Thirty million sign-ups in the first 16 hours and 100 million in the first five days!
These are the results achieved by Threads, a newborn social media channel. Since its release in April 2023, it has gained many names: “a rival to Twitter,” “Twitter killer,” “Twitter clone,” and others. Many brands have already reshaped their strategies to market on Threads. Some have even become Twitter-sober with the appearance of this new social networking service.
Built by the Instagram team and launched by Meta, Threads can be a powerful, competitive space for social media marketers.
In this post, you’ll explore Threads’ features and benefits for brands. After that, incorporate our list of tips into your Threads marketing strategy.
Is Threads like Twitter (now X)?
This is by far the most popular question asked since the app’s appearance.
The answer is – not exactly.
The Threads app is one of the Meta-owned social media platforms, along with Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Facebook. Like X, Threads allows users to like, repost, add replies, and share content. A thread (post) on this platform can also include a link, text, image, or video.
The key difference from X is that Threads is a part of the nascent fediverse – a set of interrelated networks that remain independent but seamlessly connect. For example, Threads users can interact with each other on Mastodon and other fediverse platforms.
Now, let’s have a closer look at the functionality of Threads.
Meta announced that paid ads and monetization are coming once the app gets on a clear path toward one billion users.
Meanwhile, you can start building your follower base on Threads organically today so that once paid social ads become available, you’ll have a solid pool of users for targeting.
Consider why marketing on Threads is crucial for modern businesses, and follow our how-to guide afterward.
Explore the major benefits of Threads for your business. With this social media app, you can do the following:
Gen Z comprises the largest lump of the platform’s users (source).
These digital natives value individuality and crave an authentic connection with brands. You can establish it via Threads because the platform prioritizes honesty and genuine relationship building.
Threads may be an excellent tool to boost your brand awareness and recognition in foreign territories if you aim at a global brand positioning.
Here are the shares of Threads app downloads by country:
As you can see, Meta’s new app can expose your brand and your products/services globally.
According to Statista, Meta’s Threads platform has 13 million daily active users worldwide. They interact with posts actively and meaningfully.
Like with Instagram reels for boosting brand engagement on Instagram, you can share your posts and engage with users via Threads discussions.
You can turn on cross-posting and share your Threads posts on Instagram and Facebook.
You can also repurpose other social media content to Threads like YouTube shorts, TikToks, Pinterest images, Tweets, etc.
Learn how to build an engaged community.
Currently, Threads is less recognizable and widespread than other social networks. However, its popularity is picking up steam.
Your audience may need a slight nudge to join in. It may be a simple announcement: We’re moving to Threads, similar to this one made by @pimaarizona on X.
They informed their audience that all new Tweet-worthy content will now be posted on Threads.
Like Cyber Voyage's video below, you can also promote your Threads profile on other social media accounts (e.g., your company’s YouTube channel).
In addition, embed a Threads social button into your website’s homepage to showcase your brand’s presence on this platform and lure your web visitors to connect with you there.
Check out how Dan O’s does it.
Interactivity is one of the content creation secrets for Threads that you'll uncover in this section.
Eric Mills, Owner of Lightning Card Collection, explains why it works: “Interactive content captivates, entertains, and immerses the user, evoking the feeling of excitement. The most compelling and engaging content examples are questions, polls, challenges, puzzles, and games. And all of them work well on Threads.”
See how brands put those into action in their Threads marketing strategies.
Asking questions is a superb way to encourage active user participation in Threads discussions.
Example:
Nissan, an automotive industry giant, uses the What’s-your-favorite question type.
As you may already know, polls are extremely useful for LinkedIn marketing as they skyrocket user engagement. They are not less successful on Threads, either.
Pizza Hut, for instance, engages users with pizza-related polls like this.
People like challenging tasks such as fill-in-the-blank sentences because they bring a feeling of accomplishment.
Here’s an example of Canva using them in Threads marketing.
