In this episode, we’re talking about Threads, a new social media app from Instagram that is designed for more personal, one-on-one communication. We’ll break down everything you need to know about Threads, including its features, benefits for small businesses, and how you can sign up. We’ll also explore the art of personal engagement and how Threads can help you build stronger relationships with your customers.
What is Threads?
• How can Threads benefit small business owners?
• Key features of Threads
• Reduced censoring versus other platforms
• Stories
• Repost
• Share your thread via other platforms
• How to use Threads
• New features coming soon
Key Takeaways
1. Threads is a new app from Instagram that’s designed for more personal, one-on-one communication.
2. Threads can be a great way for small business owners to connect with their customers on a more personal level.
3. Threads has some key features that make it different from other social media platforms, such as reduced censoring and the ability to share longer posts.
Additional Notes
• Threads is still in its early stages, so there are some features that are missing, such as an edit function and a following feed.
• However, the developers are working on adding these features in the future.
• Overall, Threads is a promising new platform that has the potential to be a valuable tool for small business owners.
Transcript:
Ameeta
Welcome to the Simple Marketing Solutions podcast where we help small business owners simplify and automate their marketing process. I’m your host, Ameeta, and I’m here to share actionable ideas and tips that will help you to grow your business.
Ameeta
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Ameeta
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Ameeta
Today’s episode we’re talking Threads. This is the user guide for businesses, and we’ll break down exactly what the new app is, who it’s for, and I’ll also explain how you can sign up for it if you haven’t yet.
Ameeta
Well, Threads by Instagram has been designed to provide a more personal one-on-one style communication. If you think about it, it’s a lot like Twitter, but it has a more intimate feel where you can share text, photos, videos with your friends, with followers, and you can also see who has seen your posts.
Ameeta
For an app that’s been live to the general public for a week, they’ve had over 100 million people sign up for it. Amazing, right? So if you haven’t signed up, my friend, I definitely would suggest that you do that.
Ameeta
So you might be thinking, okay, Ameeta, it’s another app, right? What do I need this more social media for? Well, I think that there are benefits for small business owners. It’s a great way that you can really start connecting more personally with your customers, where you can have conversation that goes back and forth instead of them just leaving a comment on a post.
Ameeta
You can engage with them. You can share your thoughts, your ideas, inspiration, and you’re in your area of expertise. Look, it is a new app, so there’s still things that they’re ironing out in the background, but my advice is sign up, have a play with it without any expectation.
Ameeta
What I really have loved so far is that I can write about a topic that I’m passionate about, or I can just share a thought that’s on my mind. I don’t have to worry about making it all look pretty.
Ameeta
Also, I can strike up conversations with people on their threads if I find that it’s interesting. And there’s been real genuine back and forth communication instead of just the generic like and follow.
Ameeta
So that’s been really motivating for me, and I’ve really enjoyed that. As an introvert, I have found it that it’s easy, it’s easier, and it’s also less overwhelming than some of the other platforms where you’re expected to show up, show your face, be visible all the time.
Ameeta
Having more one-on-one personal conversations has been a great way to connect with new people and really just find out more about what they’re up to, what they’re doing, and having a bit of fun with it.
Ameeta
There is less censoring versus some of the other platforms with threads. It’s been designed, as I said, to be more personal, to be more intimate, and as a result, it is one of the reasons why there is less censoring than platforms such as Twitter or Facebook.
Ameeta
But it doesn’t mean that it’s censor-free, so you can’t have hugely controversial content. It will still be censored. Threads, I love the fact that you can actually share posts that have up to 500 characters long in them, whereas if you’ve been a user of Twitter, that only allows you 280 characters, so it’s nearly double, which is great.
Ameeta
It also allows you to share photos and videos that are up to 5 minutes long, which again, versus Twitter, their videos are only up to 2 minutes long, so more than double what Twitter allows.
Ameeta
Which, again, I find is useful if you love sharing videos, then it’s a great way to be able to share longer-form videos, even compared to reels, which is only up to that 90-second time limit.
Ameeta
With threads, you know, there are some things that you can definitely do which isn’t easy to do on other platforms. One is that you can create, you can share what you’ve created as a post on threads as a story onto your Instagram, which is really cool because it allows that, you know, interaction between both of the apps.
Ameeta
The same. If you’ve got a post, you can also share it not as a story, but you can share it into your feed on Instagram, or you can download it and share it into other apps.
Ameeta
So if you wanted to send it as a text message to a friend, you could send that and it will share the content plus a link to your threads profile and that specific post, which is really cool because it’s starting to show, you know, more flexibility and more diversity of interacting with other platforms and not just being stuck on threads itself.
Ameeta
And that’s one of the key differences with threads as well is that it is open source. So that means that for developers in the future, there will be a lot more ability to integrate it into other platforms, say your website, your blogs, et cetera.
Ameeta
So keep a lookout for that. So if you’re wanting to give threads a go, the first thing that you need to do is download the app from either the App Store or Google Play.
Ameeta
Once you’ve installed the app, you’ll be prompted to connect your Instagram account to it. And you can get to that also if you do it from Instagram, if you log into Instagram on your phone, click the hamburger menu on the top right on your profile and you will see that it will say threads and you click on that and you’ll be able to see an image that you click and it will link your threads account directly to your Instagram account.
Ameeta
So one thing that there are some features that Adam Massari and the team at Meta are busy working on. I thought I’d just share a few of those with you just so you know what’s to come.
Ameeta
One is that there is an edit function on its way. Right now you can’t edit posts once they’re published, which you know sometimes it’s good because it’s just it’s there and and you move on.
Ameeta
One other thing that they’re doing is there’s going to be a following feed. So at the moment with your feed, you have posts from people that you’re following, but you also have posts from people that you may not be following.
Ameeta
And there’s no chronological order at the moment with the post. So they’re working on all of that. I think that we the world got them by storm with over 100 million signups within the first week.
Ameeta
So they’re doing a bit of catch up with that. They’ll also be the ability to search posts as well. So you’ll be able to get to content quicker that way. I’m not sure about the hashtags at the stage.
Ameeta
So we’ll see what happens with that. But at the moment, you don’t have to worry about researching hashtags or anything. Just go with it, go with the flow and give it a go.
Ameeta
My advice is also don’t expect it to be there to start making you money or be this big thing for your business at the moment. Maybe in the future, that’s where it will go.
Ameeta
But right now, just think of it as a great way to build some new connections and to have some real open, honest conversations with people and interact in a different way than you would through your other social media platforms.
Ameeta
Sign up, have some fun, let me know what you think and follow me at Holistic Vision Consultancy. You’ll find me on there. And I really look forward to following you on there as well.
