How brands should be using Threads and X

the tree’s Senior Social Media Manager Alannah Woodley was part of our expert panel in the first edition of our Webinar series: Welcome to our ThreadX: The future of brands on social?

We sat down with Alannah to get her key takeaways from the talk.

On August 31, we hosted an interactive webinar on how brands can leverage the newest kid on the social media block: Meta’s Twitter/X competitor Threads. The platform was the fastest social channel to reach 100m users, but how should brands be capitalising on this huge new audience? I joined some of the brightest minds in social media to break it down: Vodafone Social Media Manager Laura Oduntan, Social & Creative Lead for On the Beach Rob Brooks and  Emma Conn, Senior Social Strategist at Channel 4. As ever, our founder and CEO Dan Andrews hosted the Webinar.

Full webinar available to download here.

Getting started

Dan kicked things off with a broad question: Have you been using threads? Every panellist stressed that yes, Threads was very much a part of their social strategy, and becoming an early adopter had been key to making gains.

Getting started is key for brands and, even two months in, creating a Threads account now would still put you in the realm of early adoption. Across the board, the strategy for starting out was jump in and test and learn, start building your user base by reacting to what your audience likes and dislikes, listen to their feedback and implement it as you go.

Our first takeaway:

Get started!

It sounds simple, but simply putting yourself out there on Threads, building an audience and posting regularly is the best way to take advantage of the new platform. Don’t be afraid, don’t wait for the right moment and don’t be shy. Threads is there for the taking – so take the leap!

The magic words

Emma stressed the importance of maintaining a brand Tone of Voice to ensure your internal stakeholders are onboard with a Threads strategy. It’s very tempting to jump into a new platform and throw caution to the wind, but a tone which conflicts with your wider brand can be incredibly jarring for your current audience (plus is unlikely to get signed off).

With a focus on tone, it became immediately apparent what the next key takeaway from the session was:

On Threads, copy is king – especially for winning over stakeholders.

There’s no video functionality on Threads (yet), with Meta leaving the visual side of social media up to Instagram. Our panellists, particularly Rob, have found so far that clever copy is the thing that drives engagement from what appears to be a very active, very engaged audience. So, get your copywriters involved in everything you create – and reassure your stakeholders that brand safety is paramount.

Customer service

Dan asked the panel: Is Threads the place for customer service?

For the moment, Threads is about keeping people informed, X is where you can create customer service touchpoints – mainly thanks to the DM function. Threads is almost a direct response to the negative environment of Twitter/X, and brands can be at the forefront of making it a positive social platform by keeping their content light-hearted.

This brings us to our third key takeaway:

Threads should be fun.

Social media is a great place for a gripe or an argument. But in reality this creates a negative user experience, perpetuating negative associations with your brand. Giving user genuine joy on Threads is a great way to build up a positive brand-customer relationship.

Is there a place for B2B?

At the tree, our client list doesn’t just include consumer brands, but is their a place for B2B brands on new platforms like Threads? Whilst B2B businesses are naturally more conservative, Threads can be the perfect place for the to build an audience which can inform content across other social channels.

Our final takeaway:

Use threads as a resource for the conversations your audience are having.

B2B brands need to be part of their industry conversation, and with Threads’ new position as the go-to platform for honest dialogue, it can be the perfect place to gather research, insights and talking points from the people who know your sector.

Threads is still in its early stages, so finding and organising these data points can be time-consuming. Ensure you’ve got the resource to actively monitor the platform. This will change as the platform grows, so be ready to jump onto more in-depth analytics.

Watch the webinar in full here

These takeaways are just some of the fascinating insights you can get from the first webinar in our new series. If you’re a brand who’s just starting out on Threads, watch the full event below, then get in touch to find out how the tree can boost your social strategy on threads and beyond.