Threads – new social network: how to use it for brand marketing?
Threads is currently at the peak of its popularity: marketers and specialists from all over the world regard the platform as a promising social network set to stand tall with titans like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. As of September 2023, Threads have 130 mln active registered users, with that number growing with each day.
In today’s article, the Affstream team will take a look at what Threads can offer Affiliate Marketing and share some tips on how to use the app to drive traffic to iGaming and Sports Betting offers.
All about the new platform, Threads — what, who and why?
The Threads platform is a new product created by Meta and made public on July 5, 2023. Within the first week, over 100 mln users have made a Threads account.
Threads is an international platform with a multimillion audience in different countries, making it a lucrative potential source of traffic. For example, when it comes to Target Audience Brazil, there’s over 36 mln users. Keep in mind that Brazil is a top-tier Affstream GEO that shows excellent results for niches like iGaming and Sports Betting.
Threads was created to act a rival to Twitter. The new platform shares many common features with Twitter: it lets users keep microblogs, post short texts, as well as videos and images.
To access Threads, you need to have an Instagram account and register through it. There’s no other way to sign into Threads. You’ll need a VPN if you want to access it from Russia. You can chat and work in the app from both mobile and desktop devices.
Feature review
Threads provides ample ways to post content and chat with people. The main form of content here is a thread – a branching discussion under the original message. Threads lets users publicly comment on each other’s posts and debate with each other, similar to discussion threads from other social media.
Threads components and features:
- Profile. From your profile info you can gleam your subscriber count, posts, edit your description or share the profile in other apps.
- Post editor. It lets you make a post with text of up to 500 characters long, attach up to 10 photos or a video no longer that 5 minutes long, as well as tag other users in your text. Feel free to place links into your posts, including ones that lead to offers.
- Reactions. Threads also has standard audience-engagement tools — likes, comments and reposts. Threads messages can be published on Instagram in the form of stories or posts.
- Import from your Instagram account. Threads lets you import your Instagram avatar, subscriptions and other data. This means you can instantly transfer your entire subscriber base to Threads and not risk losing it.
- Search and search history. You can look up other people’s accounts using their name in the search bar. Head over to the Recent tab to take a look at your search history.
- Smart news feed. Threads shows subscriber posts and recommended content. The feed allows you prioritize posts using the For You or Subscribe buttons.
- Settings. This option lets you subscribe to your friends and invite them via WhastApp, SMS or a direct link. You can also manage notifications, make your profile private, block users, limit mentions and posts from popping up in your feed using stop-words. A peculiar feature – a timer keeping track of how much time you’ve spent in Threads and when it’s time to take a break.
Drawbacks you need to take into account when designing your strategy:
- Threads currently doesn’t have paid promotion and no targeted ads either. This means that the social network so far should only be regarded as a shareware source of traffic.
- There’s no way to edit a post after you publish it, which might be annoying if you notice you made a mistake that needs correcting.
- No hashtags, a feature that is a potential tool for attracting users in Instagram and other social networks.
- No DMs. You can only make a post or public comment in a thread.
- Threads is not integrated with message and mention monitoring systems. You will have to manually track your customers’ comments and respond to them on your own.
- All the algorithms are still in beta-testing. Different users might have a different experience with the feed. For example, some people first see their friends’ posts and then recommendations, others – vice versa.
- Threads is connected to Instagram and is essentially an addition to it. There’s no way to delete your Threads account without also deleting your Instagram one. Similarly, you can’t sign up for Threads without an Instagram account.
How to effectively promote your business on this platform
The Threads platform is still a new traffic source, and many major companies and competitors haven’t expanded into it yet. This means that the app offers plenty of promising opportunities to promote offers and secure a niche for yourself.
To successfully promote your business, you’ll need to design a marketing and SMM strategy, highlight your competitive advantages to showcase the best your brand has to offer.
Native ads are the key method to promoting products effectively here. You need to present your offers as expert recommendations and supplement them with useful and informative content.
Marketers note that the following types of content are popular:
- news-worthy events;
- memes, jokes, anectodes;
- checklists, guides;
- compilations;
- educational content;
- marketing content like info about bonuses, discounts, gifts and promo codes;
- video reviews;
- competitions and prize giveaways.
Your promotion options in Threads are similar to ones that work well in other shareware sources:
- creating and promoting an account or a network of them;
- mass following — Threads algorithms aren’t currently very strict and let you freely subscribe to as many people as you want;
- tagging other users in your posts — you can do that via the @ symbol;
- negotiating native ad deals with other content creators;
- partnering up with bloggers or purchasing ad space from them, doing colabs;
- mutual promotion;
- contests, giveaways and other marketing ploys;
- crowd marketing — a meaningful, informative and useful naration about the offer in the comments under posts that are thematically-appropriate.
Tips
Here are a few recommendations on how to present your ads well:
- Decide on the strategy, style and tone of voice. The first step to promoting offers is to design a strategy, visual style and content plan. Threads is currently chock-full of all of sorts of experiments by brands, thus, you have ample room to find the format that suits you.
- Post useful content and communicate with people. The Threads audience loves to chat, so it’s a good idea to engage your clients in a dialog. You can conduct polls, drive discussions, share useful insights and tips. If we’re talking about e-commerce, you can make a check-list for picking out a product; for gambling – a review of igaming operators, of fresh games and new slots; for betting – interesting news about crucial sporting events, like the Brazilian Football Championship.
- Don’t break the rules when posting content. So far, Threads hasn’t banned gambling-themed posts, but does have restrictions when it comes to nudity and 18+ content. You also can’t post insults, discriminatory statements, calls for extremist action or violence. Avoid unoriginal posts, plagiarism and spam.
- Test your funnels. You can migrate your Threads audience over to Telegram, your personal website or other platforms where you’ll continue to warm people up and promote your offer more aggressively.
- Look for creative solutions that can make your posts go viral. Feel free to use non-standard approaches to content and ads. For example, mix in some creative jokes, memes and anecdotes into your ad posts. This will boost user engagement and audience loyalty, encouraging people to follow your posts. One of the reasons people turn to Threads is to get a positive communication experience.
- Keep your ads native. The key concept of Threads and the reason people use the platform is cozy and trust-inspiring chatting. This means that any sort of promotion needs to be as native in character as possible, being presented in the form of expert or friendly suggestions.
- Focus on your personal brand or that of a blogger you recruited. Marketors exploring what Threads has to offer note that it’s a good idea to promote your personal brand, since that will facilitate securing a loyal audience. For example, when promoting affiliate marketing offers, you can use the blogging or story-telling formats, or just hire opinion leaders to do the promoting for you.
Conclusion
Threads can act as an alternative and promising shareware traffic source for affiliate marketing. You can use the platform to test out offers there and secure an audience that isn’t present in other sources. Active Threads users are people from almost all GEOs. They head on over to the social network looking to have a good time, find positive content and unobtrusive communication with other people. When promoting online casino and sports betting offers, take your time ensuring your ads look native, avoid ramming people with ads head on and think your content plans through carefully.
