Twitter VS Threads: Which Is The Better Platform?

On July 5th 2023, Meta’s new Twitter-like social media platform, Threads, was officially launched. In only 5 days, Threads had officially reached 100 million users. To put these numbers in perspective, Twitter, which has been around since 2006, had around 229 million active users in May 2022. But since its red hot launch, users have been noticing Threads’ many flaws. Why Meta launched Threads? What is Meta’s intention? What is the difference between Twitter and Threads then?

In this blog, we will give you a comprehensive overview of the rationale behind the launch of Threads, the main differences between Threads and Twitter, and potential social media professional marketing strategies in the future. In order to decide the appropriate marketing strategy, we will focus on two main questions at the end of the blog: Will Threads Fail? If so, which social media platforms, Twitter or Threads, should you choose for social media marketing ?

1. Why Meta Launched Threads?

Meta is not currently capitalising on Threads. The platform is not pushing hashtags, which are arguably at the heart of Twitter, and it is currently not doing advertisement marketing much, either. So, how is it any better?

1.1 Less Political Oriented

Twitter’s primary discussion topic is politics – and the way to identify trending topics is through hashtags. Importantly, however, most of the Tweets posted on this subject are also accompanied by what has become a Twitter-specific feeling – indignation. Twitter is arguably much better used for expressing opinions than spreading actual information, which was its initial goal. But Threads is not doing that either.

Adam Mosseri, the head of Threads at Meta, spoke on the reasoning behind creating the platform, saying “We are definitely focusing on kindness and making [Threads] a friendly place”. Threads’ design essentially restricts the publication of content similar to that on Twitter. In limiting the political talk that could make its way on Threads, Meta essentially cut out a significant proportion of Twitter users that might have otherwise migrated to the platform.

“We are definitely focusing on kindness and making [Threads] a friendly place”. – Adam Mosseri, Head of Threads at Meta.

1.2 Meta’s Expansion: Social Media Unification

Considering that Meta launched Threads at a very opportune moment for reluctant Twitter users, it could be seen that Meta is looking to overtake Twitter. More specifically, Meta was launched soon after Elon Musk decided to limit the number of tweets that users can see per day. This decision left many users feeling sour, and moving to Threads soon.

In fact, Meta has a history of launching products and functions in a bid to kill off its competitors. For example, in light of the rise of TikTok, a short-form video hosting service which has over 2 billion users globally, Instagram launched the function of ‘Reel’. Instagram’s move to incorporate short-form video content through Reels can be seen as a response to the success and growing user base of TikTok. Therefore, the launch of Threads is not a surprising news.

2. From A Marketing Perspective: What Is The Difference Between Twitter And Threads?

2.1 Main Marketing Feature: Advertising (Ads)

Threads Ads?

There is currently no advertising on Threads. The content is only supposed to be monetised once it reaches one billion users. On the other hand, Twitter has nearly 240 million monetisable daily active users since the company’s last release before Musk’s acquisition last July:

6 Different Formats of Ads on Twitter

1. Promoted Ads

• • Text-only Ads: With all the elements of a standard Tweet, these simple and native Text Ads feel like the rest of X content and allow you to expand the reach of your Tweets beyond your followers to your desired target audience.

• • Video Ads: Bring products to life and drive people to a website, app, or simply to engage with your brand’s message.

• • Carousel Ads: Use up to six horizontally-swipeable images or videos to showcase multiple products or promotions.

• • Moment Ads; Create, curate and promote a collection of Tweets to tell an immersive story that goes beyond 280 characters.

• • Image Ads: Showcase your product or service with a single photo.

2. Dynamic Product Ads

Dynamic Product Ads on X allow advertisers to deliver the most relevant product to the right customer at the right time. With DPA Retargeting, advertisers can serve ads to targeted consumers,  featuring products they have engaged with (e.g. added to their shopping cart) on the advertiser’s website but haven’t yet purchased. With DPA Prospecting, advertisers can acquire new customers who haven’t visited their website via ads featuring products from your catalog that are most relevant to them.

3. X Amplify

X Amplify allows advertisers to align their ads with premium video content from the most relevant publishers. Amplify offerings are broken out into two ad formats:

Amplify Sponsorship

A 1:1 pairing with a single publisher during a moment of your choice and Tweet-level control for the duration of the campaign. Please note that Amplify Sponsorships are not available to self-serve advertisers at this time.

Amplify Pre-roll

Select the content categories of the videos that your video ad will be served on from 15+ categories, including select Curated Categories in markets where they’re available.

