Thirty million sign-ups in the first 16 hours and 100 million in the first five days!
These are the results achieved by Threads, a newborn social media channel. Since its release in April 2023, it has gained many names: “a rival to Twitter,” “Twitter killer,” “Twitter clone,” and others. Many brands have already reshaped their strategies to market on Threads. Some have even become Twitter-sober with the appearance of this new social networking service.
Built by the Instagram team and launched by Meta, Threads can be a powerful, competitive space for social media marketers.
In this post, you’ll explore Threads’ features and benefits for brands. After that, incorporate our list of tips into your Threads marketing strategy.
Key Features of Meta’s Threads Every Business Should Know
Is Threads like Twitter (now X)?
This is by far the most popular question asked since the app’s appearance.
The answer is – not exactly.
The Threads app is one of the Meta-owned social media platforms, along with Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Facebook. Like X, Threads allows users to like, repost, add replies, and share content. A thread (post) on this platform can also include a link, text, image, or video.
The key difference from X is that Threads is a part of the nascent fediverse – a set of interrelated networks that remain independent but seamlessly connect. For example, Threads users can interact with each other on Mastodon and other fediverse platforms.
Now, let’s have a closer look at the functionality of Threads.
Already Active Threads Features
- Instagram sync. It’s possible to import your profile picture, name, bio, and link from Instagram into Threads. If your followers are registered on Threads, they will be automatically transferred, too.
- Polls. A Threads poll is active for 24 hours only.
- Tags. Tagging makes conversations discoverable in searches for specific topics or subjects. Note: Tags on Threads don’t have the power of hashtags to draw trending content to the top and boost engagement.
- A Paid Partnership feature. An influencer should mark the post as a “Paid Partnership” and indicate the brand with @ followed by its username on the app.
- Two-factor authentication (2FA). A 2FA is a form of multi-factor authentication that can add an extra layer of cybersecurity to your business account on Threads.
- Content length – Threads have a 500-character limit, whereas videos have a five-minute limit.
- Text editing feature. You can edit your posts within five minutes after publishing them. This will help you eliminate grammar or spelling mistakes and error-proof your marketing messages.
Upcoming Threads Features
- Messaging system. Threads will introduce Direct Messages (DMs) with a self-destructing option.
- Hashtags. The hashtagging feature is yet to come.
- Paid social advertising on Threads. Currently, there are no advertising opportunities on Threads. But –
Meta announced that paid ads and monetization are coming once the app gets on a clear path toward one billion users.
Meanwhile, you can start building your follower base on Threads organically today so that once paid social ads become available, you’ll have a solid pool of users for targeting.
Consider why marketing on Threads is crucial for modern businesses, and follow our how-to guide afterward.
Why Promote Your Brand on Threads?
Explore the major benefits of Threads for your business. With this social media app, you can do the following:
Target Generation Z
Gen Z comprises the largest lump of the platform’s users (source).
These digital natives value individuality and crave an authentic connection with brands. You can establish it via Threads because the platform prioritizes honesty and genuine relationship building.
Try brand exposure to an international market
Threads may be an excellent tool to boost your brand awareness and recognition in foreign territories if you aim at a global brand positioning.
Here are the shares of Threads app downloads by country:
- 33% – India
- 22% – Brazil
- 16% – USA
- 8% – Mexico
- 5% – Japan
As you can see, Meta’s new app can expose your brand and your products/services globally.
Drive brand engagement
According to Statista, Meta’s Threads platform has 13 million daily active users worldwide. They interact with posts actively and meaningfully.
Like with Instagram reels for boosting brand engagement on Instagram, you can share your posts and engage with users via Threads discussions.
Cross-promote your content
You can turn on cross-posting and share your Threads posts on Instagram and Facebook.
You can also repurpose other social media content to Threads like YouTube shorts, TikToks, Pinterest images, Tweets, etc.
6 Best Practices of Successful Threads Marketing
Learn how to build an engaged community.
Invite your audiences to follow you on Threads
Currently, Threads is less recognizable and widespread than other social networks. However, its popularity is picking up steam.
Your audience may need a slight nudge to join in. It may be a simple announcement: We’re moving to Threads, similar to this one made by @pimaarizona on X.
They informed their audience that all new Tweet-worthy content will now be posted on Threads.
Like Cyber Voyage's video below, you can also promote your Threads profile on other social media accounts (e.g., your company’s YouTube channel).
In addition, embed a Threads social button into your website’s homepage to showcase your brand’s presence on this platform and lure your web visitors to connect with you there.
Check out how Dan O’s does it.
Engage users with interactive content
Interactivity is one of the content creation secrets for Threads that you'll uncover in this section.
Eric Mills, Owner of Lightning Card Collection, explains why it works: “Interactive content captivates, entertains, and immerses the user, evoking the feeling of excitement. The most compelling and engaging content examples are questions, polls, challenges, puzzles, and games. And all of them work well on Threads.”
See how brands put those into action in their Threads marketing strategies.
1. Questions
Asking questions is a superb way to encourage active user participation in Threads discussions.
Example:
Nissan, an automotive industry giant, uses the What’s-your-favorite question type.
2. Polls
As you may already know, polls are extremely useful for LinkedIn marketing as they skyrocket user engagement. They are not less successful on Threads, either.
