Welcome to the first of AGM's 5-part series about Meta's new Threads social network. In this series we'll cover our approach to strategy, owned media, paid media, creative, and -finally - earned media. We'll publish a new post every day this week.

The launch of Meta's new Twitter competitor, Threads, has been a major topic of conversation for the last few weeks, unsurprisingly so. After all, the app gained 100M sign ups its first week. While millions of consumers were joining the new platform, brands were also making their debuts.

This is the first time we've had a brand-new major platform (as opposed to one that launched small and got big). How should brands approach it?

Hello, organic panic

While it seems like marketing professionals could instinctively dive into another Meta platform with the same strategies used on Facebook or Instagram, Threads is a completely different animal, requiring a different approach. In addition to Threads being a text-based platform, perhaps the biggest challenge for brands upon launch is its current lack of advertising capability. Hello, organic panic! Add to that an algorithm that (for now) exclusively focuses on for-you content, and the requirement for a unique strategy becomes even more apparent.

Opportunity to reassess

At AGM, we embrace innovation, and we see the emergence of a major new platform as an opportunity to reassess a brand's overall marketing strategy and how the new platform fits into it. We start by taking these factors into consideration:

• Should we?
  • We need to think through, with our colleagues and clients, how this new platform meshes with our brand and products, not only as an organic platform, but for partnerships and influencers, and (soon enough) for paid advertising. How does it sit alongside our other marketing levers? Do we want to be there? Do we need to be there? We evaluate the landscape to understand competitive presence, and areas of opportunity upon which we could capitalize in the new environment.
• Resources
  • Activating on a new social platform requires careful oversight and management, which takes both human and financial resources. "Set it and forget it" is not an approach we recommend. Does your agency or in-house team have the bandwidth and budget to meaningfully take on a new platform? If not, will you dial back participation in another platform, seek incremental budgets, etc.?
• Testing
  • Before activating in any new environment, we revisit our overarching testing strategy and assess the implications of introducing a new platform. This will impact several variables within a testing plan, not least of which are the overall testing timeline and roadmap, tracking and measurement methodology, and implementation of test results. This assessment ensures we're thoughtfully and accurately measuring the impact of our efforts and can pivot our approach accordingly.
• Product evolution
  • Platforms change and evolve - especially new ones. The current iteration of Threads is not what it will be a year or even a few months from now. Threads has already announced plans to introduce paid advertising and a "Following" feed. At AGM, we look ahead - considering how these notches along the product roadmap will impact our platform strategy and preparing for their integration.

Incorporating a major new social platform should trigger a reassessment of current strategies and, most likely, the implementation of new ones. Activation without careful consideration is potentially wasteful of time, budget, and brand sentiment. Doing it right is worth the effort. Want to learn more about how we develop strategies for brands entering new landscapes like Threads? Get in touch.

And come back tomorrow for how we see Threads impacting Owned strategy!