New Business Social Media Accounts?
Advice, thoughts, and recommendations on adopting the newest social media platform.
What to think about when starting a new business social media account.
Are you starting the new account for business or personal use?
Is the audience right?
Can you maintain it long-term?
Do you have an interest in the platform?
Can you communicate effectively on the platform?
Can you compete on that platform?
Why do we think people are joining Threads?
Act of social protest
Afraid to miss their chance to get famous
Its the latest fad, FOMO
Social Media has become part of our life now
As the new social media app, Threads explodes onto the scene we thought it important to weigh in with our initial thoughts about the new giant social media elephant in the room. As a creative agency, one of our primary services is producing content for social media and social media management and we are getting questions from clients and friends asking about Threads and if they should join it.
First of all, what is Threads?
According to https://about.fb.com/news/2023/07/introducing-threads-new-app-text-sharing/ “Mark Zuckerberg just announced the initial version of Threads, an app built by the Instagram team for sharing with text. Whether you’re a creator or a casual poster, Threads offers a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations. We are working toward making Threads compatible with the open, interoperable social networks that we believe can shape the future of the internet.”
Basically, it's Meta’s Twitter.
What is UNBELIEVABLE about Threads is that over 70 million signed up for it in two days. 70 Million! We will get into why we think that happened in such a minute but first, let's talk about whether you should or not.
Our advice on whether you should use this platform is the same as our advice with all the others.
Are you using this social media platform for business or personal use? If you are using it for personal use you can just skip to the bottom of the blog and read why we think it's blowing up because personal use and business use are very different things and as a Creative Agency we focus on business solutions and development.
We recently made a post echoing the advice of Mel Robbins, “Your social media is not for your Friends.” Well, it's not if you’re using it to promote your business. As a business, you should be using your social media accounts to create and distribute valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience, and ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. (HubSpot). Your audience, content, message, and methodology are likely (and probably should be) very different on your business social media accounts than your personal accounts.
Is the audience right? Speaking of audiences. Are your clients on the social media app you are considering using? You should know your ideal client and/or buyer persona and the connection they may or may not have to whatever social media platform you are using. A platform can have thousands, in this case, millions of users but are they your people and are they using the platform in a way that will drive profitable customer action?
Can you maintain your presence on the platform long-term? Whether you just started using the platform or you’ve been on it for a while your content marketing plan should include a process to consistently produce effective content for the foreseeable future. It is better to have no presence on a platform than to have a poorly managed or abandoned account. Until you are ready to consistently maintain the platform with quality content hold off on setting up a presence.
Do you have an interest in the account? If you do not like or have no interest in the platform you may not want to join the platform. Even though Twitter (back in the day) was a very relevant platform and very effective for a lot of business owners we did not use the platform. Perhaps because as a business that works mostly in creative visuals a word-based platform just never appealed to us. It is better to be on selected platforms really well than to try and be on all of them.
If however, you feel that a platform is ideally suited for both your customers and you then your lack of interest is something you should overcome. You can hire… oh I don’t know… maybe a creative agency… a freelancer or hiring someone internally to manage that platform for you.
Can you communicate effectively on the platform? We’ve already touched on this a bit but beyond whether the platform is suited to you and your message, have you produced a plan to effectively communicate on that platform? For instance, if a platform’s content is based on short message word base posts, can you communicate your message effectively using those restrictions? Even if you have determined that a platform is suited for your business resist the urge to jump in until you have developed a plan and process to produce regular quality posts.
Can you compete on that platform? Businesses are rushing to Threads because there is a 70 million person audience and they want 70 million people to see their message. Remember though, that means you are competing with 70 million users to not only be seen but to invoke profitable customer action. That is not to say you should avoid joining a big crowd because you are a small business but you should definitely develop strategies to find and communicate with your audience and customers. As a creative agency that relies heavily on brand storytelling, we often are tasked with developing creative solutions for cutting through the noise to help our clients get heard.
Okay, so why do we think Threads is blowing up?
It’s new. People love new. If nothing else humans are nosey and we want to see what the hype is all about.
As a society, we are increasingly intertwined with social media. As our overall usage of technology and social media increases, we will adopt new social media apps with increasing speed and readiness.
People have come to hate Twitter and its new owner. We believe much of the early adoption is almost a social protest to what has happened at and to Twitter.
People are afraid to miss their chance of being famous. For some time there was a strong resistance to TikTok and many people waited to join what we consider an effective platform. As TikTok became more mainstream and managed like most other social media platforms, many feel they missed their chance to become “TikTok Famous”. So many are jumping on the newest platform so they don’t “miss their chance’.
Last bit of input, Threads is requiring access to A LOT of your personal information. So much so that it isn’t available in every country yet. Some countries won’t adopt it until some of the details get worked out. It is important to remember that although it requires a lot of access, more than most, it is only a little more than what most social media platforms already have access to.
So if you are joining for personal reasons, to have fun or just to be nosey, go have fun. But if you are establishing a business account please first do your research and planning, and give it some thought. And, as always, if you need help or advice we can be here for you.