Threads for the Real Estate Industry: My Initial Thoughts on Meta’s New App

Meta just launched its new text conversation app, Threads. The slogan? “Say more with Threads.” 

At this point, it’s too soon to tell whether this will attract more devoted users than its chief competitor, Twitter. With 10 million signups in its first 7 hours, it’s off to a strong start. 

When @mikedavismma asked if anyone thinks Threads will become bigger than Twitter,  Zuckerberg was one of the first to respond:

But Zuckerberg didn’t stop there. He even posted his first Tweet in over a decade after Threads went live:

It didn’t take long for Elon Musk to respond:

Of course, this all comes two weeks after Musk challenged Zuckerberg to a cage match. Truly incredible timing. Whether it happens in Vegas or in the Roman Colosseum, it’ll be interesting to see how users of both apps react to it. 

But enough about the battle of the tech Titans. Let’s get into Threads for the real estate industry.

My Initial Thoughts on Threads

I downloaded Threads as soon as it went live and spent the next eight hours glued to my phone. We’ll call it research for this post. The dopamine rush is real—a new app, with built-in followers from Instagram, means my phone is buzzing every few seconds with new followers, new likes, new activity. Pro tip: turn off your Threads notifications immediately, or you will get pinged every five seconds as new people join and automatically follow you from Instagram.

If you haven’t already gotten on the platform, follow these steps immediately:

• Download Threads from the App Store
• Login with Instagram and Follow all the People You’re Following
• Make sure you follow @thebrokeagent and @nowbam
• Consume the content and get a feel for it
• Start posting (Tweeting? Threading?) Whatever, just go stream-of-consciousness text and see where it takes you.  

Having spent all night and all morning on the app, here are my initial thoughts:

1. I feel way more free about what I can say and am excited to mix up the content. This is not your overly curated Instagram Feed, and you’re not trapped by the real estate Instagram algorithm and niche. Sure, your initial followers will be who followed you on Instagram, but who cares what type of engagement you get initially on Threads? 
2. This could be a great place to test new content or ideas, especially for things you’ve been holding off posting on Instagram. See what resonates with your audience, and then tweak it for your IG Feed or share it directly from Threads (although the Thread background is diabolical).
3. Building a following and community on Threads will likely result in more followers on Instagram. Since the two are linked, you can follow people on Instagram directly from Threads. So, this can be a great opportunity to create and engage with new communities and to get your brand in front of accounts that wouldn’t otherwise see you on Instagram.
4. It’s easy to use, fun, and extremely addicting. I’ve refreshed 50 times while writing this and the engagement is bananas. 
5. It’s overwhelming AF. As a content creator, this is yet another place to post. My anxiety is already through the roof writing this because I need to figure out how to build The BA and BAM brand on this new app. I will use a lot of what I learned from Twitter, but there will definitely be a learning curve. Truthfully, I wish it would just go away even though I’m having fun on it. 

How to Use Threads

Basically, it’s Instagram’s version of Twitter. 

For anyone looking to build your brand or a stronger online community, I recommend getting on Threads ASAP. It’s good to capitalize on early adoption and the virality of replies can be great for awareness. 

So far, and it’s only been a day, it’s cleaner than Twitter, with fewer political rants and more community-minded posts. This could be a testament to bringing over your followers from Instagram because you automatically have a built-in following who already knows and likes you. 

Also, the network hasn’t been flooded yet with crypto bots, ads, links, and spammers. I’m sure that’s coming.

Let’s get into some early dos and don’ts for Threads even though I have no idea what I’m doing yet.

• DON’T repost the exact same things you post on Instagram or Twitter. Of course, you CAN do this, but people who already follow you on the other apps probably want to see new stuff. But, I’m definitely going to be publishing some of the BA greatest hits to get exposure to a new audience. So maybe do this sparingly? Again, I don’t know yet.
• DO increase the volume. I don’t think Threads are meant to be highly curated. They’re meant to open up conversations and connect with people. On Instagram, it would be insane to post 15-20 times per day. On Threads, this seems like it will be par for the course. 
• DON’T share your Threads to your Instagram FEED. There’s an option to do this, but as of right now, it’s got a Threads watermark that doesn’t look clean and could hurt engagement (thanks Jason Cassity for testing this out). I don’t think it’s going to get the “new feature bump” and it’s probably more visually appealing to just screenshot it. But, again…I don’t know.

• DO think about best practices you’ve learned from Twitter. Chances are, things will be similar on Threads. Think Retweet, Quote Tweet, etc. 

And if you’re looking for DOs and DON’Ts for Instagram, check out my new ebook here. I can’t believe I’m going to have to do another one on Threads in a couple of months… it never ends.

Again, I want to emphasize that I am aware of how overwhelming this is. If you’re reading this you’re probably a Realtor showing actual houses and not a full-time content creator. So while it’s important to get on early and be an early adopter, don’t feel the need to do everything on every platform. I doubt you’ll be picking up leads from Threads anytime soon… but maybe referrals from other agents? 

I’ll keep you updated as things change. In the meantime, test it out and let me know what you think over on Threads.