There is a new ‘friendly’ rival to Twitter.
And it is already boasting incredible numbers.
So, is it time for your brand to join Threads and ditch Twitter from your social media strategy?
These are some of the questions I put to Jonathan Pollinger, one of the expert tutors who deliver our social media training.
Threads was launched last week by Meta as an alternative to the increasingly chaotic Twitter.
Seven million users signed up to Threads in the first ten hours. When I spoke to Jonathan, that number had already skyrocketed to more than 30 million.
And, at the time of publication, it stands at more than 100 million. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, believes it could attract a billion users.
So, should brands delete that Twitter account and lose all those followers they have been painstakingly growing and move to its shiny new rival?
Or is that a risky social media gamble at this stage?
“It is too early for that,” Jonathan said. “I think a watch-and-see approach is required by brands at the moment.
“If you have a solid presence on Twitter in terms of followers and are getting lots of traction, it would be a bit crazy to can all that immediately.
“I would run the two in parallel and see how they get on.
Today is #WorldChocolateDay. In completely unrelated news, we're also now on Threads ⏩ https://t.co/AMtaAQfYwg #FridayFeeling #FusionEnergy pic.twitter.com/PULj3H0v3g
— UK Atomic Energy Authority (@UKAEAofficial) July 7, 2023
we're also on threads now
— wta (@WTA) July 7, 2023
👉 https://t.co/Gl0Vq5eflh pic.twitter.com/WA6SVXh4iM
If you do start on Threads, don’t be fooled into thinking the content that works on Twitter will also work here.
“These platforms are not the same thing,” Jonathan said. “Threads is like the Twitter from around 2010.
“And it is good that Zuckerberg has been using words like ‘conversation’ and ‘chat’ in how he pitches Threads.
“So, I think brands and users should not get caught up in the broadcast-style ‘we’re great’ posts or boring content like ‘should we have pineapple on pizza’.
“You need a friendly, conversational tone.
“Threads is linked to Instagram, which I think is the most-friendly social network, and I believe a similar approach will work here.
“If people can see you are friendly, conversational, relatable and maybe funny, they will be drawn to what you post.
“Whereas modern Twitter has become a lot more broadcast.”
But Jonathan predicts it might not be long until brands decide to leave Twitter altogether.
“You have to go where your audience is,” he said “It is something we always say during social media training.
“If users spend less time on Twitter, brands will follow suit. There is no point staying there if there is no audience.
“So, I think it might be sooner rather than later that we see brands jump ship.”
But we’ve been here before, haven’t we? Twitter has seen off many previous rivals. Blusesky, Mastodon and Post are some of the much-hyped networks that have tried to knock the blue bird off its perch.
Will Threads succeed where others have failed?
“Mastodon was never going to take off,” Jonathan said. “It is too geeky and too small. And too complicated for the average user.
“I think Threads is way more likely to be successful. People are familiar with how Meta’s stuff works.
“And I think they have done a good job. They have taken the best bits of Twitter and given it a Meta makeover.
“The sign-up is also an easy process. And you can click a couple of buttons to import your Instagram information and keep the same username.
“I think that is partly why the user figures have gone up so quickly.
“And I think we will continue to see big user number increases for some time. Imagine if it takes them a week to reach 500 million, the same number of users Twitter has attracted in about 18 years.
“I think there will be new users joining all the time, and that will keep the excitement around it going.
“And there won’t be any adverts on the site for a year, which will also have an appeal.”
Twitter has been plagued with problems since being taken over by Elon Musk.
There have been increasing issues with spam and bots on the site, causing it to recently restrict the number of tweets people could see.
And Twitter Blue – its attempt to remove the old blue tick verification with a monthly subscription option – has been a bit of a shambles.
There have also been user complaints of the platform becoming more hostile with a rise in hate speech.
Could the launch of Threads force Twitter out of its seemingly never-ending cycle of chaos and controversy?
Jonathan said: “I think it is too late for that. Twitter is probably doomed.
“If you wanted to look for a ray of light, there are some useful features coming out, like advertising jobs for businesses, which makes a lot of sense with recruitment being such a big market.
“But that is one small thing, and there is a bonfire going on all around it.
“There are issues with hate speech and racism, and the system is falling over. They even recently limited the number of tweets users can see.
“It seems to be the first social media network that wants fewer users.”
Such is the prevalence of hate speech that Jonathan has been advising some of the charities he works with to leave Twitter already.
“You can’t have charities promoting their message and then have hate speech or racist propaganda around it,” he said.
“It is inappropriate, and charities don’t want to be associated with that.
“Some of them have already taken the decision to leave Twitter before I speak to them.
“But I have been advising others to move off.”
We should say that Twitter is threatening Meta with legal action over Threads.
And Musk has tweeted: “Competition is fine, cheating is not.”
Competition is fine, cheating is not
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2023
But for now, at least, it seems the answer to the Twitter/Musk dilemma faced by many brands lies with Meta, a company that has been fined billions for data misuse and that was once described as a “threat to democracy”.
Maybe heroes really do come in unexpected forms.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with more than 35 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
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