4. X Takeover

X’s Takeover products are the most premium, mass-reach placements that drive results across the funnel by taking over the Timeline and Explore tabs. Takeover placements are offered as Timeline Takeover (You can put your brand at the top of the conversation as the first ad of the day. With Timeline Takeover, your ad is the first ad when someone opens X.) and Trend Takeover (Put your ads alongside what’s trending, placing messages where the conversation starts on the Explore tab.)

5. X Live

Broadcast your biggest moments to the world and allow audiences to join in real-time. From product launches and conferences to watch parties and fashion shows, X Live helps brands maximize their best livestream content and drive conversation with the audiences that matter.

6. Collection Ads

Collection Ads are a new way to browse, story tell, and purchase on X. In a Collection Ad, advertisers can showcase a collection of product images through a primary hero image and smaller thumbnail visuals below. With Collection Ads, consumers no longer have to swipe through individual cards as they would with Carousel Ads. All product features are displayed within a single view. Besides, advertisers have multi-destination functionality with Collection Ads, allowing them greater flexibility to link to unique product destinations and landing pages. Finally, with more creative space within Collection Ads, advertisers can highlight up to 6 unique products, services, or promotions.

5 Steps To Create A Twitter Ad

Step 1. Choose your target audience

Reach the right audience by targeting based on interests, geography, gender, device, or users similar to your followers. In addition, maximise the relevancy of your message by targeting by keywords in people’s Tweets.

Depending on the type of audience that you intend to create, you will be given the opportunity to either upload list data or set specific activity parameters. Visit the help center page for your desired audience type to learn more about the creation process.

Step 2. Set a budget and pay for what works

Only pay when users follow your account or retweet, like, reply, or click on your Promoted Tweet. You’re in complete control. There’s no minimum spend, and you can start and stop at any time.

Step 3. Create your ads

Select “Tweet composer (New)” from the “Creatives” menu. Create your Tweet, keep the Promoted-only box checked, and hit “Tweet.” Repeat until you’ve created all of the Tweets you’d like to promote.

Step 4. Build your campaign

Select “Create campaign” from the “Campaigns” drop-down menu in your Ads Manager. Follow the prompts to choose your objective and fill in your campaign details.

Tips:

• • Ad groups: It’s okay to only have one ad group. Ad groups are there to help you show different messages to different audiences (or “groups”), and/or adjust parameters like targeting, budget, or run dates for certain groups.

• • Budget: There is no minimum spend, and you can adjust your budget as you go.

• • Campaign dates: Dates can be adjusted at any point. For most campaigns, we recommend running your campaign for two or more weeks, making optimisations after the first few days.

Step 5. Launch and optimise!

Once your campaign is live, you’ll be able to track results in real-time from your Ads Manager dashboard.

2.2 Threads VS Twitter: Other Marketing Features

1. 1. Character count: Both platforms limit the number of characters: Twitter limits itself to 280 characters, Threads to 500.
   2. Video limit: Video is on the rise, experts know that. That’s why Threads allows videos of up to five minutes while the maximum duration on Twitter is two minutes and 20 seconds.
   3. Followers: Unlike Twitter, Threads doesn’t have a follower list on its profile. To find out who you follow, you have to tap on the “Followers” tab and then go to the “Follow” section.
   4. Safety and privacy: Threads snaps up the concept of “muted words” on Twitter, words that should be hidden, and allows users to protect themselves from offensive language. The mute feature on Twitter only applies to an individual tweet.
   5. The blue check mark: An account has been verified once a blue checkmark appears next to the profile name – this applies to Instagram as well as Twitter. Musk offered the verification checkmark at a subscription price after purchasing the platform, which generally reduces credibility. Threads users can take the blue checkmark from their Instagram account to their Threads profile.
   6. Drafts: On Twitter, individual tweets can be saved as drafts; Threads does not yet offer this feature.
   7. Direct Messages: While users can write private messages to each other on all networks, this is not yet possible on Threads. Communication here is only via comments.
   8. Engagement: As the following graph shows, engagement is currently much higher on Threads, both in terms of likes for posts and comments.

3. Twitter & Threads: Which One Should I Choose?

3.1 Twitter’s Revolution

In spite of its design flaws, Threads is still in user development, meaning that the product users are currently experiencing is not by any means finalised. In reality, Threads still poses a major threat to Twitter, mainly as a result of its unique onboarding process. When users sign up to Threads, they do so through their Instagram profile – and with the click of a button, they can import their following list onto Threads. So, almost automatically, users can follow accounts they have already shown interest in on Instagram. Threads’ link to Instagram has been invaluable to its growth – and it might become the catalyst to Threads’ headcount outnumbering Twitter’s.

