Threads: The Opportunity for Organic Growth in a Pay-to-Play World

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:00

Welcome to The Circle Sessions featuring The Circle Of Experts. The Circle Of Experts are Yasmine Robles from Robles Designs. Tonnisha English Amamoo of TJE Communications and Don The Idea Guy. I'm Brett Johnson from Circle 270 Media Podcast Consultants. Each week, one of the Circle Of Experts joins me to talk about some critical aspects of growing your podcast. We focus on marketing social media, monetization, and website design with the idea of implementing all of these together. This week, Tonnisha is here from the circle of experts She's on a mission to help small businesses level the playing field through digital marketing solutions. Tonnisha, thanks for joining me today.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo

Yes. As always, thank you for having me. And such great timing.

Brett Johnson

This is what I love about podcasting. We can talk about stuff that just happens like, yesterday and -- Yeah. -- like Literally. Yeah. Exactly. Like yesterday, July 5, Threads opened up. So so let's set the stage. What is Threads? I know you know more about it than I do. I forgot all about it, quite frankly. But Let's let's talk about Threads and what you're seeing of it to how how it began. What what is the purpose of Threads?

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:01:14

: 2023

Brett Johnson [: 00:03:16

which is crazy. The last the last update I saw was 5,000,000. Oh my gosh.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:03:21

Yeah. 30,000,000 as of Thursday morning. I think they said within the first, like, few hours yeah. The first 2 hours, there were 2,000,000 sign ups. in the first 2 hours. Wow. So, I mean, I think Twitter right now has about 250,000,000 of users. So, I mean, their threads is on its way. Right now, it's available in a 100 countries. And it's essentially very, very similar to Twitter, except the character count there is 500 characters per post. versus on Twitter, it's 280. So you can post a lot more, more thoughts And, I mean, people are loving it. They a lot of people are adapting the app super early, I think, because with the connection with Instagram, I mean, it's only a few clicks and you're already signed up. You don't have to rewrite your bio. or find your friends to follow, like, it already implements all of the things from Instagram over to threads, which I think has made it a lot easier for people to sign up.

Brett Johnson [: 00:04:33

Right. So I'll I'll two two questions that are one's gonna pertain Twitter and one's gonna pertain pertain 2 threads. So let's say on Twitter, you still have a following. You're still you're still kicking butt with social media on Twitter. Yeah. what what would you suggest if you have a client that it that's so inclined to stay there that it's been good for them. It's been a very safe zone. They've not gotten into the fray of all the negativity, but it's working for them. What would be the strategy moving forward now using Twitter?

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:05:05

Man, I would say moving forward with Twitter, it's still unknown, and I think that is kind of the the beauty yet the scariness of social media is that Twitter where it once was this super established, like, legacy Twitter or, you know, legacy social media platform. There's been so many changes and so many uncertainties that I think you would be doing yourself a disservice to kinda, like, stick your, you know, head in the sand and say, you know what? I like it here. I'm gonna stay here, and that's it. I mean, we talk about that with social media in general, as you all know. I love social media. You know? That's my job. However, You have to remember that we don't own any of this. Like, anything that we post and share on these apps are not ours. I think with threads, what made it a lot easier for creators or business owners is that if you do decide to create a thread, anybody that you're already following can be pulled over into threads. And if they're already following you, when you sign when those people sign up, it will suggest that you either wanna start from scratch or you just wanna follow all of your people from Instagram. And most people are choosing to follow people that they already follow on Instagram. So you're able to essentially bring that following with you versus, you know, on Twitter. That's not something that is happening. right now. You're you're still you have to build it all by hand. There are also a ton of other new platforms like Spoutable, which we've talked about. but they didn't have that feature where you can pull in your your people from Twitter. So I just think that anybody that's using social media Just have to remember that you don't own it. So if you know, just like Elon said, if he's gonna take you now from seeing 600 tweets a day to maybe tomorrow. It's only a 100. You don't have a say so over that. So you just have to remember that these platforms are there to help you be able to grow whatever it is that you're doing, but they should not be the end all be all to your getting strategy at all. Okay. So let's look at the new beginnings of threads then, not many of us.

