I chose, let's say, the most interesting weekend to try to escape
everything and go camping because Instagram's threads launched and uh,
yeah, it's got the streets talking.
We're gonna have to ignore all the bugs that are gonna fly into my
face as I record this quick video.
So, Threads are essentially, let's just be honest.
It's Twitter.
It's Twitter by Instagram.
It is a text-based platform that provides like micro updates.
You can think of it as a micro-blogging platform.
Think of your Facebook statuses back in 2008 or yes, Twitter.
This was created out of huge response, a huge demand for equality,
a usable replacement to Twitter.
Ever since Twitter has been going through the issues that it has been since.
You know, late last year, it has been wildly successful so far.
It's only been a few days, but they have already amassed 70 million signups.
I'm sure by the time I put this out, it will be even higher.
And I think one of the big reasons that threads has been so successful so far is
because of this connection to Instagram.
When you go ahead and sign up, first of all, your username
is already reserved for you.
Based on your Instagram account.
And then when you go ahead and claim that username, you can have the choice
to follow everybody that you were previously following on Instagram,
which I think is a really cool way to create this instant community.
Other platforms, you know, when you're starting from scratch, it takes some
time to build up that community.
It takes some time to find.
People to follow you and even to find people to follow with threads.
You already have this built in community.
I think this is why people are becoming really addicted to it, because it's
like, well, I already have friends here and now I'm getting to see
this new different side of them.
I wanna be clear, I'm not making this video to be an expert or a
guru or to detail some in-depth strategy that you need to use with.
Threads because it's only a few days old.
Obviously, I don't know everything or really anything.
I've also been away camping, so I haven't been on it that much.
But I do think there is something to say for strategy versus tactics, right?
I always talk about this strategy are going to, it's gonna be these,
these big, overarching, fundamental learnings like copywriting, like
storytelling, like community building.
Those are things that are, that are skills that you can learn and translate.
Over to any platform tactics are gonna be more related to.
Algorithms, specific platforms, tasks, and little hacks and best
practices for those platforms, right?
Both are valuable and I think you have to learn both to be
able to excel at marketing.
But strategy is definitely something that we can talk about right now based
on our experience with other platforms that are similar and just what we're
observing, you know, off the bat.
So first off, what content should you post on threads?
This is the number one question I've been getting, and the answer is,
well, number one, I think be yourself.
I think any text-based platform that I've been a part of, like
Twitter, I was a huge Twitter head.
Um, is that a word?
Twitter head.
I loved Twitter for a while until it got weird.
People want you to be yourself on those platforms.
I have found that brands like companies do not tend to do as well.
There are definitely some outliers, like shout out to Wendy's.
There are absolutely outliers.
There are absolutely brands that post amazing tweets.
And that will post amazing threads, but I think by and large
people want to hear from people.
People want to have a human casual connection with your
brand or with your person.
When I asked my followers on threads, what they were looking for out of the platform,
That's exactly what everybody said.
They said they want casual connection.
They want behind the scenes.
Somebody equated it actually to stories, to Instagram stories,
which I hadn't really thought about.
I was definitely thinking like, oh, it's Twitter.
It's Twitter.
But they're right.
Like it's very much like the content that you would post on Instagram
Stories is the same stuff that you would write on threads by Instagram.
I think that any of these platforms, Twitter threads, anything like that,
any new ones that come along, spill blue sky, whatever they are not.
The platform for you to be doing hard sales on.
Now they can be a conversion platform.
I've absolutely found amazing clients on Twitter, but the way that I have
found clients on Twitter, to be honest, from, at least from what
I've heard anecdotally, is, oh, you wrote a funny kind of witty tweet.
I know this one that I made was very popular.
I'll put it up on the screen here.
That one.
Got me one of my like favorite students ever and friends now.
And so it's not about this, Hey, buy my course.
Hey, I'm launching this course.
It's about posting things that are relevant to your, your ideal
clients kind of indirectly.
It's about.
