Meta's Threads and microblogging (Blog #49)

Thank you for visiting my blog, which this week is about my recent experience posting on Threads, Meta's answer to X (formerly known as Twitter).

I have been a social media user for 15 or more years starting, as most people did around then, with Facebook. I then dipped my toe into what proved to be the toxic water of Twitter. This year I deleted my X account. I have a quite active Instagram presence, using it to showcase my burgeoning smartphone photography career. This year I opened a Threads account. More about that later.

Around 18-months ago I started blogging, which has taken me in all sorts of different directions. Reading around the world of blogging has been fascinating.

Until recently I was using Threads more or less as an extension of Instagram, posting photos on the latter and then also sharing to Threads. I occasionally posted words on Threads that weren't accompanied by a photo. My photos, plus or minus words, rarely attracted more than a handful of likes. I then read somewhere that users should treat Threads as a microblogging site. Interesting, I thought.

Last week I was looking around to buy a new car, an electric one I thought. I posted something on Threads as a way of getting other people's experiences. Forty plus replies, way more than for any of my previous posts. Then a couple of days ago I posted something about getting my Covid booster 3-weeks after testing positive. Well that really got things going, almost 300 replies in 36 hours. 

Now I am not saying that these figures on their own represent my popularity on Threads - I currently only have a rather disappointing 140 followers - but it does illustrate how clearly some topics are definitely more engaging than others.

I use Threads to connect with people, people like me, hopefully, mostly photographers and travellers. 

I won't be posting any photography on Threads unless it is very relevant to the topic, but will be using it as a microblogging site in the hope that what I say somehow catches other people's attention.

Thanks for reading this blog. Please post a comment, tell your friends, and share.

You can view my photography on Instagram @smart_phone_photographer_53, and read my micro blogs on Threads, also at @smart_phone_photographer_53.

© Mike Young 2024.