Your Business vs. Threads – 2 Vital Questions to Reflect on

Whichever way you feel, stop and take a minute to read this post because today, I wanted to share  2 important questions every business should be asking themselves. These will make YOU and your business be more visible to your ideal clients.

You see, yesterday I was flicking through RTE News and a headline caught my eye….

Zuckerberg says Musk ‘not serious’ about cage fight.

Honestly! Two billionaires going back and forth like two 8 year olds in a school yard.

Now, I could talk about the marketing brilliance of this back and forth spat because it’s keeping both of them and their respective brands – Meta and X (Formerly twitter) in the news and in the minds of people.

Which in itself is brilliant!

However, I’m not talking about this today – but it got me thinking about Threads – nothing quite like being on the outside. I do have a bit of FOMO every now and again because of course, here in Ireland, we can’t get Threads due to EU Data laws.

So I thought I’d spend 10 minutes seeing how it’s all going – this supposed competitor to X.

I’d been aware of the massive launch with millions and millions and zillions joining up on it’s first day.

In fact, within five days it had 100 million users, making it the fastest-growing app of all time. Wowser!

But since then, engagement has dropped.

According to Similarweb, Threads’ daily active users have plummeted from a high of around 49 million two days after launch to just over 9.6 million on 1 August.

Engagement is also down with data showing time spent on the app in all available markets peaking on 6 July at 14 minutes a day, but then dropping to just 2.3 minutes by August. 

Similar research by Sensor Towers shows the daily active user count on Threads is down 82% from when the app launched on July 5 to July 31.

Ouch!

That must hurt Zuck!

Apparently not – more to come on this later.

So you may be asking what’s Zuck’s new platform got to do with you and the 2 important questions every business should be asking themselves.?

Well everything! Stay with me for a few seconds longer.

You see, I’ve been talking to a few of my US pals who have been using it and they collectively say that it’s confusing. It’s like Instagram but with the text first and then an image.

They’re not sure what the purpose is...is it to kill X? Is it to be some place else on the internet?

I’ve heard it say that it’s like Facebook in the 90s….1/100th of the features it has today! Meta says it’s a new app, for sharing text updates and joining public conversations.

Well if you look at the numbers, well, it’s not doing that so well. But as I said, Zuck isn’t too worried.

Zuck said this in a threads post in mid-July….“It’ll take time to stabilize, but once we nail that then we’ll focus on growing the community.”

They’re going to add in more features which should increase retention, he added in a call to employees.

And right now, there’s press releases being issued announcing new features.

But here’s the rub - Meta is a zillion dollar company so it can probably afford to put confusion first, community second.

Retention after features.

As a former product manager, I have to ask why launch when all the features weren’t there in order to keep people from the get go? Getting those people back will take some time and in the end, Meta has the budget to achieve that.  

But here’s where I would encourage you to think about what you’re doing. Many small businesses don’t have the luxury of building first, great launch and then loosing engagement and customers, to bring them back with additional features.

So two questions for you to think about:

1. Why you?

Clarity is everything. Like Threads, are you just another ‘thing’? Are you just another coach/consultant/marketer/accountant/business owner?

What’s your YOU Factor?

Why should people buy from you first?

2. Are you focusing on the transaction or focusing on the customer?
   What approach are you taking to customer experience? Are you focusing on getting the sale and not what it means to your customer? What’s your customer value journey?

Even if Threads isn’t focused on retention at the moment, Mark is assuming the new features will bring people back. Maybe he’s right. But when you have billions in the bank and a cage fight to do, you can afford that assumption.

Most businesses can’t.

Two simple questions that will determine your success as a small business owner.

Jot down your answers and always happy to have a chat about them with you.

Here’s the link to book a call to talk about your answers - https://denisefay.as.me/letschat