Pizza Hut, for instance, engages users with pizza-related polls like this.
3. Fill-in-the-blanks
People like challenging tasks such as fill-in-the-blank sentences because they bring a feeling of accomplishment.
Here’s an example of Canva using them in Threads marketing.
4. Puzzles
A puzzle helped Chipotle generate over 100 replies and interact with users more effectively.
5. Guessing games
Meta launched an exciting game on Threads, asking users to guess the words Meta’s AI used to generate an image.
Establish a two-way communication
Unlike TikTok, aiming to entertain users with hilarious videos, Threads’ vision is to build an open and friendly public space for conversation.
According to Jerry Han, CMO at PrizeRebel, “Threads is a win-win communication tool that proves rewarding for the brand and the customer. So, when going to Threads, you have a single task: to establish a two-way interaction with your potential or existing customers and keep conversations rolling via threads by replying to questions and leaving comments whenever it feels appropriate. Such interactions will help you foster trust and build a better relationship with your audience.”
Learn from the experience of Starbucks. The company communicates with customers via threads, and users appreciate such a personal approach.
Tag your Threads as 'themed'
Let’s again compare Threads with TikTok for customer acquisition.
TikTok has dedicated sub-toks to unite content around particular topics with niche hashtags: #FinTok – for finances, #BookTok – for books, etc.
“By analogy with TikTok, you should create a themed thread on Threads and tag it to match your industry or business niche,” recommends Max Wesman, Founder & COO of GoodHire. “This way, you can become a trendsetter and thought leader in your business sphere. In the HR sector, for instance, we may join the HRThreads community to discuss recruitment trends, interviewing practices, employee benefits, etc.,” he shares.
Once you’ve chosen the subject related to your brand’s niche, tag it like this:
- For gaming → GamingThreads
- For beauty and makeup → MakeupThreads
- For sports → SportsThreads (+ subcategories like FootballThreads or BaseballThreads)
- For travel → TravelThreads
- For healthcare → HealthThreads
- For fashion → FashionThreads, and so on
Starbucks wins the customers’ attention again, this time with CoffeeThreads.
Be authentic and maintain your brand voice
The Threads community strives for authenticity and friendliness.
If you open the Threads profiles of Duolingo, Uber, or Spotify, they radiate positivity and maintain an informal and friendly tone of voice.
You may also use your wit and creativity to communicate with Threads users emotionally. Emotional marketing has considerable brand-boosting advantages, like strengthening loyalty and driving word-of-mouth. People who connect with brands emotionally are nearly four times more likely to recommend them to others.
Let’s delve into an example from Bonobos.
The men’s clothing brand is often recognized by witty wordplay and puns on the website: Look dashing through the snow or Fit happens. The brand also extrapolated this approach on threads: Did you hear the news? Panta Claus is coming to town.
Use visuals
Visual content has 43% more persuasive power than textual information.
This clearly substantiates the “why” behind using visuals to market on Threads.
These include:
- Photos
- Infographics
- GIFs and animations
- Image carousels
- Graphs
- Tables
- Screenshots
- Videos, etc.
“Of course, there must be an ideal ratio of visuals to text because, primarily, Threads is a text-based network. It will vary depending on the topic and purpose of your content. But generally, there’s a 40/60 rule for visual-to-text ratio,” notes Tom Golubovich, Head of Marketing & Media Relations at Ninja Transfers.
NinjaTransfers repurposes TikTok videos on Threads to achieve this ratio.
Here's another example of visual content on Threads - Shopify uses images and memes to create B2B content that resonates with the Threads audience.
Partner with influencers
The last tip is a reminder from Fernando Lopez, Marketing Director at Circuit. He says, “When tapping into Threads for marketing, don’t underestimate the power of influencer collaborations. By leveraging their influence, you can increase your brand’s exposure on the platform, get more traffic to your website, generate qualified leads, and drive sales.”
In fact, 89% of marketers note that influencer promotions bring an eight times higher ROI than any other campaign.
It's never to early to build an influencer marketing strategy for Threads.
Fernando Lopez shares several insights on how to collaborate with influencers on Threads:
- Choose influencers from your business niche (technology, beauty, entertainment).
- Make sure the influencer’s ethics and values align with yours.
- Try out various types of influence-generated content (sponsored posts, unboxing videos, product reviews, giveaways).
- Track and measure the results of your Threads partnerships with content creators (number of likes, reposts, comments, and sales).
Note: Influencers must mark the thread as a “paid partnership” to reveal commercial relationships with businesses.
Pro tip: Use AI tools for influencer marketing like Affable.ai, Upfluence, Buzzstream, etc.
Thread by Thread: Intertwine New Threads Into Your Marketing Strategy
The Threads app is gaining popularity incredibly fast, proving itself as a worthy rival to X.
It may be an ideal platform for marketers and businesses aiming to reach out to Gen Zers, level up their global brand visibility, leverage content cross-promotion, engage with users on a more meaningful level, and foster long-lasting relationships with customers.
All these things are possible when applying the best tips for Threads marketing we have reviewed above.
Once you’re up and running, you can build a loyal community of followers and lay a good foundation for paid advertising when it becomes an active feature on Threads. When this feature arrives, Marin software will be there to help you to manage, measure, and optimize your paid social ads.
For now, get to threading and weave your brand’s success.
