A fine thread

With Mark Zuckerberg claiming more than 30m people had joined Threads on its first day in existence, the launch of the Twitter rival, described as an Instagram text-based conversation app, was probably deemed a success.

But just how significant is the launch of Threads? Crystal PR Director Adam Riddell said:

"Given the hype, this was always going to be a big play. Probably the big driver to sign ups was just how seamless take up is. Making threads an Instagram app is a clever more, making it extraordinarily easy to sign up and import profile info.

"But by Zuckerberg's own admission this is a work in progress. Threads is a threat to Twitter but its functionality is still not fully fledged. The timeline is highly algorithm-driven for example with no 'you follow' bespoke timeline, there's no search or hashtag ability, nor is there ability to do direct messaging. Yet. And although there's a decent ability to port Instagram followers over, it'll take a bit of effort to build up the same sort of scale as Twitter.

"For me, there's a question mark over audience. If you are initially porting existing followers from Instagram, there'll likely be a lot of overlap. So the issue becomes more about how you using Threads differently compared to Instagram, to reach a similar audience. Of course, over time, that audience may change. There's also the issue of Threads not being currently available in the EU, because of data privacy laws. That leaves a gaping hole for firms who have an interest in EU markets.

“The chances are people and brands will run parallel accounts on Threads and Twitter, at least for now. But as functionality improves, as people become more comfortable ‘giving up’ what they have built on Twitter, and depending on how Elon Musk responds, including through his lawsuit, this could be a game changer. The concept of integrated and complementary apps that speak to and overlap each other is an interesting one. If it makes social media management more efficient and easier and helps nurture creativity, then that might well be a big draw.”