Dream Weavers? Mulling Brands' Initial Activity on Threads

This month, on the heels of a long July 4 holiday weekend, digital strategists were caught off guard when a notification flashed across their phones: “Time Sensitive. Your pre-order of Threads, an Instagram app, is now available.”

Happy birthday, America! Threads had arrived early. Suddenly, we were scrambling to be early adopters while flashes of KPIs danced in our heads.

Unlike the Jack Dorsey-backed Bluesky, which launched in beta earlier this year, Threads is brought to us by Facebook owner Meta. So, instead of starting your brand’s follower count from 0, you can take your already established Instagram following with you. Just don’t expect hashtags to work—yet.

Within seven hours, there were 10 million sign-ups and as of this writing, more than 150 million are equipped to thread.

Ah yes, it’s been a week+ filled with threading puns (e.g. “Threadfluencer”), but it’s been nice to see brand strategists having some fun. This is likely because marketing honchos and senior management haven’t yet approved a firm platform strategy. So, until the whole team catches wind of what’s really going on, I’m proud to say that comedy is alive and well on Threads.

Some observations and points to ponder:

• The website is www.threads.net (and .net derived from the word “network” as in The Social Network).
• Facebook made a very on-brand joke about the newest member of its Metaverse.
• The home feed, which includes a mix of accounts to follow, and recommended folks, is a nice change (though not permanent).
• In account settings, you can get a reminder to “take a break” when you spend 10, 20 or 30 minute increments on the app, and you can completely chose to ignore said reminder by tapping “Not now.”
• You can’t currently schedule threads = working weekends until further notice.
• #FollowFriday is back from the dead (but a reminder that hashtags don’t work yet).
• Brands are jousting and have used the occasion to reintroduce themselves with a fierce sense of humor due to having no official strategy in place.
• Wendy’s beef with McDonald’s has spilled over from Twitter.
• Subway is serving freshly baked threads.
• America threads on Dunkin’.
• Museums (including The Met) are breaking out historic threads.
• The social media team at Spirit Halloween deserves a raise.
• The New Yorker understood the assignment #NewYorkerCartoons. 
• KitKat’s social media manager really needs a break.
• Dominos threaded to say pineapple belongs on pizza, ending a years-long debate.
• Wawa created a promo code exclusive to their threads followers (and now anyone who reads this article).
• MTV made me miss MTV by kicking off their Threads account by pretending “we’re airing music videos” and taking requests. They fittingly opened off with a GIF from “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles, “because how could we not?”
• Gap posted “literally anything before 25 people have to approve.”
• NPR is back!

So, my fellow digital content strategists: treat yourself to an extra coffee today (and every day). You’ve earned it.