To Tweet, or not to Tweet - Could “Threads” be the answer?
In this article:
What is “Threads”? (Not my new outfit)
Where is the "Fediverse"? (Probably more relevant to you than the Metaverse right now)
Why should you care? (This is the near future of social media)
Context
7 years ago I wrote an article titled: “To tweet or not to tweet”. 7 days ago, the new owner of Twitter challenged the CEO of Meta to a cage fight.
Somehow it feels like time to share my updated thoughts - here goes:
I’ve been a Social Media Manager for over a decade. Twitter was always my favourite - I loved the writing abilities of those who could craft thoughts into 140 character bursts.
You could say I’m feeling nostalgic for the social media landscape of 2016, but I’m under no illusions - those days are long gone and there are big changes happening in the not-so-distant future.
Elon's Era
When Musk took over Twitter, among the first things he did was deliver a kitchen sink, reinstate previously banned users such as Kanye West and Donald Trump - and treated us to a masterclass in irony: Selling a digital product with perceived value - but in doing so, making it valueless.
When the blue tick became available to anyone willing to pay, it rang the death bell of something even more valuable for Twitter - the one thing which really made it useful for everyone, from government agencies to pop stars: Verification. Being able to trust the source of information from official accounts underpinned the value of Twitter as the platform for news.
Future Twitter
Even before Elon’s takeover, the prognosis for Twitter was not favourable. Who knows what Linda Yaccarino, the new CEO can do to improve it - particularly as she was successfully selling against social ads in her previous role.
And now, Twitter is facing new competition - powered by the biggest player in social media: Meta.
Threads by Meta
Meta has announced the imminent release of its new social network: Threads. The text-based app is described by Meta chief product officer Chris Cox as: “our response to Twitter” - confirmed by the screenshots from Mark Zuckerberg’s launch presentation.
Despite being the biggest social network in the world (by some margin), Facebook has never occupied the space for breaking news - that might be about to change.
There are 2 things to note about this new social channel:
Recommended by LinkedIn
Firstly, joining Threads will be easy - it will sync with your Instagram account and automatically populate your information.
Secondly, Threads will eventually integrate with ActivityPub, the decentralised social media protocol which is used by Mastodon.
Enter the Fediverse
Meta’s impending arrival in the Fediverse has not been met with open arms by its current power users - many view Facebook as a bad actor, coming to mess up the open standards and dominate the decentralised ecosystem.
This might be another textbook example of irony: the open source social community isn’t open to making friends with the Instagram gang.
It’s not just the deluge of Instagram Influencers who might be unwelcome among Fedi folk - on Masterdo, it is considered an offence to even name Musk’s social network - they refer to it as “the bird app”.
The Fediverse is a rabbit hole worthy of its own article, so perhaps I'll get into that another time.
Fight Fight Fight!
Unsurprisingly, Meta’s plan for Threads was not received as good news by Elon.
What I did not foresee was Zuckerburg's exchange of words with Musk escalating into them challenging each other to a cage fight!
Future of Social?
Perhaps we might look back at this moment as a turning point - when the social media industry officially lost its mind and spiralled into self-destruction.
Just when AI seemed like the big thing for digital marketers to navigate this year - Twitter unravels and Threads happens.
Conclusions
1) Threads is going to open up the Fediverse to millions of users, overnight.
2) Clever business leaders will make sure to allocate sufficient time and resources
TL:DR
Meta will soon launch its new text-based app: Threads powered by Instagram and ActivityPub, which aims to compete directly with Twitter as the place for breaking news, while opening up the decentralised social space to millions of users. The social web is already going through the AI revolution
Thank you for reading (all the way to the end)!
P.S. Part 1 of this article received 84 likes and 15 shares - so let’s see how the sequel goes!
Thank you this is so interesting, it seems there is much more to learn and we need to be up to speed with these changes. Can’t wait to see how the punch up ends, that will be amusing.