Being a little bit witty, being a little bit funny, being a little bit savvy
about how you're talking about it.
And don't get me wrong, there is absolutely a strategy in this.
Like this is not just like, oh, do, do, do, just posting randomly.
There is absolutely some thought that goes into it.
You need to think about who you're trying to attract, what types of customers you're
trying to attract, what types of things do they like, and sort of build your,
curate your, your posts around that.
But it is not, Hey, buy this.
Hey, buy that.
That's, that's not the vibe.
People are not going to like that.
By and large.
Adam Moss, head of Instagram, he replied to somebody who asked, you
know, or I guess he just posted an update on threads for those of you
trying to think about what to post here on Threads versus on Instagram.
My take is it's less about text versus photos and more and videos and more about
what public conversations you wanna have.
Do you wanna engage in more of a back and forth threads?
Make sense?
If not, great.
Probably Instagram.
So if you are managing a brand, let's say that you have a haircare company
and you're trying to decide on your packaging threads, might be a great
place to post, Hey, do you like A or B?
Or, Hey, what, um, scent.
Are your favorites, you know, what natural sense, what essential oils
are your favorite, like whatever, like, and start to have those
conversations and almost do some market research and some community building.
It's also a great place to, um, just kind of.
Build out some more of that lifestyle content.
Again, I think it's really important to know who your customers are
or who your ideal customers are.
So if you know that your, your company targets Gen Z and young
millennial women, well, we can make some assumptions, shall we say, about
what types of media they're consuming, about what types of other brands they
like, about what types of hobbies they have, and maybe we're showing our
haircare brand here on a getaway house.
Because we know like people love this stuff who are in
your target, um, audience.
I think that's kind of what it's about, as opposed to here's the link to our
new shampoo, here's the coupon code.
Buy this, do this.
Adam Moser also explained that the goal is not to replace Twitter.
It's to create a public square for communities on Instagram that never really
embraced Twitter and for communities on Twitter that are interested.
In a less angry place for conversations, but not all of Twitter politics
and hard news are inevitably going to show up on threads and
they have on Instagram as well.
But we're not gonna do anything to encourage those verticals.
It is very much, okay, I'm gonna be honest with you, from somebody who.
Loved Twitter.
Who uses Instagram daily for my business?
Twitter, or I'm sorry, threads.
Definitely seems like the Disney version of Twitter, if you know what I mean.
Like it is very wholesome.
It is very, um, you know, PG 13, I guess I would say, and
I think that's, A good thing.
In a lot of ways, I think for brands, it actually makes it a bit
of a safer platform than Twitter.
Twitter, I think it's just really easy to get in trouble and get sucked
down the rabbit hole or just click on the wrong hashtag and next thing you
know, I mean, I've liked, I've liked.
Spicy tweets before, without trying, I swear.
And I'm like, oh my goodness.
Like there is just a unclothed body on my likes.
You know, likes on Twitter are public on threads.
It just feels a little bit safer and that type of content is not on there.
And you know, not even the spicy kind of inappropriate content, but
even the politics and hard news, it's very much about community building,
having fun, being light, being chill, and not about being right or
getting in arguments or having these.
Political discussions all the time, which some people are gonna love, some people
are gonna hate, I'm somewhere in between.
He also said politics and hard news are important.
I don't wanna imply otherwise, but my take is any incremental engagement
or revenue they might drive is not at all worth the scrutiny, negativity, or
integrity risks that come along with them.
There are more than enough amazing communities, sports, music, fashion,
beauty, entertainment, et cetera, to make a vibrant platform without needing
to get into politics or hard news.
Okay, so let's talk about whether or not your clients should be on threads.
Well, I think that's up to you to decide.
I think every single business is going to be different.
I think you need to be able to invest in a real.
Conversa, you know, real conversations.
This platform is probably going to move fast.
If it's anything like Twitter, meaning you don't post once a week on threads,
you probably are gonna need to post at minimum once a day, but probably a couple
times per day to really start to maximize.
