Dear Mail,  

No shame in your IM game! But since you’re looking to adapt to the newest app on the street: first, we’ll look at where Threads is right now. And then, friend? We’ll go EVEN FURTHER.

What’s the current sitch: 

Because the Threads App is owned by Meta, parent company to Facebook and Instagram, you sign up through your Insta account and your username and verification badge will carry over. Your followers will automatically be invited to follow your business on Threads, which makes it easier for new users to get up and running.   

The catch? Since users will be notified of your presence, you should have content ready to roll and a posting schedule in place so that those freshly alerted friends will smash the “Follow” button.   

In terms of capabilities, Threads supports 500-character text updates (versus Twitter’s 280-character limit). You can attach links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in length.   

What’s in the works:  

Any new platform will have growing pains—and people have been vocal about ways that Threads can improve their UX, especially if they want to compete with Twitter/X (still mourning that little blue bird). So far, the Threads team seems receptive.  

They recently rolled out the first batch of updates and continue to tease upcoming features, like an edit button. They’ll definitely want to keep introducing those new abilities to retain (and even grow) their userbase. 

Meanwhile, your pals at Brokaw are keeping an eye on these developments: 

• Meta’s plans for addressing privacy policies and tightening protective measures. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri recently shared that the number of spam accounts has ticked up, so their team will need to tighten the reins on things like rate limits. 
• How the Fediverse will impact privacy—and be received. The platform continues to tease that Threads will “soon” be compatible with ActivityHub, which means content you post on Threads could be accessible from other apps like Mastodon and WordPress. Will this go over well with users? We’ll seeeee! 
• Branded content and paid opportunities for businesses and advertisers. Given the connection to Meta, we’re curious about ads management and if cross-promotion between Facebook, Instagram, and Threads will be available.  

What usage looks like: 

That man Zuck recently shared his optimism for how the community is evolving, saying, “Early growth was off the charts, but more importantly tens of millions of people now come back daily. That’s way ahead of what we expected. The focus for the rest of the year is improving the basics and retention.”  

Though he’s all smiles, reports show that the platform is losing momentum. In fact, new data from Sensor Tower shows that active user count has fallen 70%. Some things to keep in mind: Threads isn’t a shiny new toy anymore, and users are still figuring out how to use—or if they want to use—the platform, so this isn’t a terribly surprising stat.  

We will be waiting to see how they keep people engaged and interested, as that could make or break their chances of survival. No pressure!  

To sum it up: 

Though the Threads App has seen impressive growth and there’s a lot of potential, they need to keep developing and improving to convince, uh, the entire world that it’s worth using. 

To get businesses excited, they need to integrate some key engagement and community management features and definitely add support for scheduled posts. Time will tell whether Meta-Instagram is up for the challenge, because it seems like TikTok sure is. Ruh Roh! 

If you want additional insights on the changing social landscape and how to refine your strategy accordingly—boy, do I have the humans for you. Get in touch!