How Meta Ruined Threads In Less Than A Month (And What We Can Learn From It)

𝙈𝙚𝙩𝙖 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙢𝙖𝙙𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙞𝙜𝙜𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙧𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙞𝙚 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙗𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨.

Threads, the new app by Meta has lost 88% of its traffic in less than one month.

I'm going to break down what happened and 3 questions you should ask whether you are a one person business or a gigantic company like Meta so you don't make the same mistakes..

Meta did an exceptional job launching the Threads app, with over 100 Million sign ups in just a few weeks (1/4 of the total users of Twitter).

FOMO and curiosity was strong, plus the easy barrier for IG users to instantaneously set up.

Threads easily crushed every social platform with getting people in the door, but then lost momentum almost as fast as it came. So what happened?

After a month of playing on the platform, I cannot understand a clear benefit of using it. And according to the Live Mint Blog, which also said usage is down from 19 minutes per user to 4 minutes: 

"One of the main reasons for the Threads app losing traction with users is the lack of clarity about what the app is supposed to be. At launch, it looked like Instagram was trying to attract disgruntled Twitter users to a new platform. However, it seems that Threads and Twitter are aimed at very different audiences."

What's the difference between IG and Threads? The only thing I can tell is that the words are on TOP of the photo instead of the bottom.

Or, you can do short text posts of up to 500 characters. Big deal. You can do that on LinkedIn and FB.

It's like a bare bone's version of FB, owned by the same company but with 1/100th of the features. It literally is like Facebook in 2009. 

Also it feels more like a 'dilution' of already existing traffic, give them another app to handle, more notifications, more distractions, more dopamine addiction. The night before I wrote this post I found myself on the platform asking myself 'why am I even here? What is it that I want to accomplish? What's in it for me? What can I contribute?'

I didn't have any good answers so I took the app off my phone so I wouldn't be tempted to waste any more time there. 

What's the value proposition here?

Most of the time, for early adopters, a platform provides some measure of organic growth before the ads start kicking in. That isn't happening, but you wouldn't know anyway because there's no analytics. Most of my colleagues that I've observed who have been posting 3-4 times per day are getting next to no engagement, people that are doing well on other platforms like LinkedIn. 

Why would a new creator want to spend consistent time on this platform if all the rewards are going straight to the top with the same influencers that dominate other platforms? 

From day 1, I wanted to be intentional about creating and curating my feed, but instead of seeing the people I actually wanted to follow, I got more of the same old influencers that I always see on the other platforms: Dean Graziozi, Adam Grant, Marie Forleo, Alex Hormozi, Ed Mylett, Brendan Burchard.

Those influencers are great but I didn't choose to follow them and I already know what they are going to say because I've consumed their content on every other platform. Again, horrible user experience and it just feels either forced or rigged. 

Here's how it feels: Meta sees that Twitter has bad press around the toxicity of the platform and wants to capitalize on users that don't want to be on the platform. Fair enough, and that makes sense. But that makes me feel like just another number (which is funny because Instagrammers actually did get a 'Threads' number). 

3 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙀𝙑𝙀𝙍𝙔 𝙗𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙖𝙨𝙠:

1 - Can you clearly define WHAT IT IS THAT YOU DO, who you help and how you help them? And explain it in 12 seconds or less?

2 - What's in it for the user or client? Why should they be there? What can be absolutely IRRESISTIBLE for them?

3 - What is the USP (unique selling proposition)? What is different about your offer or business that the user can't get anywhere else?

I'm not sure Threads meets any of these, at least from my perspective.

If you ask yourself these 3 questions you'll give clarity to your clients (as well as help your messaging) and create an unforgettable user experience that attracts instead of repels.

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