Whether it was sparked by the desire for a new social platform, FOMO, or saying F-you to Elon Musk, the initial growth of Threads was epic. Content strategists around the country were losing sleep coming up with plans to activate their brands on the platform. Then suddenly everything slowed down. Growth and usage fell dramatically. So what happened and what’s next? Here are four possibilities:
1. The platform grew so quickly that content creation couldn’t keep up with traffic.
People got bored seeing the same stuff over and over. Threads needs creators dedicated to the platform who focus on making great content. But the platform launched just as parent company Meta was reducing creator monetization.
2. The era of the text-based social platform is over.
Twitter launched in the days of bulletin boards and usenet, so people were used to the internet being a text-first experience. Threads users may have started to miss the rapid fire visuals of other platforms. On the bright side, there is always the possibility that Gen Z will burn out on hyper stimulation and find the calmer world of text more appealing.
3. People are concerned about privacy.
Meta doesn’t have a strong reputation with protecting personal data and people might not see the risk of joining Threads worth the reward.
4. People are looking for community.
Most social platforms aren’t really social anymore - they’re closer to entertainment channels than ways to connect with other people. Threads doesn’t really have any new community building tools, so people didn’t really see a reason to hang around. Maybe the platform could evolve into a light version of Discord, where users have the ability to create channels and conversations with other like-minded humans.
Bottom line: There’s no reason for your brand not to be on Threads, especially if you already have an Instagram account, but it’s not the place to devote a lot of resources right now.
Daniel Quentin Zuber
Co-Founder of 2113 Labs and influencer in trance music, cyberpunk, and vaporwave culture on Instagram and TikTok @therealquentinZ.
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