Threads on Instagram is Meta’s text-based conversation app launched in July 2023, which has now grown to over 275 million monthly active users as of late 2024. The platform initially gained attention with 70 million registered users in just its first two days, and it attracted plenty of celebrities, brands, and journalists.
Threads is positioned as a direct rival to Twitter, and the platform aims to bring together conversations that communities care about. But the real question for marketers is: Should your brand invest time and resources into this platform? Does it align with your marketing goals and audience engagement strategies?
This guide will help you decide if Threads is the right opportunity to expand your reach and build stronger connections with your audience. We’ll cover how to join Threads, ways to use the platform effectively as a brand, and important considerations before jumping in.
What Is Threads on Instagram?
Threads is a standalone messaging app created by Instagram that focuses on close connections. It allows you to share photos, videos, messages, and stories with your inner circle of friends and family in a more private environment than your main Instagram feed.
The app emphasizes simplicity and speed, and makes it quick and easy to connect with your select group of contacts. One of its standout features is automatic status updates, which can show your friends what you’re up to without requiring constant messaging back and forth.
Think of Threads as your digital living room. It’s a place where only the people you’re closest to can hang out, rather than the public square that regular Instagram can sometimes feel like.
Threads vs Instagram Stories
Threads creates space for ongoing conversations with your closest contacts, while Instagram Stories showcase fleeting visual moments to your wider audience. Stories are gone in a day, but Threads chats live on. This longevity makes it easier to nurture relationships with your inner circle.
Threads vs Instagram Posts
Visual content is the centerpiece of Instagram posts, while Threads on Instagram prioritizes text-based updates with a character limit for quick thoughts and discussions. Posts aim to capture attention through aesthetic appeal in a crowded feed. Threads encourages more natural conversation without the pressure of perfect visuals.
Threads vs X (Formerly Twitter)
Threads offers a more controlled environment for conversations among people with existing Instagram connections, while X opens your content to a global audience and real-time discourse. X thrives on trending topics and public engagement through its Explore Page, but Threads creates a more comfortable space for authentic interactions without the noise of a worldwide conversation.
| Platform | Primary focus | Content type | Audience |
| Threads | Ongoing conversations, deeper connections | Text-based updates with character limit | Close contacts and connections |
| Instagram Stories | Fleeting visual moments | Ephemeral visual content | Wider audience, disappears after 24 hours |
| Instagram Posts | Aesthetic appeal | Visual content as centerpiece | Crowded feed environment |
| X | Real-time updates, public discourse | Text with character limit | Global audience, trending topics |
Features of Instagram Threads
Text-based posts of up to 500 characters give you room to craft concise messages or host quick Q&A sessions with followers.
Seamless Instagram integration and one-click profile transfer establish your Threads presence instantly by importing your Instagram bio and following list, so you’re not starting from scratch.
Photo and video sharing enables diverse content strategies by combining text with visual elements for more engaging posts.
Real-time conversations support immediate customer service, live product launches, and event coverage as they happen.
Instagram messaging compensates for Threads’ lack of direct messaging by linking to Instagram profiles for private interactions.
Auto-status feature creates personal interactions with users who opt in for real-time updates about your brand activities.
Close Friends list integration enables you to target specific groups with tailored content and create stronger bonds with your most dedicated followers.
Benefits of Using Instagram Threads
Instagram Threads offers marketers and brands unique advantages for connecting with audiences in ways that complement existing social strategies.
- Enhanced privacy controls let you keep your brand conversations more contained. Think of it as having your own VIP room instead of shouting across a crowded party.
- Personalized communication means you can chat with your audience like actual humans rather than broadcasting announcements from a megaphone.
- Simplified user interface makes posting quickly and painless, with a clean, text-focused design that makes brand content more accessible to followers.
- Enhanced engagement opportunities through text-based conversations give your brand a voice beyond visual-only content.
- Expanded reach comes naturally through the Instagram connection. You’ll quickly build an audience from your existing follower base.
- Fresh content strategy options let your brand show off its personality without the pressure of picture-perfect posts. Got jokes? Threads is here for them.
How to Use Instagram Threads
One immediate appeal of Threads is its existing integration. You must have an Instagram account to create a Threads profile, and from there, users will have the option to retain their usernames and follow the same accounts they do on Instagram, on Threads.
Here’s the easiest way to create an account:
- Download the Threads App from the Apple App Store on iOS or Android.
- Log in with your existing Instagram account credentials.
- Auto-populate the bio and following lists when prompted.
- Or, create a new Threads profile and list following.
- You’re in.
Alternatively, you can search the Threads official Instagram account and click on the link in bio to download.
Users may elect to start fresh by manually creating a bio and building a new follower list. Or, you can simply transfer all data from Instagram with the auto-install prompts. To change a Threads handle, users must also change their Instagram handle. The two accounts are linked.
If you have multiple Instagram accounts, you can also create multiple tangential Threads accounts, like McDonald’s below.
Making the Most of Threads for Your Brand
Because Threads is a new platform, it brings a fresh, bare-bones, “un-hinged” feel. The blank slate offers brands a chance to get creative. Put up a new bio, re-strategize your messaging, or bring a new aspect of your brand story to life!
Publishing on Threads
The platform’s home feed resembles Twitter, with posts up to 500 characters. Don’t just recycle your Instagram content, though. Create a fresh Threads strategy that reveals your brand’s inner thoughts while maintaining cohesion across channels. You’ve got visibility to general audiences, influencers, and other brands. You can either jump in as other brands have (like Calm and Netflix), or just reserve your handle for future use.
