On July 5, 2023, within two hours of launching, over 2 million people had downloaded Instagram's latest app: Threads, myself included.
Despite my job as a social media manager, I am suprisingly not usually an "early adopter". I usually have a healthy fear of commitment and often when a new app launches, I wait until more persons or my friends join before making a judgement call to commit.
My first thoughts typically run along the lines of:"Do I really need to download and learn how to use another app? Are there going to be enough persons in a marketable demographic on this app that I need to pay attention for work? "
And yet, there I was. Just about an hour after its release, typing (stitching if you will) my first thread and reading the hundreds of threads populating my feed. User #1,062,893 to join.
Why did Threads feel so different?
Just about 3 days since its release, the app is reporting over 90 million users and growing! So what makes the Threads launch so successful? Here are some of my speculations behind this launch's success.
The hype to its target audience
Instagram has been testing out one of its latest features called "Broadcast Channels". As at June 15, 2023, Instagram announced that it was about to expand this feature globally to creators as a way to connect with their communities. How do I know about all of this?
When Instagram Creators launched its own Broadcast Channel on June 6, 2023, I joined to be able to keep up to date with Instagram's announcements around the app and its latest features.
Me and over 500 thousand other persons have since subscribed to this channel to get these latest updates and for just over a month, every week or so they delivered. Not too much to be obnoxious, just enough to let us know "hey, by the way, did you know you could do this on Instagram...?"
For a social media manager constantly trying to keep up with the latest features and trends, I actually find this broadcast channel to be really helpful so far.
Fast forward to July 5, 2023 at 12:18 pm (GMT-4), me and all of these other hundreds of thousands of persons in this broadcast channel receive the latest broadcast from Instgram Creators:
It's almost time! Search "Threads" on Instagram or head to threads.net to be the first to know
Thousands of persons in a very specific target audience have been personally notified in their inbox. An audience who has actively subscribed to find out about Instagram's latest feature updates and Christmas has come early. The countdown is officially on to 10:00 AM on Thursday.
Broadcast channel aside, there's a notification waiting in everyone's Instagram menu to let persons know about the latest feature.
Instagram tapped into its massive existing audience to invite persons to be the first to know about the time it was launching its new app. They also made sure that some of their most active users, the Creators channel, received a direct message to their inbox.
Creating FOMO
FOMO = Fear Of Missing Out
Another thing I thought this launch did well was how it leveraged fomo.
First, when they sent out the invitation they invited you on a little Easter egg hunt.
Search "Threads" on Instagram...
In doing so, a little ticket icon appeared and directed you to a personalized animation of your virtual "ticket" to the launch of the app. A link at the bottom of the animation then takes you directly to the app store where you could pre-download the app and be notified when it went live.
Similarly, if you chose to visit the website (threads.net), you would be taken to a simple landing page with the launch date and time and a QR code directing persons to the app store.
Once launched, everyone who joined suddenly received a temporary badge to show what number person they were to join the app, subsequently signalling to anyone who visited your Instagram profile how soon or "late" you were to join the party.
From teaser to launch, Instagram provided users with content (the animation and the badge) to signal to their following that they had joined Threads. Thus creating intrigue to anyone who may have been out of the loop.
The impeccable timing
Earlier that week, already disgruntled Twitter users are learning that they are being limited to the number of tweets they can view in a day. The latest attempt by the company to generate revenue by getting more persons to sign up for the paid version of the app to access certain features.
This is just the latest announcement in a series of blows to the Twitter brand all starting with Elon Musk purchasing the app in 2022 leading into the mass firing of Twitter employees and the implementation of a paid subscription to be verified
Enter Threads. Designed and pitched to be a direct competitor to Twitter. What better timing than to strike while the iron is hot and there is a massive audience actively looking for alternatives to replace the competitor whose market share you are trying to capture?
Was this perfect timing for the launch planned, sheer luck or a bit of both? I'm not sure we will ever truly know.
Ease of access
When the app went live, I believe one of the reasons it got such immediate buy-in was the ease with which you could sign-up.
One simply had to login with their Instagram account and voila! No figuring out a new username. No new password to come up with and remember. No two-step verification process through phone or email.
Additionally, setting up your account was made easy as well. You were prompted to import your profile photo, bio, links and who you were following from your existing Instagram profile.
It eliminated steps.
Instagram took advantage of its existing database to develop one of the most user-friendly sign-ups I have encountered to date.
What's next for the app?
The launch itself feels half-baked to me. Which got me thinking...
Did they deliberately launch it with so many missing features to take advantage of the timing?
Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, is well aware of what is missing. Search, hashtags, a following feed, potential direct messaging, etc. are all on the to-do list for Threads' developers it seems.
However, from a strategic standpoint, this also seems to be working in their favour as well, because you now have over 90 million people waiting to see what happens next.
As some users have described it, for the moment, there's something fun and refreshing about the app's current simplicity. It seems to be tapping right into that millenial nostalgia that's currently trending.
It's giving... joining Hi5 or MySpace for the first time.
Without all the flashy features we have come to expect over the years, this bare bones version is reminding us of some of those early days of social media, centered around converstations with friends or a specific community.
The first day I joined, I observed a few persons comparing it to a first day of school. Without the following feed (i.e. a feed dedicated to only those you opt-in to follow) the user is exposed to a mix of a few familiar faces as well as new ones, that the algorithm has deemed of potential interest to the user.
There is the Twitter clique .They recognize one another almost immediately and the banter from Twitter seems to pick up right where they left off. They have their inside jokes from their "old school" and are signalling to everyone on Threads that they know one another.
Then there are a few persons, like myself, who were maybe late to adapt to Twitter and never really gained traction there, but are exited to try for a fresh start. We are excited to introduce ourselves or our small business and hoping this new space provides new opportunities to do so. We are looking forward to creating conversation and taking a break from all the flashy photography and videography Reels/TikTok have us doing sommersaults for.
Will Threads become the next app digital marketing managers include into their core toolkit? Or will the novelty quickly wear off and fizzle out with the rest of them?
Will Threads stand the test of time?
Regardless of what happens next, I think there has been a lot to learn from Threads' explosive launch:
How to tease and build hype for a campaign launch
How to engage consumers to create fomo
How to take advantage of demand in the market
How to create a more user-friendly customer experience
How to leave your customers wanting more
Whatever happens next for Threads, I will be paying close attention to let you know if there are any other great marketing tips and tricks we can learn.
This is where creativity meets strategy for your business marketing solutions.