A puzzle helped Chipotle generate over 100 replies and interact with users more effectively.
Meta launched an exciting game on Threads, asking users to guess the words Meta’s AI used to generate an image.
Unlike TikTok, aiming to entertain users with hilarious videos, Threads’ vision is to build an open and friendly public space for conversation.
According to Jerry Han, CMO at PrizeRebel, “Threads is a win-win communication tool that proves rewarding for the brand and the customer. So, when going to Threads, you have a single task: to establish a two-way interaction with your potential or existing customers and keep conversations rolling via threads by replying to questions and leaving comments whenever it feels appropriate. Such interactions will help you foster trust and build a better relationship with your audience.”
Learn from the experience of Starbucks. The company communicates with customers via threads, and users appreciate such a personal approach.
Let’s again compare Threads with TikTok for customer acquisition.
TikTok has dedicated sub-toks to unite content around particular topics with niche hashtags: #FinTok – for finances, #BookTok – for books, etc.
“By analogy with TikTok, you should create a themed thread on Threads and tag it to match your industry or business niche,” recommends Max Wesman, Founder & COO of GoodHire. “This way, you can become a trendsetter and thought leader in your business sphere. In the HR sector, for instance, we may join the HRThreads community to discuss recruitment trends, interviewing practices, employee benefits, etc.,” he shares.
Once you’ve chosen the subject related to your brand’s niche, tag it like this:
Starbucks wins the customers’ attention again, this time with CoffeeThreads.
The Threads community strives for authenticity and friendliness.
If you open the Threads profiles of Duolingo, Uber, or Spotify, they radiate positivity and maintain an informal and friendly tone of voice.
You may also use your wit and creativity to communicate with Threads users emotionally. Emotional marketing has considerable brand-boosting advantages, like strengthening loyalty and driving word-of-mouth. People who connect with brands emotionally are nearly four times more likely to recommend them to others.
Let’s delve into an example from Bonobos.
The men’s clothing brand is often recognized by witty wordplay and puns on the website: Look dashing through the snow or Fit happens. The brand also extrapolated this approach on threads: Did you hear the news? Panta Claus is coming to town.
Visual content has 43% more persuasive power than textual information.
This clearly substantiates the “why” behind using visuals to market on Threads.
These include:
“Of course, there must be an ideal ratio of visuals to text because, primarily, Threads is a text-based network. It will vary depending on the topic and purpose of your content. But generally, there’s a 40/60 rule for visual-to-text ratio,” notes Tom Golubovich, Head of Marketing & Media Relations at Ninja Transfers.
NinjaTransfers repurposes TikTok videos on Threads to achieve this ratio.
Here's another example of visual content on Threads - Shopify uses images and memes to create B2B content that resonates with the Threads audience.
The last tip is a reminder from Fernando Lopez, Marketing Director at Circuit. He says, “When tapping into Threads for marketing, don’t underestimate the power of influencer collaborations. By leveraging their influence, you can increase your brand’s exposure on the platform, get more traffic to your website, generate qualified leads, and drive sales.”
In fact, 89% of marketers note that influencer promotions bring an eight times higher ROI than any other campaign.
It's never to early to build an influencer marketing strategy for Threads.
Fernando Lopez shares several insights on how to collaborate with influencers on Threads:
Note: Influencers must mark the thread as a “paid partnership” to reveal commercial relationships with businesses.
Pro tip: Use AI tools for influencer marketing like Affable.ai, Upfluence, Buzzstream, etc.
The Threads app is gaining popularity incredibly fast, proving itself as a worthy rival to X.
It may be an ideal platform for marketers and businesses aiming to reach out to Gen Zers, level up their global brand visibility, leverage content cross-promotion, engage with users on a more meaningful level, and foster long-lasting relationships with customers.
All these things are possible when applying the best tips for Threads marketing we have reviewed above.
