Now that the dust has settled on the Threads vs X battle that we’ve watched open-eyed and popcorn-mouthed over recent months, we can take an objective look at whether brands can benefit from yet another social media channel.
Facebook is for communities, Instagram is for images, TikTok is for videos, and Twitter (X – still getting used to that) is for opinion. I was an early adopter of Twitter and think it is, or at least was, a fantastic tool for building a curated feed and engaging an audience. Threads is a not-so-subtle parking of tanks on Elon’s lawn, and despite protestations from the Zuck crowd, it really is pretty similar.
The huge, HUGE, advantage that Threads has over other would-be competitors (remember Mastodon) is that it already had a huge ready-made following from Instagram. The disbenefit of this, is that the typical Instagram user tended to behave quite differently from a typical X user. Sure, there is some crossover, but even then, those users tended to use their accounts very differently.
So, while Threads has a ready-made customer base, it’ll take time for them to become engaged and use it in a different way. What Meta has been quite clever about is allowing users to cross-purpose content. After all, who wants to draft content for ANOTHER social media platform?
And this is where it becomes relevant for brands. Should a typical B2B or B2C brand be setting up a Threads account? Well at present, consumer brands have been more proactive, as you’d expect. Fashion brands or cultural attractions were set up and providing content within hours. B2B content tends to be by its nature more niche, and more sporadic, which is why we’ve seen fewer adoptees of the channel from this side of the fence.
However, we’re only as good as our best guess. There’s every possibility that the current bin-fire that the management of X appears to be, could result in a smouldering mess, with brands left out in the cold unless they’re kowtowing to ever-increasing and obscure demands. Therefore, Threads is a great insurance policy.
Some e-com businesses I know attribute a high percentage of sales to Twitter/X and they need to have a backup plan. What I’m advising clients is that Threads should be a part of the marketing mix – not one channel dominating and taking up inordinate amounts of time, but sat there in the background, being, well, you know, not crazy.
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