Threads, Meta’s “Twitter Killer” app, launched last week and has already been the topic of serious media coverage. Bloomberg, The Economist, and The New York Times have all published multiple stories and Joanna Stern at the WSJ has a helpful roundup of the differences between the two platforms (both the WSJ and Joanna herself are good ones to follow on Threads). Since the ‘era of Elon’ began earlier this year, several Twitter replacements have gotten buzz, but none have really stuck.
Will Threads be any different? And if it is, what will that mean for financial services marketers? Here’s our take so far:
Will Threads replace Twitter for journalist engagement?
A major use case for Twitter in financial services was the forum it provided to follow and connect with journalists, analysts, and policy audiences. I took a quick look at some prominent journalists across finance and technology to see whether they’re set up on Threads. The takeaway? Every single one is an active Twitter user, but only three were on Threads as yet (just two actively).
Side note: The search function on Threads isn’t very sophisticated yet, so unless you know someone’s username they can be difficult to find – I may have missed some.
It’s definitely one to watch but, as it currently stands, it doesn’t look like top financial journalists have migrated to Threads en masse.
What is the channel for and what’s the right tone of voice?
I also looked up a few leading finance and tech companies to see if they were on the app yet. Two primary observations – a lot of companies have claimed a username but not posted anything (e.g. Citi). For those that do have a profile, it was striking how casual and informal the posts were – the day I did this initial research, Taylor Swift had just released an album and the interchange below is between Salesforce, Tableau and Sprout Social riffing on that news.
At least right now, Threads for brands seems to be less formal, capitalizing on the personal, casual style of Instagram – just with words rather than pictures. People’s expectations when they come to the platform isn’t necessarily to see branded content or to read the news – in fact, one comment on a journalist’s post was along the lines of “we’re not here to share news!” For execs, an early opportunity could be in blending the personal and professional, showcasing individual expertise authentically by joining in conversations with your network.
