What Does Instagram's Threads Mean for Customer Experience Professionals?

The Gist

• CX practitioners' growth. Early adoption of Threads can boost exposure and establish thought leadership.
• Fostering connections. Threads promotes brand advocacy and engagement through lighthearted, fun interactions.
• Immediate engagement. Even if Threads doesn't last, its current popularity offers immediate, significant brand benefits.

As of July 5, 2023, I was the 11,508,230th person (they give you a badge) to sign up for Meta’s new app “Threads.” (Cue unnecessarily, overly excited brain that has spent more time indulging in the simplicity of this app in 24 hours, than getting sleep).

What is Threads? Simply put, Elon Musk’s Twitter nemesis. It’s Twitter without the hashtags, bots and ads that clog nearly every other social media platform — and it’s awesome. For those of us who have joined already, we’ve spent countless minutes (hours) forming new connections, reacting to lighthearted, humorous posts, and chatting about the future of this shiny new CX/social media “toy” that we have high hopes for — especially for CX practitioners.

It’s MySpace-level excitement with Clubhouse-level curiosity.

Why Adopt Threads Early: Listen Up, Customer Experience Leaders

I’m a big fan of using new tech/social platforms to continue to evolve a brand. The faster you are to adopt, the more exposure you get to a well-engaged audience, which can translate to faster partnerships, a boost in sales and establishing yourself as a thought leader among the early pioneers. Are you listening CX pros?

For those who have a process of using new tech at your organization, with skeptics at the helm, it’s no different from using Twitter to post a message, though you don’t have character limits, hashtags and the algorithms that accompany it (it’s currently a refreshing “free-for-all”). Instead, it’s purely about diving in and making new connections, which may seem a little “loose” to highly data-structured individuals but surely can create CX opportunities that are unexpected.

Related Article: With Threads, Meta Has Plenty of Opportunity and Underappreciated Risk

What This Means for CX Practitioners

Already, I’ve seen brands, such as Virgin Voyages, Truff Sauce and Fresh, use this app to come up with creative ways to promote their brands and engage with users, through cheeky humor and lighthearted posts. I’ve seen these same brands claim on Threads they have gained more followers in 24 hours than they did in nearly two years of using Instagram.

Right now, following these brands is “so in,” due to the newness of the app and the excitement about being one of the “first” to join. But that’s more marketing than CX, right?

Where does CX comes into play? Here are three ways you can use Threads today that will work well for CX practitioners:

1. Use Threads as a form of advocacy, but take a lighter approach. If a customer is willing to participate, ask them for a quote, based on a more creative/fun question you have come up with. (This is currently a more lighthearted app where people love to learn in a more positive environment.) For example, “What is one fun/memorable moment you have had with our team?” Then post that with a fun pic of your organization’s team or another image that is relevant. Remember, people are looking for eye-catching moments to respond to.
2. Do a Q&A with customers on Threads. Whether a customer, partnership or fellow CX professional (assuming they have a Threads account or can be convinced to create one), this is a fun way to do a five-minute Q&A session, where others can participate. Ensure the first post to your thread has an eye-catching image or GIF to accompany so people stop and participate.
3. Establish thought leadership in CX. Cheeky GIFs, quotes, humor, eye-catching images and “lighter” thoughts (related to CX) are all great ways to establish thought leadership and grow your own personal brand as a CX leader.

Related Article: What Is Meta's Instagram Threads?

Dive into the World of Threads and Amplify Your Brand

Right now, people are very curious and eager to belong and follow each other, given that the feeds are not restricted to only those you follow, which is a great thing for CX professionals who want to grow their own brands and help their organizations in the process. Whether the app goes “the distance” or not doesn’t matter — it’s the immediate engagement that does and one that could pay off in spades in the long run.

So, get out there, have fun and join us “Thread Heads” (coined by my good friend, Adrian Speyer) in this great “new” world of making connections and socializing in a fantastic new way!

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