October Social Update – Is Threads still Threadin’? Why are we being bombarded by broadcast channel requests?

Posted In: Social by Jenn Ferrier,
October 12, 2023

Is Threads still Threadin’? Why are we being bombarded by broadcast channel requests? 

Charlie Edmiston, Social Media Expert 

September seems to have been a bit chaotic in the world of social media, with Joe Jonas & Sophie Turner calling it quits, Hailey Bieber’s strawberry red hair and don’t even get us started on the Roman Empire. But there have also been some updates around Meta itself (as always)!

Threads

It wouldn’t be a social update without talking about Threads! But is Threads still Threadin’?

Here’s the lowdown…

• Threads is seriously struggling to grow and ranks at the bottom of the most popular social media platforms, ahead of only Tumblr (not good at all!)
• As well as grow, it is also struggling to retain users, with users opening the platform less and less. New data shows just how significant the decline is, from users spending 21 minutes per day, down to just six.*
• Threads introduced a web version in August, with the hope it would attract more users, but it had little significant impact on Threads’ usage and worldwide the traffic bump from the web app launch was only 3%
• And the biggest and most anticipated news, drumroll please… it plans to roll out an update that will let you delete your account without having to delete your Instagram account too! But unfortunately, not until the end of the year

Why is Threads struggling to grow?

We believe Threads has struggled to continue to grow so much as there is nothing new or particularly groundbreaking about it, it is literally a carbon copy of X, without some of X’s main features! Search is extremely basic and there is also no allowance for hashtags.

Threads saw so much accelerated growth at the beginning, but is this just because you technically didn’t need to ‘sign up’ for the app? Threads had an easy ride as it already had it’s users on Instagram, and all they needed to do was click a button to sign up to Threads.

Will Threads die a death? 

At this point, it might be too hard to tell. The developers at Threads are working hard to bring new and much needed features to the app (such as hashtags, translation options and an only followed tab), but it isn’t clear how soon these will arrive.

With the delete account option on the horizon – could this see many choosing to leave?! We think this will be Threads’ biggest test yet!

Broadcast Channels 

If you have an Instagram account, we can almost guarantee that you have been bombarded with broadcast channel requests this last month. But what are they? Are they a scam? And should your business be launching them?

The Lowdown 

Broadcast channels are a public, one-to-many messaging tool for brands to directly engage with their followers at scale.

Whilst it may seem like a brand new exciting feature, broadcast channels was actually created at the beginning of the year, and was rolled out globally in June. The reason you may only be hearing about it now is due to the fact it wasn’t available in the UK until September (for unknown reasons!).

Broadcast channels can be used to help followers stay in-the-know with the latest updates and behind-the-scenes moments from their favourite brands. Content can be in the form of text, photo, video, voice notes and polls in which followers can react to and vote on.

How does it work? 

Broadcast channels are started from a brands Instagram inbox. Once they have sent their first broadcast channel message, their followers will receive a one-time notification to join the channel (hence why you may have been bombarded with lots of notifications in one day!). As soon as the broadcast channel is live, brands can also encourage followers to join by using the “join channel” sticker in Stories or by pinning the channel link to their profile.

Should my brand be broadcasting? 

We know there seems like a lot going on at the moment and as a social media manager you may be feeling pretty overwhelmed with something else being added to the mix! But broadcast channels actually might serve as a good way to get to know your followers a little better and really help push your brands voice.

Those who have chosen to join your channel are the ones who are going to be highly involved and interested in what you post. Why not use a poll to see what people think of your content? Or share new products and see how people react? You could use it as a newsletter to share important update, or as an exclusivity tool – those who join get to know first about new product drops.

Whist brands can add as much content as they like into the channel, followers can currently only react and vote – they are unable to reply and post in their own content, which makes it a great platform for brands to get a message out quickly!

Instagram also plans to add more features over the coming months, such as the ability to bring another brand or creator into the channel to discuss upcoming collabs, conducts surveys and collect information via question prompts – making it a very important way to gather information!

Finally, it doesn’t need to be polished. Writing a message on a broadcast channel doesn’t particularly need to be a thought out articulated post – you don’t need to be spending hours planning what you’re going to say, just be authentic and genuine!

If this got you thinking and you want to chew the fat drop us a line @ hello@weareboutique.co.uk we love to chat over a brew!

*Stats taken from Get Social!