Will Threads gain traction in Baton Rouge?

As Twitter tries to figure out what it wants to be following the Elon Musk acquisition, competing microblogging platforms have emerged, though most have so far struggled to gain much traction.

But Threads, which launched July 5, has reached 100 million sign-ups in its first week, according to Meta, which is also the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. The relationship with Instagram provides an edge: Threads is linked to the popular photo sharing app, and usernames are the same across both platforms, which makes it easy for brands to migrate and bring their existing audience along.

Allison Stiel, who directs social media for Zehnder Communications, says her clients across industries are jumping in.

“You need to meet your audiences where they are,” she says. “You do want to be an early adopter, as well.”

That said, brands can’t be everywhere at once, and right now the analytics aren’t available to show whether you might want to de-emphasize other aspects of your outreach in favor of your Threads presence. But Stiel suggests you might want to at least introduce yourself there, repurpose some of your existing content, and establish a homestead in this new digital territory.

For the user, Threads works much like Twitter, so there’s not much of a learning curve for anyone familiar with the latter. But unlike Twitter, Threads isn’t searchable yet, nor is it selling ads, though monetization surely is right around the corner.

Zehnder breaks down the other differences between Threads and Twitter here.

This story originally appeared in a July 11 issue of Daily Report. To keep up with Baton Rouge business and politics, subscribe to the free Daily Report e-newsletter here.