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From time to time, a new social network appears, with a new proposal, which is not always so new and promising – and rarely succeeding – to shake the consolidated ranking of leading platforms.
The name of the time is Threads!
Launched on July 5, 2023, its astonishing growth is fueling the curiosity of everyone who hasn’t tried it yet and consequently amplifying Marketing in its favor.
Do you want to know more about Threads and maybe join the newest “darling” of the moment?
What is Threads?
Threads is the application released by Meta Platforms, Inc. – parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – for Android and iOS users and offering features similar to the current leader in its niche of social networks, Twitter. Soon, users can publish texts (up to 500 characters), photos, videos of up to 5 minutes and interact with other users.
From this short explanation, it is already possible to draw some conclusions, even though at the time of this post Threads – or “the Threads”, if you refer to it as a social network – has only a week of “life”.
The first is that unlike some social networks, at least initially, users will only have access through their cell phones. When you try to access the new network by typing http://www.threads.net in your browser on Windows, Linux or MacOS, all you see is a background that looks like a galaxy with moving stars, in the center of which there is a QR Code, the iOS and Android symbols and the name “Threads” in the upper left corner.
That is, point your camera at the QR Code and download the app corresponding to your smartphone’s operating system, if you want to join the novelty, because via browser and your desktop or notebook, at least for now, it will not be possible.
The second direct conclusion is that there is no innovation in terms of the “functioning” proposal, but being a competitor to the Twitter model, despite the fact that in the current version – still beta – Threads is not an identical copy of its resources.
Why is Threads successful?
It was just 2 hours after the official launch and the app already registered 2 million users. In the morning of the next day, the 6 million mark had already been reached and at the end of the day, it broke the 30 million barrier. Five days later, 100 million!
Nothing in the history of social networks, or even other services on the Internet, has shown similar growth.
Not even the most recent success story, ChatGPT, which had been the center of attention from end users and the media, came close. While it also gained 100 million users, it took the artificial intelligence platform three months to do so, and that was already an astonishing performance.
For those who argue that you can’t compare two things that are so different, of the current networks, the one with the best performance was TikTok, which needed 9 months to reach the same 100 million.
But what explains this resounding success?
There are a succession of factors that together contribute to the rapid growth in the number of users:
- Launch speed – Meta launched the app just 3 months after the first releases, not letting the expectation “cool down”;
- Audience – Meta’s strategy of promoting the launch within Instagram, to the more than 2.3 billion monthly active users (MAU), means easily finding an audience predisposed to try the novelty. If we think in percentage terms, the 100 million reached do not reach 2.5% of users, which, seen in this way, is not even that much;
- Ease of access – Instagram users use their credentials to access, which makes it easier by not having to create an account and the whole process usually involved and which could “disincentive” possible interested parties, although joining a new network can be easy;
- Competition problems – since Elon Musk acquired Twitter, several changes, news and changes in policies and terms of use have been accompanied by controversy and displeasing many people. Even bets like Mastodon and Koo and more recently Bluesky have emerged as alternatives to the blue bird network and their performances were partly justified by the stumbling blocks of Twitter;
- Copying the leader – by “imitating” the main features and operating format of Twitter, users do not have to learn new things, as well as a greater chance of hitting what made the competitor the leader in its segment
- User base – don’t have to start from scratch like Mastodon or Bluesky. Users can “import” their contacts from Instagram and thus, you already start a network with “friends”. A lot of people already enter and start interacting with your network;
- Support and Know-how – the support and knowledge that Meta already has is an advantage, which causes some of the most common problems in a new social network, such as instability due to the rapid entry of users or hosting and operating infrastructure , are not a problem;
- Limits – there is no limit for viewing tweets per day (1,000 on Twitter) and publications of up to 500 characters, against 280 for non-Twitter Blue subscribers. In short, you have to pay the competition for something that Threads gives away for free;
- Celebrities / influencers – among the 100 million users, there are already a large number of celebrities and influencers with numerous followers who have already joined Threads, which is always an attraction factor for new users. Even brands like Netflix, Spotify, Amazon and Coca-Cola already have their official accounts.
There is one last factor, which many people have criticized and even some question as an undemocratic maneuver or even at odds with ethical principles, which is the fact that it is not possible to delete the Threads account without deleting the Instagram profile.
Therefore, those who eventually joined with just the idea of trying it out, need to know that Threads “imposes” this bond.
Will Threads “retire” Twitter?
You don’t need to be a specialist, nor a futurist, to say that only time will tell. However, from what we’ve seen and from the reasons for the meteoric growth of the first week, Threads seems to gather a set of factors that place it as the social network that can make Twitter begin its downfall.
After all, no network is eternal and history has shown us that at some point the end of every social network will come.
Mastodon, Koo and Bluesky, although they are good alternatives, only bothered Twitter, without constituting real competitors so far.
On the other hand, and almost ironically, we saw one of the most famous characteristics of Elon Musk’s network, pointing out how threatened it is.
In trending topics, hashtags like #Threads, #ThreadsApps and memes with the hashtags #RIPTwitter (from the acronym in English for “rest in peace”), #GoodbyeTwitter (“goodbye, Twitter”), appeared in the first positions as Threads gained more users.
On Sunday, therefore, just 5 days after the launch, Matthew Prince, CEO of cloud infrastructure company Cloudflare, tweeted: “Twitter traffic is decreasing”, along with a graph indicative of Twitter’s decline in ranking relative to other popular services accessed on the Internet.
In addition to these facts, there is not only a startup with good ideas behind it, but a Big Tech with investment capacity, excellent infrastructure, with good experience, in addition to a Marketing department doing whatever is necessary, in a area in which all this, if not decisive, can help a lot.
How to use Threads?
Well, if you’re not part of the list of “hurried people” who already have the app on your cell phone, but you’re curious and aware that if you give up later, or if you don’t like it and want to remove any trace of your ticket, you’ll also have to give up the account on Insta, we’re going to give you some tips on how to further boost the already highly favorable stats of this new service.
Starting with the most basic step, you must download and install the app on your smartphone android or iOSor access the service page in browser and use the cell phone camera to open the respective application store.
With the app installed, follow these steps:
- On the home page, tap on “Login with Instagram”;
- Access the Instagram app and go to notifications (the heart symbol) to allow access;
- Go back to Threads and wait for permission confirmation;
- Fill in the Bio and Link or click on “Import from Instagram” so that the profile data is imported. Next, tap on the “Continue” option;
- Choose between a public profile (any user can see it) or a private one (only your contacts can see it) and tap “Continue”;
- In the last step, information on how Threads works is presented, after which the option “Enter Threads” appears.
Users have the option to follow the same accounts they follow on Instagram and also find other people who are interested in the same subjects as you.
To find profiles, use the magnifying glass tab, in which account suggestions appear. Just tap “Follow” to follow the respective posts of those you follow.
To add a specific profile, type the name in the search field and then click on “Follow”.
As with Twitter, you can like, comment, repost, or quote on users’ profiles. In addition, Threads publications can also be made on Instagram, just by touching the “airplane” icon and choosing.
New posts are made with a touch of the “pencil”, making it possible, in addition to the text, to add photos, videos and links, and before publishing, it is possible to define who can reply. By default, it is set to “anyone can respond”, but it is possible to choose between “profiles you follow” or “mentioned only”.
Finally, just like on Insta, you can track your account activity, such as approving profiles, viewing responses, mentions and verified accounts that follow you, through the “heart” tab.
Conclusion
The scenario, the characteristics and the numbers achieved in just one week, make Threads a real threat to Twitter and its position among social networks.
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