Brett Johnson [: 00:07:32

have been at the very beginning of a new social media platform. How do you how do you approach it? How what you know, what stages do we look at this over the next week, over the next 2 weeks, 3 weeks, month, 2 months? How do we look at this from a get go of like, okay. This is brand new. It's uncharted waters for everyone. How do we how do we approach using it then?

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:07:56

Yeah. And if you miss that with for me, I am I'll be 32 this year. So I remember when Facebook first started, and you, you know, first got in there. I remember when Twitter and Instagram first started. I'm in, like, middle school and high school getting in these apps. And the the great thing is that you are now what's considered an early adapter to to the app. So right now, there aren't too many rules and regulations. And this is also how a lot of people was able to grow their Instagram or their TikToks early on because there really wasn't a true algorithm. Everything was organic versus what's happening on Facebook or even now Twitter is that you have to pay to get seen anywhere. I mean, we even see it already happening on Instagram as well where you gotta pay to be seen or you have to jump through all these hoops to be seen on on the timeline. So right now, this is your chance to organically grow and build your audience. So if you are on threads or you or even if you're not, I definitely recommend you find the people that you either are already following on Instagram or other social media apps. Find the people that you wanna be engaged with because everything right now is organic. And so that means this is, like, the prime time to grow your audience when apps are fresh, Everything's organic. It's not pay to play yet. Snowing mark, though, it will be at some point. So take advantage of the fact that as of right now, it's kind of a free for all, really. So this is the time to test things out and see what sticks.

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:47

And I also see and I also feel let's put it that way that with a new social media app, there's a a mat not a maturation, but much more professional look at how to jump in with this than -- Mhmm. -- before because we've had so much social media expertise and people that like you are so at such an expert in it, they're jumping in much differently than just going, hey. This is a new app. This looks like fun. No. There's probably strategy plans being implemented right now on how to use this app immediately.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:10:21

yeah, I've seen so many people already, you know, talking about, you know, how they're gonna pretty much transform their brands and their businesses now using this platform. Threads is very similar to you know, like, if you all have ever seen, like, a Twitter thread, when somebody will make a post, and then a bunch of people will comment under it. You know, we called those threads, and that's pretty much what this is. So people can post a a long I mean, I think 500 characters is a lot compared to you know, what we have on Twitter. So you can post it. I mean, a nice chunk of content and just be able to see people engage on it. I've even gotten followers already just because I've, you know, laughed at something that somebody posted. Of course, there's so many jokes going on about, you know, the death of Twitter and all that stuff. So, yeah, I mean, a lot of people are already figuring out how they are gonna utilize this platform to grow their business. And they're doing that from the jump versus, like, what you said. Usually, we come into these apps, and it's all fun. And then you start thinking about how to, you know, utilize a your business, but a lot of people are doing it the the opposite way.

Brett Johnson [: 00:11:42

Right. So let's talk about the the the nuances around threads. You you mentioned 500 characters. Mhmm. Can you put a link in there? Will it become a hot link? Or Instagram, you couldn't Will threads allow a hot link? And what are some other things that you can do that maybe Instagram wasn't doing for you? But at the same time, you're used to what Twitter did, and you can do it on threads.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:12:05

Yeah. Yeah. So threads is allowing links for what I've seen, which is nice. Right now, there is not a feature to, like, direct message anyone, but that could probably change. But before the day is over, If you did use your Instagram to create your thread account, people can if they're on your Instagram, can see the link to your thread. If they're on your thread, they can see the little Instagram button that will take them to your Instagram. So that's also great as well. For verification purposes too, just so people know, like, this is the actual person that I wanna be connected with, which is really cool. You can post videos and gifts and all that stuff just as you would in also appears that anybody who was verified on Instagram automatically already have their verification set up in threads. which is great for, you know, people who are already paying for Meta or who may have gotten verified through Instagram.

