This year’s Fourth of July weekend was filled with more than fireworks and a Joey Chestnut victory in Nathan’s annual hot dog eating contest. With Meta’s announcement of Threads, Mark Zuckerberg upped the ante in an ongoing feud with Elon Musk over a larger battle for our ever-shortening attention spans. Change has been underway ever since Musk took over Twitter (now ‘X’). 
In the wake of a host of controversial moves by Musk, several companies stepped into the limelight to provide an alternative platform including Mastodon and Bluesky. Despite the vast array of options, none of them succeeded in the way Threads has been able to.
The biggest question that everyone is asking is: what exactly made the start of Threads so successful and why has its user base suddenly tanked?
A giant like Facebook took 10 months to gain one million users. ChatGPT took five days to hit the same amount. In just five days, Threads secured over 100 million users. It’s an astonishing feat, but not all that surprising. Threads has a direct pipeline from existing Instagram users who ported over all of their account information to get started.
When opening the Threads app, it’s clear that it mirrors Twitter’s interface. So is it worthwhile? It’s always tricky deciding whether or not to join a new social network. Developing a strategy, content, and becoming relevant on a new and unfamiliar platform is tough. As a startup, this question can be exceptionally difficult because it’s important to define your audience and determine if they will be present in the new space. It needs to be determined if you should allocate your resources towards the new venture as well which begs the question, should start-ups and VC’s join? Let’s dive into it. Below are the top five reasons startups should be on Threads:
Networking Opportunities
Threads is a highly public social media account. For now, there is no way to send a direct message, and when your profile isn’t private, your activity is public. This setup would allow for startups the networking opportunities that Twitter may not have. As people are still migrating to the app, it’s a great opportunity for early adopters to hop in and make those connections that bigger brands haven’t made yet. Jump in and interact with other companies. They will be happy you did and it may even begin an unplanned connection.
Knowledge Sharing
As mentioned above, since Threads is so new a lot of users are looking to find their place on the app. This is why it’s crucial to get that early head start and make yourself known. Elon Musk is the most followed person on Twitter with 147 million. That doesn’t happen overnight. Regardless of context, Elon tweets incessantly and people actively await what he is going to say. Pull that strategy into Threads and post, post, POST! Share your expertise and knowledge while leveraging popular hashtags and conversations. The Threads feed shows people outside of your existing connections which is KEY when looking to join conversations. Scroll through your feed and check in to where you can share valuable insights and information. Stay in your lane, but offer up commentary where appropriate.
With the app just kicking off and not a lot of people sharing quite yet, use the space to make yourself heard. People want someone to follow so be sure to provide quality content and give them a reason to do so.
Mentorship and Guidance
So you made your Threads account but where do you go from here? Scroll through the feed and get a feel of what others are talking about and get a general idea of where your brand will fit in. As mentioned above, people are on the app but it’s still new territory. Be sure to make those connections that you want. If there’s a particular investor you’re interested in and you haven’t quite made the connection yet, take a chance and tag them in something on Threads. This could be a great way to find a mentor and to get their attention early. Do your homework to make the right connections.
Market Insights
What are competitors posting about and threading about? Check in on them and gain some insight. Other popular companies are going to be looking to share their insights and make their mark in the new app. This will allow for market insights and valuable input. People are going to look to share their content on Threads and it’s easy to expect them to share key insights and takeaways. Be sure to listen and provide input where necessary.
Exposure and Publicity
One of the interesting benefits of Threads is that events, webinars and conferences are frequently featured on the main homepage. Since you cannot choose which post you see there is a lot of direction to outside events. As a startup, it’s very important to get the exposure you need and Threads can help guide in the right direction.
Competition isn’t new for Twitter. But with expanded sharing capabilities, longer text and videos and a diverse feed Threads is poised to bring back some of the features that users liked most and miss about the old Twitter. Despite favorable features, Threads still needs to tackle some major industry issues.
Should you or shouldn’t you move your brand to Threads? We’re happy to offer a 20-minute PR prep session to help you get on the right track. Click the link here to get started – https://calendly.com/jcrp.