Once you’re up and running, you can build a loyal community of followers and lay a good foundation for paid advertising when it becomes an active feature on Threads. When this feature arrives, Marin software will be there to help you to manage, measure, and optimize your paid social ads.
For now, get to threading and weave your brand’s success.
Aren’t 100% sure how to grow your business account on TikTok?
Don’t fret about it.
The reality?
You can google up and find hundreds of tips for TikTok business growth. But what works best for generating more likes, views, followers, and sales?
We’ve fished out proven TikTok marketing tips used by successful brands. This guide will help you create engaging TikTok content and advertise on TikTok like a pro.
Did you know:
This article breaks down how to make it happen. Stick around to discover the “hows” of conquering TikTok as a business.
After you set up a TikTok business account, it’s time to create compelling content for it. So, let’s find out how to do it.
“To lift my spirits.”
That was the top reason for browsing TikTok chosen by users in a study.
Humor remains one of the long-ago-revealed secrets of efficient content creation. In fact, 66% of marketers confirm that funny content works best on social media.
This could be anything like:
Yet, there’s a bothersome concern among some brands.
Are comical TikToks the right fit for more “serious” brands offering insurance, banking, or other financial services?
Take the answer from Jim Pendergast, Senior Vice President at altLINE Sobanco. He believes, “Comedy and humor are compulsory emotional triggers for building TikTok business profiles in the financial industry, especially among finance brands targeting Generation Z. There’s one basic rule, however, when leveraging humorous content in finance – make it industry-relevant.”
Consider the TikTok content strategies of FinTech companies such as Klarna and Chime. Both share funny videos and memes about personal finance management and add niche hashtags (#FinTok and #MoneyTok).
For example, this funny video by Chime collected over 6K impressions and 4.2M views.
TikTok is a source for discovering new information for 35% of users.
“Each time you share knowledge and provide value through your content, you grow on TikTok by nurturing leads and building relationships with them,” claims Michael Maximoff, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Belkins. “Educational videos resonate well with the audience and form an invisible but powerful bond between a brand and a potential customer,” he adds.
At Belkins, marketers create helpful B2B content on TikTok: business how-tos, lessons, and tools. For example, one of the company’s rubrics starts with Did You Know, like: Did you know you can cancel an email sent in Gmail, or Did you know that using this opening line can generate 10-15% more B2B traction?
Why bother hashtagging your TikTok videos?
According to Morgan Taylor, Co-Founder of Jolly SEO, “Hashtags are a secret sauce of TikTok SEO. They help optimize your TikTok business profile and increase your video’s discoverability on the platform. TikTok business accounts have a huge field for hashtag experiments because there is a 4,000-character limit for video descriptions.”
Morgan Taylor recommends mixing up niche, related, and trendy hashtags to boost your business’s organic reach on TikTok. Let’s discuss the three types with examples from search engine optimization, aka SEO, as a niche.
A niche hashtag is a specific, targeted search phrase or word. It is aimed at a narrower pool of people from a particular niche.
For example: #seotips, #onpageseo, #backlinks, etc.
Related hashtags
A related hashtag is a word or phrase closely associated with the niche.
For example: #digitalmarketing, #website, #marketingstrategy, etc.
A trendy hashtag is more popular and competitive, typically unrelated to the niche. It targets a broader audience.
Some trending TikTok hashtags the will drive more views are:
Understanding the performance of these hashtags through hashtag analytics can provide valuable insights into audience engagement and reach across platforms.
Let’s analyze this TikTok video by Jolly SEO.
They used -
Niche hashtags: #seousa, #linkbuildingtips, and #linkbuilding.
Related hashtag: #marketingtips.
Trendy hashtag: #fyp.
Pro tip → Use a TikTok hashtag generator to copy-paste relevant, related, and trendy hashtags.
You can make your brand more visible on TikTok by jumping on the trendy wave and exploring new TikTok trends.
