Meta's New Threads App
On Wednesday, Meta launched the Thread App as a rival platform to Twitter…the old blue bird. I am and have been a Twitter user, so much so, that a friend who is a social media maven refers to me as a Twitter Queen. I appreciate the title, but there are others on the platform who are much better at it than I am. One of the reasons I adore Twitter and have continued to stay on the platform is because I’ve been able to create actual relationships with people, collaborations, client interviews, podcast friends and interviews and much more. Will it be the same on Threads?
What’s Different with Threads From Twitter and Instagram?
Setting Up Your Account
The first difference I noticed is how easy it is to set up your Threads profile if you have an existing Instagram account. You can even follow all of the same people you already do which means that everyone comes with a following already!
Hashtags
There aren’t hashtags…yet! You can’t click on a hashtag or search for posts with a hashtag. For example, I searched #podcast and what comes up are profiles with “podcast” in them. This is great to find podcast hosts, but it isn’t going to give you the same results as you would get with Twitter. Twitter has been a great resource for finding podcasts, what journalists are looking for (#journorequests), what literary agents are wishing to find (#MSWL), so I’m looking forward to Threads rolling this out.
Follower Organization
When it comes to your followers, you can’t organize them by who followed you most recently or who you most interact with as you do on Instagram. This was tough for me because I wanted to see who just followed me so that I could reciprocate, but now I’m scrolling through 200+ followers trying to figure out who just followed me.
GIFs In Threads Posts
GIFs…I’m a total fan and love being able to include a GIF in my tweets, especially if I can appropriately include one with Jennifer Coolidge in it! If you want to include a GIF on your Thread, right now you’ll have to import it from your photo gallery. Fingers crossed that this is also on the list of things to iron out!
Scheduling A Thread
Right now you also can’t schedule a thread to post. Twitter has the functionality to schedule your tweets and you can also integrate a software such as Later to schedule your tweets or Instagram posts for you. Not so with Threads right now, but I’ve already tagged Zuckerberg to let him know we want that option!
DMs
No DMs…that means no direct messages on the Threads app. Will it be coming? Not sure, BUT the Instagram logo is on the top right corner and you can toggle back over to the app and send DMs from there to other users.
Podcasting AND Threads
How will podcasts and Threads work together? I plan on using it in the same way I do Instagram and Twitter…by sharing my interviews and episodes with a caption and graphic. So far, Threads has launched as a community of excited users who aren’t worried about follower count but in having fun and meeting new people. It’s not all about the styled photos. It’s about the written content, just as Twitter has been. This is a perfect opportunity to share your podcast episodes as a host AND for guests to share their interviews. You get 500 characters (that’s 220 more than you get in a tweet!), so share what the episode is about with a link to it!
Clickable Links
Unlike Instagram, the links on Threads are clickable…so insert your links! Drive traffic to your podcast and website! If you’re posting your episodes and interviews on your website as a blog post (yes, you should be doing this already) and have an embedded player link installed (yes, you do!), then you should be posting the link that goes right to your website.
This is a new platform, so start repurposing your podcast episodes NOW! This advice goes for hosts and guests alike. Let new followers (and old ones!) get to see where you’ve been, what you’re about and the knowledge you’re sharing. This won’t be old content that people are seeing once again because chances are, they didn’t see it the first time!
This is literally the most perfect opportunity to get new downloads for the podcast you host or have been a guest on. Let the Threaders get to know you, become the thought leader in your industry on Threads and help the podcast hosts who have interviewed you be found by tagging them!
As I mentioned, I loved Twitter because of the profound sense of community I was able to find on that app. By sharing your interviews and acknowledging the hosts who graciously had you on their shows, you’re creating community as well. I get that another social media platform might sound like yet one more thing to add on to your plate, but so far, I haven’t seen this kind of excitement with any of the newer ones like Post or Mastodon. It’s an easy setup process and all you have to do is be yourself. No need for fancy photos or hashtag research…just start threading!