Brett Johnson [: 00:13:10

Gotcha. And I and I I'm assuming it's the same concept of think about what you're posting on this platform. in in keeping in mind why people are on the platform. They're -- Mhmm. -- they're to scroll. They're there for quick entertainment. They're not there really for full episode of a podcast per se. There may be a snippet of a podcast, so you're kind of in that same mode. It's not a platform for a full length video or a full length audio piece. It's still that feel of instant gratification, instant gratification. So that that's that's a strategy in itself as well too.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:13:46

Yeah. Yeah. For sure. It definitely appears that people are to be honest, people are looking for a Twitter replacement. that's what's happening right now. There was another app that I kinda checked out. It was called spill. which was supposed to be kinda like a Twitter replacement, and it mostly is, like, memes and gyps. Of course, spoutable we talked about. But people are looking for a Twitter replacement. I mean, people just are not happy with what what Twitter has become. And I think it sucks because I think Twitter is such a cool, unique platform. But, you know, people are you know, today, people really care about the leadership and what, you know, these organizations and companies stand for and what they're all about. and people are just not a fan of Elon Musk. They're they're they're not. And I think a lot of that has to do with a Twitter employee. because a lot of these newer apps have been created by former Twitter employees, and that's how SPIL came about. And now with Mark, I mean, he's he's a competitor. So he's gonna, you know, compete. I mean, he already did it with Instagram Real from TikTok and stories from Snapchat, and now threads is basically Twitter. Right. Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:15:11

Right? And I would assume down the road, if it's whether it's happened today or the next week, you should be able to access threads in your business suite if you have a business level -- Oh, yeah. I'm sure. -- to be able to post through there to cross promote. I as we're talking right now, I'm seeing it and this being July 6th, but that doesn't mean July 7th. It's not incorporated very quickly. I would think so because they want you to live in their

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:15:36

suite of planning for the calendars and all that kind of stuff. So I imagine we'll see it pretty soon in regards to that. And I'm sure the other major scheduling tools like, you know, Sprout Social, Hootsuite. All those people too are probably working on you know, they're back in to be able to as soon as Mark gives them the thumbs up, to be able to allow people to schedule threats. Right. Absolutely. Yeah. But I just think that for anybody right now, even if I mean, because I I posted, like, one thread. I reposted some things. So right now, I'm kinda just checking it out, you know, seeing what's there, what's happening. And I think at best, anybody should at least do that. Just get on there, look around, play around, see what's going on, And we can honestly expect that probably by the day, if not by the minute, things are gonna be changing over there. So it's better to just hop in and learn as the platform changes, then, you know, we we've had people who we're late to TikTok, and, you know, we're really behind in the TikTok world. So This is a great time to to jump on something new and just just see. And to see how you can find a way to incorporate this into your current content strategy, which, honestly, I feel like if you just started today, You could probably just utilize your Twitter slash Instagram strategy, kinda combine the two

Brett Johnson [: 00:17:14

2.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:17:15

and that is what I think you should at least start with on threads right now.

Brett Johnson [: 00:17:20

That makes sense. Yeah. I agree. Well, if the listener has any other questions that can they contact you in any way just to kinda say, hey. I had this idea. What do you think? What would be the best way to contact you? Yes. Yes. You can always schedule a free consultation

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:17:35

through my website, which is www.tjecommunications.com. You can also follow me on Instagram @tjecom And I am on threads as Tje's CEO, if you wanna follow me there as well. And, you know, we're all we're all learning as we go. So if there's any, like, marketers out there telling you, hey. Buy this course to grow your threads. They're lying because nobody knows, because it's So just get in there and play around, but I'm definitely happy to to bounce ideas

Brett Johnson [: 00:18:10

and chat about, you know, potential strategies for sure. Yes. That's that's a really that's a really good point I hadn't thought about the the overnight. There's gonna be so many people doing that. The overnight expert within a week. Yeah. Exactly. Good grief. Yeah. My gosh. Yeah. And if you get any questions about what you're doing with your podcast in regards to threads, you can get a hold of of Tonnisha as well through that or get a hold of me, www.mypodcast guy.com. I'm also on threads as of last night. Somebody pulled me in. I saw saw the feed on Twitter hey. I'm there now. I'm going and it was a trusted person. I'm going, okay. I'll follow. I'll follow you. If you're there, then there's something I I do want. And he was just very much a a person not liking Twitter as well. So I think he was -- Yeah. -- ready to abandon that platform. But I'm there as well at with @circle270media as well. So Join us. Make sure you're on there. And and as Tanisha said, play around and but contact either Tonnisha or myself in regards to, you know, that she's got the social media covered, and we can get you some ideas for podcasting as well from Circle 27 Media Podcast Consultants.