What’s the first thing you do when you wake up? Do you like chunky peanut butter or smooth? How old were you when you sold your first house?
The best part about it was these brilliant questions and statements garnered an enormous amount of engagement and actually sparked conversations. As one user pointed out, the fun-loving energy at launch was like being on AOL Instant Messenger at 9:00 pm on a Wednesday school night in 2003. It was fun seeing your Instagram friends pop up as new followers. Likes and comments poured in with every refresh. Dopamine and euphoria were at an all-time high, and all of the social media gurus (including me) were ready to declare Threads as the new frontier for brand growth…
Fast-forward to today, just three weeks after its launch, and Threads feels like a wasteland of hustle entrepreneurs, brand managers, meme admins (again including me), and Grant Cardone reposting his Tweets. Right now, the most interesting thing about the app is that it’s not interesting anymore and the main “conversation” seems to ironically be about its own death.
So, what happened?
The Fall of Threads
From personal experience, there is a direct correlation between how much I post and how much engagement I’m getting. If Instagram is giving me that juice, you bet your ass I’m going to upload more frequently. If IG is against me (or my content sucks), I pull back and get more tentative as I try to figure out whatever new algorithmic twist just took place.
Same thing with Threads. It certainly isn’t fun to post if nobody responds, and the private party it felt like at the beginning no longer exists. Yes, they surpassed 100 million users in five days as we saw from every media headline as they gleefully celebrated, “The Death of Twitter!?”
Do you know what comes with more users? Less engagement. Now we are competing with hundreds of millions of other people asking us if we prefer cold showers or hot showers.
Should Agents Still Be on Threads?
My gut feeling is yes. I want to emphasize that we are so early on this platform. Zuckerberg is an insufferable genius and understands human behavior better than most, despite being an actual cyborg. Meta will continue to evolve the app to meet the needs and requests of its users and find new ways to grab attention. For example, just yesterday they already announced some highly-requested changes including a “Following Feed.”
I would not abandon the app just because the buzz wore off. As you know, it’s good to have real estate where there are a lot of people in an “up and coming” neighborhood. Brand growth can still happen during this network’s “bear market,” and it’s smart to maintain a presence, test content, and make connections. As the noise dies down because fewer people are posting, that means you can show up more in people’s feeds.
Now, would I spend an enormous amount of time on Threads? Probably not. I wouldn’t let time on Threads take away energy from building a hyper-local YouTube channel, your Instagram, or most importantly, your email list. These are proven platforms that convert, and I doubt you’re going to find your next buyer on Threads anytime soon. But, it’s important to understand that these platforms go in cycles.
When TikTok came on the scene, and Gary Vee couldn’t go one sentence without singing its praises, it was labeled as an Instagram killer. Now, with all the data mining, bans, and questionable content it feels like there’s been a shift back to Instagram (which has copied everything that TikTok does anyway). Going all-in on TikTok is starting to feel like investing in a risky cryptocurrency that could absolutely MOON or leave you in complete ruin if you don’t grow anywhere else.
Twitter, on the other hand, feels more volatile than ever under Elon Musk. With its psychotic rebrand to “X,” Elon announced that he wants to turn Twitter into an “everything app” with photos, videos, audio, payments, and a global marketplace. Also, TikTok is now allowing text-based posts to combat Threads, and Twitter and Instagram have become the Thanos of social networks, Infinity stoning the best features of every app.
The Social Platforms Real Estate Agents Should Focus On
What does all of this mean?
I’ll start by saying I have no idea. The amount of platforms is overwhelming and daunting enough for full-time content creators, let alone people who are showing actual houses, doing deals, and who live actual lives.
However, as real estate brands, I do believe that it is important to be “everywhere.” As you have seen, these platforms go in and out of popularity, and all seem to be trying to become giant social network hybrids that do literally everything. It’s a mistake to go all-in on TikTok just like it’s a mistake to go all-in on Threads, Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube, or whatever new hell gets thrown in our faces next. You should have real estate on all the major platforms to maximize your potential to grow your brand and reach new clients. But, you shouldn’t allocate your time equally.
Hit Facebook for the older demographic, and frequent groups for referrals and idea-sharing with other agents.
Build a local YouTube channel for long-form content that builds trust and high conversion rates.
Instagram still feels like the most versatile business card and brand-builder.
Go on TikTok to seek out trends and to potentially catch virality and a younger demographic.
Use Twitter to workshop thoughts, test content, and search real estate news stories that you can use for other content.
And finally, stick around on Threads and see what happens for the reasons I mentioned above.
Frankly, It’s all exhausting and very difficult to keep up with. Go outside and get a tan. It’s summer. There’s no algorithm, and there’s only one sun.
May the force be with you all.
If you don’t want to go to at this alone, I highly recommend joining our community.