Paid Campaigns on Threads
Threads has yet to release paid structuring to advertisers.
Community Management on Threads
While integration with tools like Sprout Social and Sprinklr hasn’t been revealed, Threads will likely mirror other Meta platforms’ functionality. This new platform offers additional data sources for social media insights and sentiment analysis, and creates opportunities to build deeper connections with consumers and stakeholders. If you’ve stepped back from Twitter due to recent controversies or performance issues, Threads presents a promising alternative.
Accessibility on Threads
Threads is currently free, with unlimited posts. No tiered service options have been mentioned to date.
The Importance of Social Listening on Threads
Social listening is crucial for brands on Threads as it allows you to understand your audience, track conversations, and gather valuable insights about your brand perception.
ICUC offers comprehensive social listening solutions specifically for Threads, with AI-backed technology and skilled analysts who monitor brand mentions, watch for sentiment changes, and identify trends specific to Threads conversations. These insights provide actionable intelligence that improves your content strategy and customer engagement efforts.
Understanding Your Audience
Threads provides a fresh source of information for evaluating audience sentiment and engagement patterns. ICUC can analyze this Threads data alongside your other social channels. This gives you a complete picture of how your audience really feels about your brand across all your social media platforms.
Real-Time Feedback
The conversational nature of Threads creates perfect conditions for collecting immediate feedback that can shape your product development, marketing strategies, and customer service. ICUC’s global team operates 24/7 to capture and analyze this feedback, so you can spot issues before they get out of control and identify opportunities while they’re hot.
Community Moderation on Threads
Community moderation plays a crucial role in building your brand’s presence on Threads. It helps maintain a positive image and creates meaningful engagement opportunities. With proper social media moderation, you can establish trust and loyalty among your followers even as conversations move quickly. ICUC’s community management services offer round-the-clock global support in 52+ languages. Their team handles all your customer inquiries, steps in during potential crisis moments, and helps scale your community engagement efforts across the platform.
Building a Positive Community
Threads gives you a fresh start to set the tone for your community interactions, and this makes early moderation decisions particularly important. ICUC helps establish and maintain your community guidelines from day one to create a welcoming environment that attracts the right audience and encourages constructive conversations.
Managing Brand Reputation
Quick response times on Threads can protect your online reputation management efforts by addressing concerns before they escalate and correcting misinformation as it appears. ICUC monitors your Threads presence and steps in to handle sensitive situations with the right tone and approach that aligns with your brand values.
How Is Threads Involved with Mastodon’s ActivityPub?
Threads is aiming to leverage Mastodon’s ActivityPub, according to a post by Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri. In a preview, Mosseri wrote, “We’re committed to building support for ActivityPub, the protocol behind Mastodon, into this app. We weren’t able to finish it for launch given a number of complications that come along with a decentralized network, but it’s coming.”
ActivityPub is an open, decentralized social networking protocol that allows API creation, updating, and content deletion. Unlike Bluesky’s invite-only format, another Twitter competitor, Threads is available to anyone.
Meta’s Threads release comes just days after Twitter announced new changes, like limits to the number of tweets a free, unverified user can view in a day, and an outage that impacted weekend activity, amongst other PR issues.
Brand Concerns about Instagram Threads
Though Threads holds great engagement potential for brands, there are some serious threats to its long-term and global growth.
Data Privacy Concerns on Threads
According to iOS privacy disclosures, Threads may collect sensitive user data, including health information, financial data, precise location, search history, and contacts. This aggressive data collection approach creates potential regulatory hurdles for Threads in the European Union, where privacy laws impose stricter requirements on personal data usage. EU regulations may ultimately require explicit consent for data combination or prohibit using sensitive data for advertising altogether.
Social Media Fatigue and Threads
Threads faces an uphill battle against growing social media fatigue and must overcome Meta’s history of abandoned features like IGTV, Instagram Shopping, and Facebook Live Audio Rooms. The platform itself has already pivoted significantly from its original 2019 concept as a video messaging app, which suggests potential instability in its long-term vision and direction.
What Do Twitter Users Think of Threads?
Mosseri acknowledged that Twitter’s conversational format has benefits for connection. He wrote, “The post-and-comment model is great, but it really does not support public discourse nearly as well as the tweet-and-reply model. Elevating the reply to the same level as the original post allows for much more robust, diverse discourse. Which is part of the reason we didn’t just try to shove this thing into the feed on Instagram or a separate tab.”
There is buzz around Threads among Twitter users, especially following the news that unverified users will have a limited number of tweets they can view daily. Threads could serve as a new solution to the existing moderation and outage concerns Twitter has faced.
Partner with ICUC to Elevate Your Threads Strategy
Threads gives you a fresh space to show a different side of your brand personality through conversational content. By understanding what Threads on Instagram is, including its features, unique benefits, and potential challenges, you can make smart decisions about how it fits into your social strategy. The platform provides a fresh space to show a different side of your brand personality and engage with your audience in a more intimate and meaningful way.
ICUC can help you navigate this new platform through comprehensive social listening insights and community management solutions. Their team ensures your brand maintains a positive reputation and builds meaningful connections with your audience on Threads. Don’t miss this opportunity to stand out while the platform is still taking shape.
