The About Perception Podcast: The Buzz About Threads

By The Garrity Group

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Meta’s new Threads app has been generating a lot of buzz!  The Garrity Group team provides their insights about this new social media channel.  On this episode Tom Garrity (Threads @TomGarrity) , Andie Mercer (Threads @andie.mercer) and Makayla Roberts (Threads @makayla3_) provide their insights on the new app.

Full Transcript

Tom Garrity [00:00:06]  Welcome back to the Perception podcast. My name is Tom Garrity with the Garrity group Public Relations. Today, we have the team around the microphone and we’re going to be talking about this latest thing called Threads, which is really kind of unique on the timing. I mean, it seems to have taken over, you know, aspects of the earned media space, talking about the social media space. With me today is Andie Mercer, vice president of the Garrity Group Public Relations, and Makayla Roberts, assistant account executive with the Garrity Group Public Relations, and people who are much more engaged and in touch with the digital space in the digital realm than I am. Why don’t we start first with Andie? What? How would you describe threads?

Andie Mercer [00:01:02] What a loaded question. I would say that thread is a less functional Twitter world. I would describe it as I am going to rock the mike at that.

Tom Garrity [00:01:18] How do you really feel about that? Okay, Makayla, how would you like to add on to that or clarify what is that when you know, when family talks to you about threads, how do you describe it?

Makayla Roberts [00:01:33] So I would kind of agree with Andy, but I would kind of expand on it by saying I think it’s a basic outline right now. I think they threw it out there to be a competitor with Twitter, but don’t really have a lot of the engaging such as like, you know, engaging your certain following or DMS or things like that. It’s kind of just a basic outline to throw your thoughts out there.

Tom Garrity [00:02:01] Mm hmm. Interesting and nobody has mentioned that other word yet. Twitter.

Andie Mercer [00:02:10] I think I mentioned it.

Tom Garrity [00:02:11] You did? Oh, okay. I did now. So I could not or at all. And if this are just kidding, this is lives it takes. Of course, it’s not even tape. So here’s what I like about threads is that because obviously I feel like I’m out, but I’m outstanding in my own field on support of threads. I like it because it provides that alternative to Twitter. And, you know, I think that breaking it out as a separate item from Instagram, I think is smart because it seems as if Instagram for a time was trying to be all things to all people. I mean, because you had the Snapchat kind of functionality with with the stories and you have the pictures. And now, I mean, I’ve found that, you know, ever since they put the, you know, the stories on there, that my engagement on my pictures. I mean, people are interested in what I’m eating anymore. So I’ve really got to step up, step up my game. But that engagement has really decreased. And I think it’s but my engagement with the with the stories has increased. And so I was glad to see that Threads wasn’t another option within the Instagram app.

Andie Mercer [00:03:30] Which is funny that you mentioned that because you do have to have an Instagram account to have a Threads account. So they still are tied. But I think good and bad, right? And I think it captured a lot of people because of that. I think there’s the anti Instagram people that it won’t capture. You know, I think I think one of the biggest things that I’ve noticed with it is I, like many people use Twitter to find out news, find out new any anything. And since it doesn’t have like an explore page or hashtags anything that kind of like search functionalities, that’s kind of the reason why I haven’t really taken to it. And maybe the reason that others also haven’t taken it so.

Makayla Roberts [00:04:31] I think another aspect of going into like Instagram tied with it, I think a lot of people are taking a liking to it because it easily connects you with those followers that you already have from Instagram. So when you make your threads account, you don’t have to build your following. It’s already followed you there and you’re already connected with people. Right. When you first open the app, not even having to make a post. So I think that’ll capture a lot of people not wanting to build that, you know, backing with it.

Tom Garrity [00:05:06] And you know in there’s a lot of the anti Twitter audience too that I think were just looking for a reason to get off of Twitter and to be you know on to the next great thing. And I I’m not convinced. I mean, obviously Threads has made that kind of impact, but I’m not convinced that the people who truly know how to use and enjoy Twitter are making that, you know, they might have threads account, but they’re not necessarily jumping in with both feet. Yeah. Because you know, for me, I like to talk to the media with you know, and folks, friends of mine who are in the news business. But you know, there’s an established voice and conversation through Twitter, which isn’t necessarily I’m still trying to find my voice on threads.

