A look at Meta's struggles to attract influencers to Threads, due to the platform's focus on text and its lack of a clear purpose for users
Threads is a place for everyone. No following required. Matthew Facciani / @matthewfacciani : The lack of “content creators” and “influencers” on Threads is probably one of its biggest selling points. Threads is focused on building communities and having conversations. It's not about broadcasting to an audience and never engaging with them. Renee DiResta / @renee.diresta : Influencers have emerged *from* most other platforms because the platform has a product vision and people good at creating that type of content thrive and grow a following. Maybe instead of trying to get the image and video set here (ppl a lot of users of text platforms don't care about anyway), recruit text poasters from Twitter with rev share. … Tanya Hayles / @thetanyahayles : THIS LAST SENTENCE ESPECIALLY! Threads is a text based app (the video player on here says everything). Text based creators don't want to make videos. If we did - we would be on TikTok or YT. This isn't rocket science. Why are they making it so hard. It's not IG influencers you need to convince. … Taylor Lorenz / @taylorlorenz : Agree, and Threads seems to believe they can get people who were never Twitter users (and I think they can!) but they're still missing that core group of text focused creators and I don't think the platform will ever be able to differentiate itself without a group of native creators and a breakout moment Donald Richard / @donaldrichard : Interesting article on how established content creators and agencies view Threads https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... @spudz_yt : The biggest problem that I think Threads has with attracting content creators is that the majority of users are still in Twitter. I tried leaving Twitter for 6 months and have recently gone back a little bit because I miss the community around my main game. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Brian Penny / @thebrianpenny : I don't think it's true that Threads is less toxic than Twitter. This place is filled with toxic people tbh. Dimitry Mak / @dimitrymakphoto : Okay, but I remember reading the same articles about TikTok when it first launched. Everyone was reluctant to join and didn't take it seriously, dismissing it as just a lip-syncing app. Lia Haberman / @liahaberman : Threads is a nice place but nice doesn't pay the bills Thanks @taylorlorenz for including my thoughts on Threads, one year in https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Kathleen Matthews Schmidt / @kathmschmidt : This is not a platform for 24/7 content creators. It's a platform for dialogue. @notredameprime : X. From our performance on the two platforms, we get much more exposure on X. We only have a little over 2x the amount of followers on X despite us being up to 10x more engagement compared to Threads, I think Meta also making it super easy to get a big “following” … Jane Manchun Wong / @wongmjane : One year ago, I announced that I joined Meta as Threads was just launched. Basically started building things for Threads right after starting my first job in tech, and learning as I go It still feels weird to be the one building the features after taking them apart for the years and to go from independent to corporate. … @notredameprime : As someone who runs a different sports media company, we post our content on here mainly for the purpose of A. Exposure (Which is practically the smallest of the other platforms we post on) and B. To be different from our competitors. … Jessica McBride / @thetechsavvyassistant : Tbf, what I said was “There were too many men on X and Idk what Mastodon is.” Mastodon: @Smootasaurus@mstdn.social : In 10yrs “Meta” will be nothing but a collection of corporate customer service apps LoL. I've said this over and over but they offer no value other than access to brands. @taylorlorenz showing creators' disinterest with #threads here further supports my opinion https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... … See also Mediagazer
Washington PostTaylor Lorenz
Context & Ripple Effects
Threads' early product positioning emphasized real-time engagement while avoiding a heavy political-content emphasis, according to Mosseri's first-year account of the app's priorities. Its recommendation experience had also faced acknowledged quality problems, making distribution less predictable for people deciding where to invest their work.
The related coverage sharpens the distinction: Threads may need community builders rather than transplanted celebrity creators if conversation, rather than broadcast reach, is the product's core use case. That leaves Meta with a positioning challenge, not simply a creator-recruitment shortfall.
First-order effects
Influencers have less reason to make Threads a primary publishing channel when its text-first, conversation-led format offers no clear creator role or audience-building proposition.
Meta must choose whether to refine Threads around community participation or add clearer tools and incentives for creators; trying to serve both without a defined purpose risks muddling the experience.
