The Strengths and Weaknesses of Threads Social Network

Summary: Hi everyone, as you know, Threads, Meta’s new social network, is a direct competitor to Twitter X. This platform is expected to be a new boost for the social media market, but will Threads be strong enough to surpass Twitter X? This Click Digital article will analyze in detail the strengths, weaknesses, and development potential of Threads, as well as what businesses need to keep in mind when using this platform.

Threads: Meta’s darling with big ambitions

Threads is introduced by Meta as a microblogging social network, where users can share thoughts, ideas, and participate in brief discussions. This platform is considered a direct competitor to Twitter X, especially in the context of Twitter X undergoing significant changes under Elon Musk, unsettling many users.

According to Click Digital, Threads has great potential to become a popular social media platform because:

• Meta’s support: Meta is a giant in the social media field, with extensive experience and abundant resources. Meta’s backing will help Threads grow rapidly and reach a large number of users.
• Seamless integration with Instagram: Threads is integrated with Instagram, allowing users to easily switch between the two platforms. This helps Threads attract a large number of existing Instagram users, while also helping them quickly build a community.
• Character limit: Threads allows users to write up to 500 characters, allowing users to discuss more deeply and create higher quality content compared to Twitter X’s 280 character limit.

Strengths of Threads

1. Seamless integration with Instagram: Threads is tightly connected with Instagram, allowing users to easily switch between the two platforms. This brings many benefits:

• Attracting Instagram users: Threads can immediately reach a large number of existing Instagram users, helping this platform quickly build a community and grow.
• Easy brand building: Businesses can leverage their existing Instagram user base to build a brand on Threads, saving time and effort.
• Increased engagement: Users can easily share Threads content on Instagram stories or feed, increasing engagement between the two platforms.

2. Easy to create and share content: Threads’ interface is simple and intuitive, allowing users to easily create and share posts:

• Quick post creation: Posting on Threads is as simple as writing a message, helping users quickly share their thoughts and ideas.
• Sharing diverse content: Threads allows users to share images, videos, web links, creating rich and engaging content.
• Support for draft creation, scheduled posting, posts disappearing after 24 hours: Helps users control content and posting time more flexibly.

3. Focus on discussions: Threads encourages users to participate in discussions, respond and interact with each other’s posts, creating a positive and effectively connected interactive environment:

• Helps users connect with each other: Threads creates opportunities for users with shared interests to discuss and share viewpoints, increasing engagement and expanding social networks.
• Enhancing content value: Discussions help develop ideas, explore more perspectives, and enhance content value.
• Exchanging even delicate topics: In Vietnam, Gen Z youngsters love using Threads. The biggest reason Threads attracts young Vietnamese people is that posts discuss delicate topics very comfortably (for example, love, sex, salary, …), and they like to delve into the issue, exchange with many opinions, helping to perceive the topic from many different perspectives.
  • Threads seems quite suitable for young people, Gen Z, a group that is familiar with social media from a young age, so they are not afraid to try new social media, not afraid to share delicate issues on social media.
  • Note: This is only referring to Threads users in Vietnam, I don’t know about other countries, like the US and Taiwan, two countries with a large number of Threads users.
  • Delicate topics seem to be easily viral on Threads. Learn more about easily viral topics on Threads.
  • What features can Threads have to attract and retain users? Currently, in Vietnam, young people (like Gen Z) love using Threads, because there are many posts with lively discussions about sensitive issues in life, such as love, sex, salary, …. They feel confident to share more than on traditional social media platforms, so readers can gain more insights, this is what attracts Threads users.
• Support for interactive features: “Like”, “Comment”, “Share” and “Reply” buttons help users easily participate in discussions.

4. Support for “Live Debate”: Threads allows users to host live debates, attracting community attention and increasing engagement on the platform.

5. Few ads: Threads currently has no ads, creating a better user experience and no annoying ads.

6. Great development potential: Threads is backed by Meta, a giant in the social media industry. This support from Meta helps Threads have great growth potential and become a popular social media platform.