Andie Mercer [00:05:57] Yeah, that’s a good point. I definitely think. I think it was the right time for threads to be introduced. I think had it come out with more options to use it on the platform that were similar to Twitter, we could make a case that it may replace Twitter, but I don’t think Twitter is going anywhere. I think I think if anybody could replace Twitter, it’s meta, but I don’t know. That thread does it yet.

Tom Garrity [00:06:30] Mm. Yeah. And. Yeah, I don’t know. I think of, you know, certain friends of mine on Twitter who will say that, you know, they’re going over to, you know, Mastodon or, you know, some other thing. And it’s like you don’t hear anything about those platforms anymore. I mean, you know, I want to see what they’re saying. And so maybe. Do you think that the time is coming where there will be like one giant, like app? That allows you to post once you engage on all platforms. I mean, obviously we have that through, you know, some PR tools and stuff, but that would be available to the general public And would we benefit from something like that?

Andie Mercer [00:07:19] I think I think we’re almost headed in that direction because I feel like I look at my little brother’s age group and know he’s not that far behind me, but his age group, they don’t post as much as like my age group on Instagram and Twitter. And so I kind of wonder if there is that overkill with too many options that it’s going to turn into either everyone’s kind of leaving social media or it’ll be one app that kind of takes over everything.

Makayla Roberts [00:08:03] Yeah, I can agree with that. I can.

Tom Garrity [00:08:06] Go ahead.

Makayla Roberts [00:08:08] I can agree with Andy on that point because, I mean, I have younger siblings that are in middle school and high school right now. And I mean, there’s a new app for everything, every, you know, so often that they bounce back and forth between all of them all the time. And I think it kind of causes a little bit of a burnout for them. I mean, granted, they are the social media generation and they run it. But, you know, I think getting to that one that allows like you were saying, Tom, allows you to do everything in anything on all of them. I think it’ll be a game changer if that comes out.

Tom Garrity [00:08:47] Okay. So shifting the conversation to who’s going to benefit and you know, are the influencers going to benefit? Are the are the business accounts going to benefit or are the you know, who who’s going to who’s going to win? With threads. Who’s going to win there?

Andie Mercer [00:09:14] Think everyone, everyone. I don’t know that. I think it’s whoever takes advantage of it, because I think that businesses and influencers like it just gives you another means to, you know, have a voice, share your information. I think Threads has a lot of followers on it, a lot of users. And so I think as with any social media, it is what you make of it.

Tom Garrity [00:09:47] Good. Mikayla, who wins or doesn’t?

Makayla Roberts [00:09:52] Yeah, I think it’s really what you make of it, like Andy said. But I think a lot of businesses can, you know, profit from it if they find that strategic balance between authentic and also providing value to those followers. Because coming in from Instagram, they’ll have that following that they’ve already been targeting. But if they, you know, connect with them on a little bit of a more personal, authentic, you know, feel of threads kind of just throwing things out there, you know, in real time, but also providing them value from their company. I think they’ll really benefit from that strategic balance of in between.

Tom Garrity [00:10:34] Interesting. Yeah. You know, as I was listening to both of you, I was thinking about our current clients, and there’s one in particular. I’m going to call him out. Balloon fiesta. Okay. And I know that we have had numerous conversations internally about, you know, how should we if all those questions, which I think are great questions to ask, because it’s like, does you know, how can we amplify the balloon Fiesta voice? And whereas we use Twitter to communicate mainly with news media, provide traffic updates, things that are going on outside of the park in coming in. I think that Threads provides events in general, not necessarily balloon fiesta, but events in general to engage their audience almost from an insider perspective to say, hey, you know, you want that perfect sunrise shot is happening now from launch sites H11. And, you know, have people kind of let them know where the great shots are coming from to help them amplify their own personal accounts. I don’t know. I don’t know. I can tell that based on the silence of the looks, because we were recording on Zoom. But we’re just all you’re getting today is the is the audio portion. Any anything. I could call anyone out. But anybody have anything else to add to this conversation on threads for today.

Andie Mercer [00:12:09] No, I think it was a good conversation.

Tom Garrity [00:12:13] You do? All right. Well, very good. Well, I think that we have a good precedent to go ahead and continue these conversations on the Perception podcast. For more information about the Garrity Group, be sure to visit our website GarrityPR.com. And thanks for joining us today.

Published July 24, 2023

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