Second-order effects
Creators and brands can keep prioritizing platforms whose formats, discovery systems, and monetization paths better match broadcast-oriented work, limiting the supply of high-profile posts that can seed activity on Threads.
A community-first strategy shifts the near-term competitive contest from signing recognizable personalities to improving conversation quality, recommendations, and retention among ordinary users.
Third-order effects
The case illustrates that cross-posting access and a large parent-company ecosystem do not by themselves transfer a creator economy: platform identity and distribution mechanics determine which contributors thrive.
If Threads sustains its conversational positioning, social platforms may increasingly differentiate between creator-led media feeds and community-led discussion spaces rather than converging on the same influencer playbook.
The trend: Social platforms are being forced to define a distinct contribution and discovery model as creators concentrate effort where format, audience growth, and platform purpose align.
Taylor is right. I managed to have some success building an audience on Twitter in exactly the way she describes. That lane isn't available on Threads for the reasons she outlined. I'm not seeking it here, I'm too old for that shit now. But, she's right.
I'm very frustrated by the misinterpretation of this story bc it's not what I was trying to say with this piece. I feel like a lot of nuance is being lost and I hope people can read what I actually posted about this topic on here rather than reacting to a headline and framing th…
my personal conspiracy theory is that Meta is just fine with Threads kind of being culturally irrelevant bc they're running it as a GPT training data generator not a social platform
I think one of the problems is for text based creators the niche layer density here is not very developed, for the most part. this is because Threads has too many monthly active users and not enough daily active users to make it viable. Coming here just to see because there isn'…
Without a breakout moment that shows people basically how to post, you won't get a crop of native creators with any sort of reach. That's *why* those breakout early moments were so crucial to launching the creator communities on YouTube, Twitter, IG, etc. …
The framing of this article is interesting. If Threads has grown to 175M monthly active users despite low usage by traditional “content creators,” then perhaps they're not as vital to this platform. And, with such emphasis on replies and genuine engagement, instead of content c…
I did a separate thread on all this but this is not at all what the framing of my story was! This is not accurate. The issue isn't that they aren't winning over video content creators who they don't need (The biggest creators on Twitter for ex were never the biggest creators on…
The lack of “content creators” and “influencers” on Threads is probably one of its biggest selling points. Threads is focused on building communities and having conversations. It's not about broadcasting to an audience and never engaging with them.
Influencers have emerged *from* most other platforms because the platform has a product vision and people good at creating that type of content thrive and grow a following. Maybe instead of trying to get the image and video set here (ppl a lot of users of text platforms don't ca…
THIS LAST SENTENCE ESPECIALLY! Threads is a text based app (the video player on here says everything). Text based creators don't want to make videos. If we did - we would be on TikTok or YT. This isn't rocket science. Why are they making it so hard. It's not IG influencers …
Agree, and Threads seems to believe they can get people who were never Twitter users (and I think they can!) but they're still missing that core group of text focused creators and I don't think the platform will ever be able to differentiate itself without a group of native creat…
The biggest problem that I think Threads has with attracting content creators is that the majority of users are still in Twitter. I tried leaving Twitter for 6 months and have recently gone back a little bit because I miss the community around my main game. https://www.washingto…
One thing that Apple and other big tech companies are going to have to get used to is not being able to enforce their trademarks using other parts of their business. The ‘correct’ way they'll have to do this is to notarize the app and then sue Epic for trade dress infringement. …
Okay, but I remember reading the same articles about TikTok when it first launched. Everyone was reluctant to join and didn't take it seriously, dismissing it as just a lip-syncing app.
Threads is a nice place but nice doesn't pay the bills Thanks @taylorlorenz for including my thoughts on Threads, one year in https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
X. From our performance on the two platforms, we get much more exposure on X. We only have a little over 2x the amount of followers on X despite us being up to 10x more engagement compared to Threads, I think Meta also making it super easy to get a big “following” …
One year ago, I announced that I joined Meta as Threads was just launched. Basically started building things for Threads right after starting my first job in tech, and learning as I go It still feels weird to be the one building the features after taking them apart for the years…
As someone who runs a different sports media company, we post our content on here mainly for the purpose of A. Exposure (Which is practically the smallest of the other platforms we post on) and B. To be different from our competitors. …