Its.
Benefits, I suppose, for lack of better words.
And so one, your client needs to be able to pay you for that.
Don't think that just because this is connected to Instagram, that
you can just, um, what's the word?
Uh, repurpose your content over from Instagram into threads.
That's not how it's gonna work.
This is a different type of content you're going to need to be able to.
Write things, yes, it's short you, you know, it's not writing a book or
anything, but it is a different skill.
It is a different muscle that you're gonna need to build up.
You can't just copy and paste your Instagram caption and and call it a day.
So make sure that you are charging appropriately, that you're charging
for an additional platform, or you're swapping it out for maybe a platform
that isn't working for you as well.
Maybe that is Twitter, maybe that's LinkedIn, whatever.
It's gonna really vary by business.
Something I always tell my clients whenever they ask me, you know, Hey, are
we gonna be on back in my back in my day?
When I was working in corporate, it was Snapchat.
Everyone was like, should we be on Snapchat?
And for some brands it just didn't make sense.
It realistically did not make sense to pay me and my team to curate
all of this original content for Snapchat when we were gonna see.
You know, not that much success from it.
So I say, Hey, we're gonna make sure that we reserve the username.
We set up your bio appropriately, and I'm gonna take some time to investigate.
Can we meet on this next week?
And I can outline my recommended strategy for the platform.
Maybe that's gonna be, yes, we should post once a day on threads.
And here's, here's how much my rate is gonna increase.
Or maybe this is, you know what, I think let's go ahead
and make this a private account.
We'll put in the bio that we are not active on threads, but come find us on
Instagram or come find us on Twitter.
That kind of thing, just to sort of, uh, reserve a spot and be there so people
can find you if they're looking for you.
But it's not gonna make sense for every brand, and that's really
up for up to you to decide what is going to make the most sense.
Lastly, but I wanna talk really quickly about some of the concerns from a
plat, from a platform perspective.
This is pretty widely reported now, so maybe you know about this already,
but because Threads and Instagram are connected, apparently you cannot
delete your Threads account without also, Deleting your Instagram account.
Think this is important to have that conversation with your clients and
also to think about this from your perspective before you sign up.
Me, I know that my life is like, you know, uh, out there on the internet,
let's say and whatever, uh, but from some of your clients who maybe are a
little bit more concerned about that, worth having a conversation, I think
also, You know, I think we are kind of in this, in this season of like
anything is better than Elon's platform.
Like a lot of people are just like, Twitter has gotten
so toxic in so many ways.
Maybe you don't support Elon, whatever.
So like, let's just go to whatever I don't care about, I don't care.
But I do think it's important to note this is a met, you know, this is met us plot.
For him.
Meta has gotten in trouble before or been in under hot
water, let's say, controversy.
They, uh, you know, have had their issues.
So just keep that in mind.
If this is your way of protesting, you know, billionaires owning
social platforms or whatever, like, I have some news for you.
So, I don't know, I think those are really my updates for now.
I think have fun with it.
Start conversations.
Don't do hard sales.
I think people are reacting probably pretty poorly to that
at this point, but, uh, you know, investigate it and see if it's gonna
be right for you and your clients.
Let me know when the comments down below if you are using threads and also
if you're using them for your clients.
I'm really curious to know and how those conversations are going.
And if you're new here, please take a second to subscribe.
I post videos every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Wednesdays are new, just for July.
I have a special course, a free course that's all about freelance,
uh, sales, getting freelance clients.
And if you are interested in learning more about social media strategy as a
whole, not for threads, don't worry.
I'm not selling a.
Threads course just yet, like let's not do that.
But if you are interested in social media strategy as a whole,
you can also check out the Social Media Management Accelerator.
We are kicking off class next week, so this is officially your
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I'll leave a link down in the description if you wanna learn
more about that, but I greatly appreciate you being here regardless.
Thanks for tuning in and I will talk to you in my next video.
Bye.