Here's my strategy on the way to 100 followers
If you're looking to build a community on Threads, interaction is your fast pass.
Broadcasting on your feed is only part of the game, and for the more successful creators on Threads, it's a small part.
It's not uncommon to see people commenting and replying five times as much as they post.
Since I'm a newbie to Threads, I'm taking notice and making sure I leave real, thoughtful comments that reinforce my mission on there. (I'm still figuring out that mission, but content creation is always best at least part discovery.)
As I write this, I'm five followers or “Thriends” shy of the 100 milestone.
I'd like to share my current “decision tree” with most of my commenting. As in the things I consider before I decide to comment, and how I do it.
But first …
There's a lot of talk about The Algorithm
The Algorithm is the giant machine that ingests all of your interactions with Threads and decides what to show you.
It's a fun post to personify it and write a “Dear Algorithm” letter to Threads, asking it to send people who X, Y, and Z. (I've done it myself.)
Initially, when I started on Threads, I liked posts from people who were announcing that they'd been sober for X days/months/years.
Pretty soon, my feed was filled with these posts. The Algorithm took my likes as input and calculated, “This user wants to see more posts about individual sobriety milestones.”
And that's what I got, until I stopped tapping to like them, and instead tapped to like other things.
I still get them once in a while, but now it's a bit more balanced with the other topics and people I've interacted with.
It's not just what you see, but what others see about you.
If the posts I see are a function of how I interact with Threads, then whether others see me or not is a function of that, too.
So it's critical to post, like, repost, and comment in a way that lets Threads amplify your best self.
And now for my process
Here's what I'm currently doing as I scroll through my For You feed to help, encourage, and connect with other Threads users.
1. Is it something I'm qualified to comment on?
Some things I'm very qualified to comment on. Others I have no business commenting on. I see no benefit to blow on about things I know nothing about, when there are plenty of things that I do know lots about.
Lately, I'm being a bit pickier. Even if I do know something about the topic, if I can't relate it back to content creation and online presence, then I'm passing. The idea is that by commenting on too many topics, I may be confusing people, which dilutes my “brand” as such on Threads.
2. I then click on the post
I do this mainly to see if it's a multithreaded post. Sometimes it's not always clear. More intentional multithreaded posts will have a down arrow, a down point, a colon, or something else that indicates there's more.
If it's already a post series, I'll probably pass, unless one of the points really could use a comment.
3. I'll check the profile and scroll through the feed and replies
The reason I do this is because at the beginning, I would respond to “who's in Virginia” (my state) and more often than not it would be someone advertising their adult profile. Oops!
So I screen out those kinds of accounts.
I'll note how many followers they have. A 3-follower account will get a different response than a 300-follower account. Same thing with a 3,000-plus-follower account.
Then I'll get a feel for how often they post and how much of it is a straight pitch for something or other.
Finally, I'll look at their replies and see how often they reply, and whether they are straight pitches there.
4. When I respond, I try to bring something in from the profile
My thinking is that this will set me apart from other users.
If I add in a piece that would be there only had I checked their profile and feed, then at least they know I did that much.
It will set me apart from all of the users who are looking only for volume and just dash off a quick response.
And that's my easy-ish Threads commenting process
Want to come on over and grow your Threads community with me?
Photo by Mathias Reding on Unsplash