Since its creation, Threads has taken the world by storm. On July 3rd, the Threads app hit the app store. Created by the Instagram team and backed by Meta, the app aimed to replace Twitter by becoming the new ‘virtual town square’.
Since Threads’ creation, many questions have arisen from law firms who have chosen to hop on the app. What should law firms post? What is the Threads audience like? When is the best time to post?
Here’s everything law firms need to know about Threads best practices.
Threads Best Practices
1. Focus on Community Building
Like we mentioned, Threads is supposed to be a ‘virtual town square’. This means Threads is a place for people to join in ongoing conversations and start their own. The great thing about Threads being connected to your Instagram is you will already start off with a following. From there, focus on following relevant accounts that relate to your industry and practice area, and work on posing your own questions on the platform and responding to others. It may be harder to build up your audience because there aren’t hashtags, but you can still leverage Threads search bar to find relevant accounts based on keywords. While you don’t want to spam follow, you should focus on finding relevant accounts to follow on a weekly basis in order to build up your audience and community.
2. Leverage Repost and Quote
Remember retweets and quote tweets? They were an important aspect of Twitter because it was a simple way to engage with others and, as we mentioned earlier, build community by responding to others and joining in on conversations. Reposts and Quote posts are a great way to create more content while doing less work. It’s also a great way to position yourself as a thought leader and showcase that you’re not trying to be purely self-promotional.
3. Video is Still All the Rage
Twitter was a social media platform that embraced media in a unique way. GIFs and biteable videos dominated Twitter feeds. The same can be said of Threads. Although Threads may not be as image-centered as Instagram, users still want to see exciting media. You can easily create GIFs, images, or videos in Canva to accompany your posts. Notice also that Threads allows for bigger image sizes than Twitter which is a nice perk. Your Threads images can be 1070×1424 pixels. Also, Threads supports a variety of video sizes including 16:9, 9:16,
4. Use Threads!
In the Twitter days, a string of posts that were connected by commenting on the original post (and then commenting on the comment and so on and so on) were called threads. Many saw Twitter threads as an exciting aspect of the platform as it allowed users to tell stories and share information in a multi-part series of tweets. This is why many believe Threads is called Threads. You can do the same thing on Threads by responding to your own posts. Just keep it organized by including numbers (ex: (1/10), (2/10), etc.) on each post.
5. Keep an Approachable Tone
Threads has a similar tone and style as Twitter. It’s not a professional networking platform like LinkedIn so you don’t have to worry about being too casual. The types of posts people do are not lengthy or formal paragraphs. Use Threads as a platform to be playful, ask questions, and have genuine conversations, writing in a tone of voice similar to that which you’d use with a friend.
6. Post Frequently.
Right now, accounts that are having major success on the app like Shopify and Canva have noted that they post daily. This may seem like a hindrance because Threads doesn’t allow for a draft feature and it doesn’t yet integrate with posting platforms like HubSpot. However, you can build out a calendar using Google Sheets. Build out your calendar on Sheets by writing out the copy for each post, what each post will link to, a link to the post’s media, and what time you should post it. You can then download the Sheets app on your phone so you can easily toggle between your calendar and Threads when creating posts (since Threads does not have a website right now).
7. Focus on Brand Awareness
Threads has not yet been positioned as a lead generation tool. While audiences like those on LinkedIn may be rather warm and ready to make decisions, Threads is still a young platform where most who are on it are looking to simply have fun. Use Threads as an opportunity to pose interesting questions, share relevant articles, and post about any fun law firm news or outings.
8. Know Your Audience
Threads has hit 100 million users. It’s important to understand what the general Threads audience demographics are like and how they intersect with your target audience. So far we know the gender split is 68% male and 32% female. The majority of males belong to the 25-33 age group. Only 2% of females and 3% of males are aged 45 and above.
9. Repurpose Content
As we mentioned, Threads allows for a variety of video and image file sizes. This makes repurposing other content easy. Now, if you create an Instagram Reel, you can easily repost it to the Threads app. Just make sure the type of content you post fits the tone of Threads and include a caption that’s focused on starting a conversation.
10. Keep It Concise
While the platform allows for posts up to 500 characters, you don’t have to use all of them. If you want to share longer content, leverage replies to create a ‘thread’ style post where it’s several shorter posts linking together. Threads is really a place for short biteable bits of information. Most posts range between 200-300 characters.
Takeaway:
While Threads is still a young app, there’s much we already know. Any law firm that has made a Threads account should ensure they stay up to date on the app and any new trends. We’ll be posting about all new Threads updates on our blog, so subscribe to be notified of any Threads news.