7. Suitable for marketing (due to low competition from brands): Like other social networks, you can leverage Threads to sell products, increase revenue, market, build brands, etc., especially, at this stage Threads is still new, many people access but not many brands compete on it. Read more: How to use Threads for marketing.

8. Analytics tools: Does Threads offer analytics tools for users? The answer is yes, Threads recently launched Threads Insights to analyze basic data.

9. Ability to integrate with other platforms: Threads has the ability to integrate with other platforms such as websites, blogs, or other applications through Threads API. Read the following article to understand Threads API and how to use it.

10. Active community: Is the Threads community active? The Threads community is currently quite active, the content reads like it’s from real people, very few bots, little seeding, little marketing.

11. Algorithm for displaying content that users care about: Is it easy to search and connect with people who share your interests on Threads? Yes, Threads has an algorithm to display similar content to readers who are interested in a particular topic. For example, if you are looking for jobs on Threads, you will see many recruitment posts. Or you are reading love stories, Threads will show many love stories or discussions about couple relationships.

12. Threads has few spam accounts: Are there many spam accounts on Threads? No, because Threads is linked to Instagram, which belongs to Meta, they are very good at scanning and blocking accounts that are not real people, sub-accounts, spam accounts, accounts used only for advertising.

Click Digital has tried, tried creating many Instagram accounts and many Threads accounts but they are easily blocked or blocked from liking and commenting.

This is a good point of Threads (compared to Twitter X) because it will limit spam, keeping the social network cleaner for users.

13. Stable security: Security issues are also quite reassuring, because they are linked to Instagram and Facebook.

In addition, by the second half of 2024, the number of users and traffic to Threads are still increasing.

Threads is marking a new step forward for microblogging social networks, providing users with a fresh and potential experience.

Click Digital believes that Threads will continue to update with more attractive features and build a strong community in the future.

How to take advantage of Threads’ strengths?

Because Threads social network is easily viral in sensitive topics, in types of posts like questions, inquiries, surveys, if businesses want to go viral on Threads, instead of posting content introducing products, advertising, post questions (in a witty way) on Threads and then seed comments below, it will be easier to go viral.

Example statuses:

• “How do you get skin as white as the ladies selling mixed creams?”
• “What pick-up lines have you used?”

Weaknesses of Threads

1. Lack of features: Threads is still in its early stages of development, so the platform is still lacking many important features:

• Lack of direct messaging feature: Threads currently does not have a direct messaging feature, limiting private communication capabilities between users. (If you want to message someone on Threads, you have to message through the Instagram app.)
• Lack of group management features: Threads does not have features for creating and managing groups, limiting the ability for users to build communities and group interactions.

However, Threads is still updating features, for example, recently, Threads launched draft features, scheduled posting, posts automatically disappear after 24 hours, create survey (poll) features, or Threads API, …

2. Viral ability is decreasing: Viral difficulty on Threads is increasing significantly.

• Content repetition: Easily viral topics are often repeated and no longer attract user attention.
• Competition from other platforms: The increase in new users and competition from other social media platforms also contributes to the decrease in Threads’ viral ability.

3. Low conversion rates to orders: Based on Click Digital’s experiments, the rate of purchases on Threads is not high. In fact, this rate is lower compared to Facebook.

• While posts on Threads tend to go viral more easily than on Facebook, the purchase rate remains low.
• Reason 1: This could be attributed to the younger user base on Threads, whose financial ability to make purchases may be limited.
• Reason 2: Posts on Threads are shorter than on Facebook, so a user can see more posts in the same amount of time, leading to higher impressions for your post. However, a user’s spending capacity is limited, so the conversion rate/the likelihood of that user making a purchase from your post will be lower.

4. No advertising support yet: Threads does not support advertising.

• Limits the ability to reach target customers: Businesses cannot use Threads to run ads and reach target customers, which makes promoting products and services more difficult.
• Reduced platform revenue: The lack of advertising limits Threads’ ability to generate revenue, making it difficult to maintain and develop the platform.