3.1.1 Musk’s Reaction

Firstly, Elon Musk was quick to react to Threads. The billionaire promptly sent a document threatening to sue the company, supposedly due to Meta having worked with former Twitter employees on Threads’ development. More specifically, Musk’s lawyer wrote: “Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information.” Meta denied having any former Twitter employees on its engineering team.

3.1.2 New Logo ‘X’: The Everything App

Secondly, Twitter has changed its brand and logo from its famous blue bird to “X”. This is not merely a new logo design but a new company strategy. As technology advances, ChatGPT and AI inspired the market revolution and Mr Musk also recently launched his long-awaited artificial intelligence start-up – xAI – in a bid to build an alternative to ChatGPT. Besides, WeChat is a messaging and social media platform that has evolved into one of the region’s biggest apps in terms of its range of services and number of users. The app let users pay for services through a finance system. Last year, it was estimated to have 1.29 billion users in China alone. The new logo and the above steps also indicated that Mr Musk wants to create a “super app” for a new kind of social media platform that includes AI, internal financial system and the original function of Twitter.

3.2 Threads’ Institutional Flaws

One of Threads most obvious design flaws is actually also its biggest advantage. The platform’s tight link to Instagram does not enable users to create a Threads account without an Instagram. However, if you decide to try out Threads through Instagram and decide you don’t like it, you cannot simply delete your account. You would need to delete your Instagram profile, too.

Threads is also currently missing out on a big chunk of potential users – the entire EU. Since the ChatGPT privacy fiasco, the European Union has tightened up its regulations surrounding data and privacy, as well as digital markets. Threads does not yet meet the necessary requirements, and EU users – including those using VPNs – are currently banned as a result. Regardless, Threads’ lack of compliance with EU regulations only adds to its user base’s mounting list of concerns.

Another issue with regard to Threads’ design is its lack of accessible features. This oversight comes at a particularly bad time, with other platforms including Twitter having updated their accessibility features after years of disabled users campaigning for them. Here are some of the features Threads is currently lacking:

• • User-generated alt-text: although Meta does have an in-built AI-generated system for captioning images with alt-text, users with disabilities have repeatedly explained the value of being able to customise alt-text within their posts.

• • User-generated captions: AI-generated captions are far from perfect, particularly when it comes to accents or speech disabilities. For this reason, users often prefer uploading their own video captions. Allon Mason, the founder of web accessibility company UserWay has said: “This exclusion prevents individuals with hearing impairments from fully engaging with the content and enjoying the digital experience.”

• • No customisable fonts or text features: Threads does not currently allow its users to customise its text in order to improve readability.

3.3 Will Threads Fail?

As mentioned, Meta has a history of launching products in a bid to kill off its competitors. Most of the time, they failed. For instance, in 2012, Meta launched Poke, which aimed to copy Snapchat; it was shut down within two years of its launch.

For now, it is unclear whether Threads will see any long-lasting success and surpass Twitter, or whether it will join Meta’s graveyard of unsuccessful projects. Nevertheless, it has certainly sparked important debates surrounding Meta’s long-term intentions, data regulation compliance and web accessibility.

Conclusion

The choice of platform for advertising depends on various factors, including your target audience, advertising goals, and budget. Both Twitter and Meta’s platforms (such as Threads and Instagram) offer advertising opportunities, each with its own strengths and audience demographics.

Twitter has a large user base and is known for real-time conversations and engagement. It can be effective for reaching a wide range of audiences, especially if your target audience is active on the platform and your advertising goals align with Twitter’s format and features.

On the other hand, Meta’s platforms, including Instagram and Threads, offer visual-focused content and have a younger demographic. If your advertising campaign relies heavily on visual content or targets a younger audience, these platforms may be more suitable for your needs.

While Threads has a rapid development recently, it seems that Twitter is also having a big revolution to stay competitive in the market. Therefore, it’s essential to conduct thorough research and consider factors such as audience demographics, advertising features, targeting options, and campaign objectives before making your decision. Additionally, you can also consider running advertising campaigns on multiple platforms simultaneously to reach a broader audience and see which one would be best for your social media marketing. If you would like to learn more about social media professional management and advertising promotion, feel free to chat with FlowDigital for more information.