.?Or is it just another platform to distract us from our current marketing strategies?

The sudden growth has even surprised Meta. According to the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri was quoted as saying:

”We don’t even know if this thing is retentive yet. We couldn’t be more psyched about launch week, but it’s also important that we have perspective about what matters over the long run.”

So, the question then becomes - is Threads worth you and your business dropping everything to join??Is this the time you pivot and master another platform - or is it simply a distraction?

How should we decide whether 'Threads' (or any social media platform) suits your business?

There’s so much to choose from - SEO, PPC, social media marketing, email marketing, and so on - and while these platforms offer promising opportunities, it's important to remember that what works for one business may not necessarily work for another.?

The challenge lies in identifying which channels align with your business objectives, target audience, and brand persona.

Here are four key ideas that we suggest you look at to determine the platforms to hone your marketing activities:

Understanding Your Audience

Your audience should be at the core of your marketing strategy.?

If you don’t have this nailed, your simply working with a ‘hit and hope’ strategy.

Where do they spend most of their time online? What kind of content do they consume? Which social media platforms do they use or avoid?

Understanding your audience's preferences will allow you to tailor your marketing strategy to reach them effectively.?

Defining Your Businesses Overall Marketing Goals

What do you want to achieve with your marketing efforts??

Whether it's brand visibility, customer engagement, lead generation, or direct sales, your goals will significantly influence where you should be marketing.?

For instance, platforms like Instagram or Google Ads could be highly effective if you aim to boost brand visibility. Or, for B2B lead generation, LinkedIn and email marketing might be more suitable.

If you don’t have an understanding of what you want to achieve, you’ll never get there!

Assessing Your Industry, Competitors and Offerings

Your industry, product or service offerings and competitors are also big factors in determining where you should be marketing.?

If you operate in a niche industry with complex offerings, content marketing through blogs or webinars might work well to educate potential customers.?

On the other hand, if you offer visually appealing products or lifestyle services, showcasing them on Instagram or Pinterest could attract a lot of attention.

Also, take note of your competitors and assess your place in the market and your unique selling points to help your business stand out from the competition on the same platform.

Evaluating Your Resources and Capabilities

This is one of the big issues I see with businesses each day, and a trap that I've even fallen into in the past.

Effective marketing requires consistent effort and resources.?

Understand what your business can afford and where you have the expertise to maintain a consistent presence, and remember that kicking off on a platform and dropping off may be more detrimental to your brand, than simply sticking to your existing strategy.?

So with ‘Threads’, you'll want to ensure that you have the capability, resources or budget to adjust and pivot your strategy.

So let's say that you want to give 'Threading' a go for your business. What should you be aware of?

New platforms come with some positives and some risks (based on what we know right now - and as it’s so new, we don’t have a lot of details just yet).?

What are the positives of incorporating ‘Threads’ into your strategy?

It’s easy to set up your account, verify and test.

Businesses with Instagram accounts can easily sign up and receive immediate verification (if you were already verified on Instagram).

This simplifies the onboarding process and facilitates follower migration from Instagram to Threads.

This is also one of the key reasons it’s blown up.

There’s extended content flexibility, unlike Twitter.

Threads allow posts of up to 500 characters and 5-minute videos, which offers brands more flexibility to communicate their messages.

However, on the flipside, this also means you need to evaluate whether this type of communication style is what your business and strategy does best and resonates with your audience.

Thread’s early popularity is a bonus.

As previously mentioned, people are joining Threads in the millions in its early days, which provides increased visibility and engagement opportunities for brands.?

This is a positive and a risk as early adoption can help brands establish a strong presence on the platform - however, the brands that’ll excel at this in the early days are the ones with strong Instagram presence anyway.?

This is another communication tool for those large brands, as the limited discoverability (more on that soon) will make reach challenging for smaller businesses. So smaller brands may be at a disadvantage.

Advertising potential is still on the cards.

Although not yet available, it's expected that Threads will roll out an ad platform eventually. Users won’t like this, but as advertisers, we can see the benefits of seamlessly integrating ads with existing Facebook and Instagram ad accounts.

Tone and content experimentation and testing.

If your business is currently testing and trailing new variations of your tone of voice or branding, Threads' fresh, playful vibe could allow you to experiment with slightly less risk.

Big brands are already doing this; for example, Salesforce, which typically shares more serious business-related content, appears to be trialling a more playful tone.?

'Threads' could become a good playground for testing.

There are also big risks of adding Threads to your strategy.

The future is uncertain.

Like any new platform, Threads runs the risk of losing user interest after the initial excitement fades.

How have your Mastodon and Clubhouse strategies worked for you?

This goes back to my point above that this could become more of a distraction away from your key marketing goals, KPI’s and strategy.

The chances of discoverability are limited.

Currently, Threads doesn’t offer users the ability to search for topics or trending hashtags, which could potentially limit content discoverability.

As mentioned earlier, larger brands with larger followings may see a better result from an early adaptation strategy, as they can leverage their large audiences.?

However, for smaller businesses and creators, using the platform to increase brand visibility is currently a challenge.

This could change, it’s simply too soon to tell, and changes are being made constantly.

Overinvestment is always a risk.

As the future of the platform is uncertain, putting a lot of resources into Threads could lead to an unwarranted drain on resources.

We’re in a crunchy time economically as it is - so adding a new strategy and investing a lot of time, money or resources into a platform that is still being discovered and just finding its feet (and its ideal audience) is a risk for businesses.

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Hopefully, this is given you an overview of the platform, ideas on how to assess if the platform is right for your business and explaining the risks involved to your overall marketing strategy.

Again, just make sure you constantly testing and keep focused on YOUR core audience and YOUR core marketing goals.

Stay on YOUR track and not always the track that's been pathed for you by shiny new objects.