Last November, we released Is Threads the Twitter Killer?, our guide for nonprofit organizations that were considering leaving X (formerly Twitter) for Threads. At that time, Threads was only a few months old and Meta was still in the process of announcing and rolling out features. Our guide looked at the basics of Threads and its features, as well as usership at that point.
At the end of 2024, we’re looking at a very different landscape – in particular because of the ongoing mass exodus from X in the weeks following the presidential election and Elon Musk’s engagement with the president-elect’s transition team. An estimated 115,000 people closed their X account the day after Election Day alone, and many more have closed their accounts since then.
This has meant a spike in usership for other platforms. Threads gained 35 million new users in November, bringing its total usership to 275 million. And since our original guide was released, there have been additional features and changes made to the platform. While some of these will lure in potential new users, others may be worth considering before your organization considers making the jump:
- There’s a big audience, but maybe not the right one. Threads has seen huge growth since last year, with roughly 275 million monthly active users. But generally, Threads has not been a popular platform for journalists, academics, researchers, and other political voices. In fact, Meta has introduced a setting that allows users to limit political content which is leading to a repression of political content across the platform. This may mean it’s not worth the time investment for nonprofits looking to engage with those audiences.
- An improved search may help address a complicated algorithm. One of the biggest concerns with Threads has been the algorithm, which some users say feels chaotic. However, Meta recently announced that they will be improving their search feature to allow users to “narrow their search to before or after a specific date, as well as search for specific profiles.”
- A new feature may make it easier to connect with other users. Threads users haven’t used hashtags as commonly as on X, making it harder to find users and groups with similar interests. But in October, Threads announced the launch of Loops, which will allow users to add their posts into a Loop and reach a specific community. Users can join Loops to help influence the posts that appear on their feed, similar to X’s Communities. Whether users will embrace the feature will be determined when the feature launches.
Whether Threads, Bluesky, or another alternative, adding or switching social platforms requires careful consideration. Beyond features improvements, it’s important to consider whether your team has the capacity to do the work required to build a following on a new platform. Perhaps even more important is whether the audiences that matter to your organization are using the new platform. Tens of millions of new users on a platform only matter if your priority audiences are among them. For more information on these and other considerations, please check out our original guide.
It’s clear that there’s a lot of changes that will continue in the social media world in the coming months. Has your organization made the jump to Threads, Bluesky, or another platform? We’d love to hear about your experience. Contact us at hello@springboard.partners with your thoughts!
