Threads – Yet Another Social Media Platform

Date: 18 July 2023

The release of Threads has had people across the world saying the same thing: another social media platform? But what actually is Threads and is it something we should be signing up for?

What is Threads?

Part of the Meta family, Threads is a new app built by Instagram for sharing text updates, images and videos and replying to others' posts to start conversations online. Basically, it’s an alternative to Twitter. 

After Elon Musk bought Twitter in October 2022, he has introduced some changes to the platform that users haven’t agreed with. This has included making users pay for a blue tick, curating users' pages with content they don’t follow and reinstating previously banned accounts. Most recently Musk announced that users would be hit with a limit on the number of tweets they could view a day, with unverified accounts limited to 1,000 tweets per day. These changes have had some users leaving Twitter behind for good.

Mark Zuckerberg must have jumped at the opportunity to then launch a rival app and have users migrate over to the Meta side. Threads was launched at the start of this month, gaining over 100 million users in its first 5 days.

Twitter vs Threads

Are there any differences between the two apps though, or is Threads just a carbon copy of Twitter? Whilst the apps may look very similar and have the same overall purpose for sharing content, Threads lacks the full functionality offered by Twitter.

The main difference between the two platforms right now is that Threads is only available as a mobile app, whereas Twitter can be accessed both on the web and in app.

Hashtags play a key role in the Twitter experience, allowing topics to trend and users to find tweets with ease. Threads does not offer the same functionality however and hashtags are simply just another character on the app. In fact, trending topics are not a thing at all on Threads and you’re limited to content just on your home page.

The search functionality on the platforms is different too. Whilst Twitter allows users to search any topic or phrase, Threads only allows users to search for other user accounts. For instance, if you wanted to see posts in real time about an event or unfolding news topic, Threads would not allow you to search for and view this, unlike Twitter.

What does the arrival of Threads mean for brands?

The announcement of Threads left social media managers crying out. On top of Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat and Pinterest, there’s now another social media platform to create content for?!

Businesses may be left asking though, is it worth setting up a Threads account? 
Looking at other brands on Threads compared to Twitter, their following and engagement levels are similar. Take Pretty Little Thing for instance. The global fashion brand has a big social media presence, with 593k followers on Twitter that they’ve built since November 2011. In less than a month, they’ve almost matched this on Threads, gaining 528k followers. Looking at engagement on their Threads posts these too are reaching similar levels of engagement as their tweets, getting around 300 likes on average per post.

This could suggest that maybe jumping on the Threads trend could work in a brand's favour, especially if they already have a following on Instagram, as Threads offers the option to users to automatically follow all of the same accounts on Threads as they do on Instagram. Could we potentially be seeing the downfall of Twitter happening?

If Elon Musk continues to make changes that users disagree with and Threads are able to improve their functionality, then it may be bad news for Twitter. If one thing is for certain though, this is definitely a development to keep your eyes on.