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Meta’s Threads is a revolutionary new platform that changes how our society communicates digitally. In the world of branding, Threads emerges as a new opportunity for thought leaders to redefine their brands.
In today’s world, developing and managing this brand is more important to staying ahead of the competition. To utilize Threads, leaders must understand how to leverage this emerging platform to benefit their brands and engage with their communities seamlessly and effectively. So how is this done? By focusing on the narrative, what conversations to have, and what really matters in the end, you.
Step 1: Craft a compelling brand narrative
Your community looks to you for information, ideas and direction in their times of need. For you to maintain your status and trust, all public communication must be kept authentic and aligned across all of your public platforms. Doing so enforces this brand narrative and helps to build a bigger community of true, trusted followers.
Threads is key to this step because their seamless operation makes it easier than ever for you to share all of your thoughts and opinions in a casual forum. Your existing audience will follow you to Threads, and they get to see a new side of you that engages in forum conversations that matter to you. Keep your narrative and messaging authentic by sharing values, visions and personal and professional goals so your audience will grow to trust and support you more than they already do. This narrative is key to distinguishing you from your competition.
Ask yourself: What is my unique perspective? By exploring a different side of your brand that you may not have shared before, you will connect with your audience on a deeper level. Using your own unique experiences, take the time to articulate your professional journey. Share the key milestones, challenges and lessons that you learned along the way. Out of this comes trust and credibility, which are two of the most important aspects of being a successful thought leader.
Related: Threads Struggles to Sustain Engagement Following the Explosive Surge in Users Upon Launch
Step 2: Engage in meaningful conversations
Engaging with your audience is key to maintaining your personal brand, but engaging in meaningful conversations helps even more. Start off by keeping up with replying to messages, comments, questions and any mentions across your social platforms. Staying engaged, even generally, with your community of trusted followers makes them feel even more connected to you as their thought leader.
Next, engage in conversations aligning with your brand narrative and ideals. Threads is the perfect platform to easily engage with your audience because of the seamlessness of operation. As it says in the name, conversations continue on a “thread” for anyone to interact with. Your audience can see a step-by-step breakdown of any meaningful conversation you engage with on threads, and you can promote it for all to get involved. The fact that Threads was created as a way to streamline communication with your pre-existing network is what makes it so perfect for expanding a personal brand.
When engaging with your community in any capacity, remember to stay true to yourself and your brand and stay informed. Making sure you are personally up to date with your industry’s most hot-topic conversations will make engaging easier than ever. To do this, regularly monitor relevant discussions and threads to identify areas where you can contribute your perspectives and insights. Keep an eye on trending hashtags and conversations across all platforms so that you are prepared for any conversation. By sharing valuable information that resonates with your community, you can establish yourself as a go-to resource for industry-related knowledge.
Another important aspect of engaging with your community is offering genuine value to your audience. Ensure you keep your audience in mind when crafting thoughtful questions that spark meaningful conversations. Then, encourage others to share their thoughts and experiences. By actively listening to the responses and providing guidance where appropriate, you can further establish yourself as a trusted authority and resource.
Related: How Threads is Transforming Social Media as We Know It
Step 3: Leverage multimedia to showcase your expertise
The last step in elevating your personal brand with Threads is sharing multimedia that can enhance your branding and conversations. Threads offers easy sharing of photos, up to five-minute videos and links to showcase information in different ways alongside your compelling copy.
With a new platform in play, take this chance to showcase special projects, innovations or achievements. Utilize threads to show your network all that you have to offer. Visual storytelling and teaching through your photos on Threads can also be very helpful, so think about leveraging infographics or data visualization when engaging in meaningful conversations. These visual aids can make complex information and topics that are sometimes discussed in industry-related conversations easily digestible.
Sharing videos is also an extremely helpful form of digital communication on Threads. The five-minute video feature allows you to share informational videos in a short form but still thoroughly explain a topic. You can provide valuable insights, demonstrate your skills, or share industry tips. These videos can be a powerful tool for establishing yourself as an expert in your field and showcasing your unique knowledge and experience.
Lastly, Threads is unique in its ability to allow for link-sharing. Posting links in an Instagram caption does not hyperlink them directly to the source like Threads. With this feature, you can include articles, sources, news stories, podcasts, videos and an array of additional media in your post. This feature helps to provide context and information when engaging in conversations and allows you to show off any media placements, news, or awards you have achieved. This addition helps solidify your trust and credibility as a thought leader and makes sharing information seamless.
All you have to do is start a Thread.
This story originally appeared on Entrepreneur