“When creating content for TikTok business profiles, companies should become trend-hunters to improve their chances of going viral on TikTok,” claims Eric Mills, Owner of Lightning Card Collection. He provides an example from the entertainment and gaming industry:
“Pokémon Go once took over the world and immersed users in a new video game universe. Since then, the #pokemongo hashtag gathered 13.8B views on TikTok, and businesses started newsjacking its popularity and creating promotional campaigns with Pokémon characters.”
New trending topics arrive at TikTok’s shore every day. For example, just recently, it was the Barbie movie. The social media site went all pink with the #barbie hashtag (99B views).
Engaging features like trending sounds, filters, and effects are also among the most helpful tactics for TikTok customer acquisition.
Regarding TikTok video types, the most popular are:
According to Statista, dance is TikTok’s second most viewed content category (after entertainment) worldwide. It hit 181B hashtag views in 2020.
Pro tip → Track new trending content in the TikTok Creative Center.
Do you want to grow your TikTok business profile even faster?
If yes, grab this strategy from Jerry Han, CMO at PrizeRebel, who advises businesses to hold TikTok giveaways during holidays:
“People enjoy contests and seek opportunities to win prizes. This makes giveaways a superb tool to gain more followers on TikTok and maximize your social media presence on this platform.”
And the proof is in the stats. On average, giveaways have a 34% conversion rate and outperform other content types. And 62% of brands take advantage of giveaways to improve brand awareness.
Jerry Han adds, “When you tie giveaways to holidays, you can double your TikTok results. Just make sure to clarify the rules and offer valuable rewards when organizing a TikTok giveaway.” He shares a list of possible giveaway prizes:
For example, Ulta Beauty incorporated a Christmas giveaway into their holiday marketing campaign on TikTok.
Their video clearly explains the giveaway rules and teases customers with a $500 Ulta Beauty gift card as a reward.
The best way to grow your account is to tap in to advertising. And you can do it effectively with paid ads, influencer campaigns, and Shopify integrations (for Shopify e-stores).
Are TikTok ads worth it?
78% of SMBs report that TikTok advertisements drive profits within six months.
The top five TikTok ad formats are:
Look at one of the best TikTok ad examples by Pepsi.
It’s a Branded Hashtag Challenge promoted by In-Feed and TopView Ads and enhanced with a duet feature. The campaign resulted in a 4.73 % engagement rate and 3.1B+ video views.
Pro tip → Use Marin + TikTok to grow your business with paid ads on TikTok.
You can’t deny the rise of influencer marketing and its benefits. Brand collaborations with content creators on TikTok drive a 27% higher ad recall and a 91% higher view rate.
Isn’t it an ideal time to develop an influencer marketing strategy for TikTok?
You can collaborate with –
Once you’ve decided to start such a partnership, there’s one more thing to remember. Andrew Pierce, CEO at LLC Attorney, reminds brands about the importance of signing contracts with TikTok content creators. He says, “An influencer agreement is a significant document for the TikTok content creator and the company. It ensures smooth collaboration and protects both parties from possible legal issues. These can be misleading or false advertising, IP rights infringement, the right of publicity violation, etc.”
If you run a Shopify business, it’s easy to promote and sell your products with TikTok.
Here’s how to set up TikTok Shopify integration and launch paid marketing campaigns:
Voila, you can start selling and advertising on TikTok.
The Founder of Habit Skin, Tai Adaya, shares, “Advertising with TikTok has ‘hockey-sticked’ our growth. Seriously, we can’t stay in stock!” The company is currently on the threshold of 400K followers.
TikTok is a fantastic place to broaden the company’s reach and promote products/services.
With the above strategies, you can now tweak your business presence on TikTok and gain a large and engaged follower base around your brand more quickly and efficiently.
Press “Play” in your TikTok advertising game with Marin. Schedule a demo to see how you can achieve rapid TikTok growth with the power of ad automation.