5. The ability to replace old social networks is still limited:

• Threads still has many limitations in terms of features: Threads is still not strong enough to replace old social networks like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter X.
• Lack of attractive features: Threads does not have any clear advantages that cannot be replaced.
• Community is not large enough: The Threads community is currently not large enough and not diverse enough to attract users.

6. Security issues:

• Reliance on Instagram’s database: Threads uses the same database as Instagram, which can lead to security and privacy issues for users.
• No strong account verification system: Threads does not have a strong account verification system, which can create opportunities for spam, fraud, and the spread of misinformation.

Threads is a promising social media platform, but it still has many weaknesses that need to be addressed. To attract and retain users, Threads needs to focus on adding more features, building a strong community, providing effective advertising solutions, and enhancing platform security.

Meta needs to quickly address these weaknesses to make Threads a truly attractive and popular social media platform.

Will the weaknesses of Threads affect businesses’ ability to reach this market?

Although Threads has limitations such as incomplete features (like scheduling, …), making it inconvenient for businesses, no ads, increasing difficulty in going viral, overall, this is an easily viral platform, if you know how to take advantage of easily viral topics and connect them with your products and services, you will be easier to find customers than other old social media platforms.

Should Threads be used for SEO purposes?

Yes, it will help increase visibility on the Threads wall, on Threads search, and on Google search. As for how to SEO for Threads, please refer to the following article: https://clickdigital.website/seo-for-threads-content-and-accounts/

Comparison table between Threads and Twitter X

Because Threads and Twitter X are quite similar, and Threads is considered a potential competitor to Twitter X, Click Digital would like to summarize a comparison table as follows:

Feature	Threads	Twitter X
Character limit	500	280
Integration with other social networks	Instagram	No
Advertising support	Not yet	Yes
Search	Limited	Advanced
Hashtag	Yes	Yes
Direct message	No	Yes
Live Debate	Yes	Yes
Create private groups	No	Yes
Monetization	Not yet	Yes

Overall, Threads has advantages in terms of features, interface, and interactivity. However, according to Click Digital’s assessment, this platform still has many weaknesses and is not strong enough to replace Twitter X.

Challenges and potential of Threads

• Feature development: Threads needs to add more features to attract and retain users. Threads needs to add direct messaging features, business features, and other features to improve the user experience. In addition, integrating new features such as creating private groups, supporting multiple languages, providing data analytics tools, and supporting advertising is also necessary to attract users and businesses.
• Community building: Meta needs to focus on building a strong community on Threads, attracting more new users, especially Twitter X users. Meta can organize online events, encourage influencers to join Threads, and encourage users to share engaging content to attract more new users.
• Monetization: Threads needs to find ways to monetize to maintain sustainable growth. Threads can experiment with monetization forms like advertising, in-app purchases, or charging for premium features.

With the above strengths and weaknesses, will Threads be able to become a key marketing platform for businesses in the future?

Comment

Threads, Meta’s new social media platform, has attracted attention with its simple interface, text focus, and seamless integration with Instagram. Threads’ strengths are its ability to create in-depth discussions, easy content sharing from Instagram, and attracting users who want to share thoughts and ideas concisely. However, Threads still has many weaknesses to address, such as a lack of effective search features, content length restrictions, and a lack of strong security features. With the current strengths and limitations, Threads is still a promising platform, but needs to be further improved to compete with other social networks and become a top choice for users.

Compared to other social networks, will Threads be able to replace them in the future?

According to Click Digital’s experience, the answer is no, Threads will not be able to replace old social networks in the future. The reason is that Threads does not have any clear advantages and does not have any irreplaceable features. For example, Facebook is for posting friend status, Twitter is for posting articles for influencers, Youtube is for videos, TikTok is for videos, Reddit is for questions. Threads is still quite similar to Twitter X, although the strength is the support of the Meta / Facebook giant, but still not able to defeat Twitter X.

Unless in the future, we see Threads have more upgrades and improvements.

Conclusion

Threads is a promising social media platform, but it still needs time to develop and attract users. Businesses should closely monitor the changes and updates of Threads to develop appropriate strategies.

According to Click Digital, Threads could be an effective marketing channel in the future, but businesses need to be patient and wait for this platform to be more complete.