Instagram’s Threads app is the latest and fastest growing social media platform. With all the buzz about the Threads app you might be wondering, "Should my small business be on it?"
In this video and below, I'll share 3 questions to consider before deciding if your handmade business should jump onto the latest new social media platform - whether that’s the Meta Threads app or any new social media channel that appears.
Plus, learn where you should be focusing MOST of your efforts when it comes to marketing your creative small business.
In case you haven’t heard of the Threads app yet, in early July 2023 Meta (the parent company of Instagram and Facebook) debuted Threads app as a competitor to Twitter.
To access the Threads app, you simply log in with your Instagram account, which made it become one of the fastest growing social media platforms EVER, with more than 100 million users just 5 days after launching.
Maybe this feels familiar? Like back when TikTok was suddenly going through explosive growth and it seemed like you HAD to join or you'd be missing out?
But what if the familiar feeling you feel is OVERWHELM?
Many of the small business owners I speak to already feel overwhelmed by all of the different social media platforms out there and their constant algorithm changes. Especially as a solopreneur or small business, it can be hard to keep up!
3 questions to ask yourself before joining a new social media platform as a small business:
Before you dive into the latest new trending social media platform, whether it’s Threads or any other new platform, ask yourself these 3 questions:
Do you have the bandwidth to manage a new social media channel?
Is your ideal customer on that channel?
Do you genuinely want to participate in this new social media platform?
I'm going to dive a little bit deeper into these three questions. But let me just say first, it's totally okay to check out a new platform and experiment with it to see if you enjoy it and if your target customer is using it.
If you as an individual person want to experiment with the latest new social media platform, whether it's Threads, TikTok or whatever happens next, I encourage you to check it out for yourself.
But when it comes to using it in your business, you’ll want to carefully consider where it fits into your overall business model AND your marketing strategy.
Do you have the bandwidth to manage a new social media channel?
The handmade business owners that I typically work with are often solopreneurs. They are single owner small business owners, and they often don't have help. And if they do have help, it's one or two people, and they don't have the capacity to be on every single social media channel that exists.
When I ask the question of "Do you have the bandwidth to manage yet one more social media channel?," I mean bandwidth in a lot of different ways.
I mean actual time in the day, as there are only 24 hours. (And no matter what they say about how Beyonce has the same 24 hours as the rest of us, she also has a lot of money and a lot of people that can help her out!)
But I'm not only talking about the actual time it takes or the amount of money that you could pay somebody to manage that platform for you. I'm also talking about the mental and emotional bandwidth.
Many of the small business owners that I work with are often drained emotionally and mentally by spending their time scrambling and stretching themselves too thin among so many social media platforms.
My advice to people who feel like that is to narrow it down and say no to platforms and things in your business that don't bring you energy and don't have a return on investment for you in all of the ways that that means.
For me personally, I have not yet joined Threads app, and I don't plan to do so anytime in the near future. Threads is a direct competitor to Twitter. While I've had a Twitter account, Twitter has never been one of my favorite platforms. Short form written content that just disappears immediately is not where my zone of genius is. It's not what brings me energy. Things like Twitter and Threads drain my energy. If you feel the same, I encourage you to think twice about jumping on the Threads app bandwagon.
Is your ideal customer on the hot new social media platform?
Next let's talk about the question of is your ideal customer on the latest new social media channel.
Now with Threads app, of course it’s grown so rapidly and there are so many people who are technically on it. Within five days, Instagram’s Threads had 100 million users already. But just because somebody signed up on the platform, are they actively using it past that initial first few days or weeks, once the buzz dies down? I've seen news articles on sites like CNBC and Gizmodo talking about how the engagement rates on Threads have already started to dip.
On short form content platforms like Threads, Twitter and Tiktok, you create these bite-sized nuggets of information which, quite frankly, can take a lot of time to create. But then they sort of disappear pretty quickly too, and you have to wonder... is all of that work worth it?
And truly - for some brands and for some audiences, it IS worth it. But if your ideal customer isn't on that platform and isn't going to engage with your content there, is being on that social media platform really going to have a valuable return on investment for your handmade business?
Do you genuinely want to participate in this new social media platform?
Now, I'm all for experimentation. If it brings you energy to experiment and play around and see if your ideal customer is indeed there on the latest platform, go dive deep into that blue ocean of possibility.
But if the hottest new social media app doesn't excite you, then I give you permission to skip it.
Whether it's Threads app, or any other new social platform, is it something that really excites you and interest you? Or do you feel like you should do it?
Feeling like you should be on a platform because someone told you to or because the world is telling you, "You're gonna miss the boat if you don't get on this social media platform for your business," isn't a valid reason to do anything.
Life is short.
And if you've ever spent any amount of time on any social media platform, I'm sure you understand how easy it can be to waste hours of the day, just going down endless rabbit holes.
If exploring those rabbit holes on Threads, TikTok or whatever social media platform is next really excites you and lights you up and makes you feel good, then go for it.
But if the thought of joining Threads or any social media platform fills you with dread, it's not worth it.
A better way to prioritize where to focus your small business marketing efforts.
When I work with handmade business owners, I like to introduce them to this framework that I call the Badass Creatives Marketing Pyramid. It's a helpful tool for thinking about what you should be focusing on first:
At the bottom of the Marketing Pyramid is your foundation, your brand.
Your brand includes all the things that make your business uniquely yours. It's your products, your art, your creative vision, your brand identity. It includes the voice and the tone that you use to communicate with your customers, as well as the visual brand like your logo, your colors, your fonts, and your aesthetic. Your brand also includes your ideal customer and your target audience.
Your brand is your foundation. It's the thing that everything else is built upon.
The middle of the pyramid is your owned marketing channels.
Your owned marketing channels are all the things that you own and can control in your business. These are things like your website, your email marketing list, your search engine optimization, and your blog on your website. These are things that you have control over. They are assets that you can continue to grow and build and develop that will continue to bring profit and revenue.
And at the top of the pyramid, we have 3rd party marketing channels. Third party is just what it sounds like: it's another person or entity.
Third party is also valuable, but it's at the top of the pyramid for a reason. Third party includes things like social media platforms, paid ads, working with influencers, getting press and publicity for your business.
One of the mistakes that I see a lot of small business owners and handmade businesses make is that they start a business and they know that they need to market it. They're familiar with social media from using it as an individual user. And so they immediately gravitate towards social media as their primary marketing strategy. But these things are in the third party, the top of the pyramid. And they haven't built the foundation of their pyramid yet.
First, we should be focusing on creating a strong brand and our owned marketing channels before we try to focus on 3rd party marketing tools.
If you already have a strong idea of what your brand is, who your ideal customer is, if you have a really great website, you've taken care of search engine optimization, and you have a strong email marketing list that you have direct contact with your customers... and you also feel confident and like you have the time and the energy and you want to be on Threads or whatever new social media platform, then go for it.
But I encourage you to consider these questions before you dive headfirst into the latest, greatest, hottest new social media platform, whether that's Instagram's Threads app or the next thing that comes along.
Looking for more marketing advice for creative small business owners?
Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more handmade business marketing tips, or check out the Badass Creatives Marketing Accelerator, where I focus on mindful marketing, based on the Marketing Pyramid that I just described.
I'd love to help you grow your handmade business and market your products in a way that feels sustainable for you to manage over the long term.
