Threads And The Art Of Short-Form Storytelling: How Brevity Is Winning Hearts via @sejournal, @donutcaramel13

The less a person says to communicate, the better.

Shakespeare said “Brevity is the soul of wit.” And in just six words, underlined why brevity impacts communication.

I appreciate brevity in all things. Iconic one-liners work for punny slogans, catchy choruses, witty retorts, and more.

But think about how true this is for social media.

A decade or so ago, I would take the time to write out three-paragraph diary entries, feature an “emo” pic, and get a lot of engagement or at least some reposts. In today’s fast-paced digital world, that doesn’t cut it anymore.

Today, I hardly use Facebook or even X (Twitter) – enter Threads.

Launched in July 2023, this text-based app built by the team behind Instagram is one of the newest social channels on the block.

With around 200 million monthly active users (MAU), Threads has woven its way into the top 10 social media platforms.

Whether you’re looking for a potential new customer, want to spread awareness about your latest innovation, or simply want to share what you’ve been up to as a creator, here’s why it’s working so well, in my opinion.

1. Short-Form Storytelling Is Captivating Audiences On Threads

While our screens load faster than ever, our attention spans are shorter.

According to the American Psychological Association’s Dr. Gloria Mark:

“So back in 2004, we found the average attention span on any screen to be two and a half minutes on average. Throughout the years, it became shorter. So, around 2012, we found it to be 75 seconds.

This is with logging techniques. This is an average. And then in the last five, six years, we found it to average about 47 seconds, and others have replicated this result within a few seconds. So it seems to be quite robust.

Now, another way to think about this result is the median. The median means the midpoint of observations. The median is 40 seconds.”

I don’t know how fast you can read, but 47 seconds is not enough for me to read a well-written photo essay online. The same goes for video.

The shorter the storytelling, the easier it is to catch someone’s attention.

This example was only 17 hours old at the time of writing. Yet it had already gained 109 likes and 51 likes, with three reposts. If you unravel their thread, it’s pretty engaging from start to finish.

There’s continuity as each “reply” to their own post builds on the first part of the post.

2. The Power Of Brevity On Topics

It’s not a hashtag. Threads’ vertically expansive, short-form style is further enhanced by the blue highlight feature called “Topic.”

Threads said you can only tag one topic per post, explaining “Why just one? Why just one? This makes it easier for others who care about that topic to find and read your post.”

And it does!

The principle of brevity applies. There was a post I inexplicably couldn’t get out of my mind, and it was in my native tongue (Filipino), but I lost it because I had closed the app.

When I searched for the words “Huling message ni bunso” (English translation: the last message from the youngest sibling), the first result was exactly the same post I was trying to find.

As someone who has exhausted all means to reverse search on other platforms, I was grateful the app narrowed down the search and is friendly to non-English speaking users, too.

The algorithm doesn’t just find your interests but lets your interests find you.

Case in point, even Stephen King is a fan of the platform. It’s amusing that a lot of users use the topic feature (whether highlighted blue or not), and with a stitch of luck, King will appear and reply.

Capturing Attention Through Concise, Impactful Stories

Limited character counts favor attention spans. So, if you decide to post five-liners, each sentence should build on the previous one. X (Twitter) has a 280-character limit, while Threads has a 500-character limit.

But for me, brevity isn’t about having the shortest sentence; it’s about expressing ideas concisely.

No distracting side-stories. Assume your audience is smart – they don’t need a backstory if it’s not aligned with your post’s purpose.

Here’s an example. The analogy this poster made about lemonade stands, drive-thrus, and jazz lounges is enticing.

Readers can relate, and each point was made concisely, with the first point only consisting of four short sentences.

The Art Of Continuous Storytelling

What’s cool is that the platform supports seamless updates to your post, should you wish to go back and update the ones who are invested in it – like this one.

This update is created in response to a post I initially read two days before, and while I didn’t save it, it popped back into my home feed again.

It’s easy to reference a previous post because of the intuitive user interface and minimalistic style.

Alternatively, you can also keep hitting the reply button on your own content to update it (my experience compared to TikTok and other platforms where your old content is stale content once it’s been published.)

Crafting Effective Short-Form Stories On Threads: Tips And Techniques

Opening With A Hook

I suggest starting with “unpopular opinion” or inviting people to unravel your Thread to find out why your thesis statement is true.

Or ask a sincere question or open a debate (address your target audience of Threads, ask what your No. 1 tip is for something, or ask them to choose between this and that, and chances are someone will get back to you).

Check this example out. The first line caught my attention, and intrigued, I quickly absorbed the rest of the carousel post.

If you’re dishing out good advice, the last part of your thread could feature your book or website.

Utilizing Carousels

If you’re running a small business or selling art, it’s quite useful to templates, such as sequential updates or thematic threads, that help create clear, engaging narratives.

Photo blogging by putting handwritten digital annotations can also help draw the eye.

This fun example grabs attention right away because the answers are visually present on the carousel.

I love these beautiful carousels, such as this example and this how-to guide.

Reading copy goes from top to bottom, and images go from left to right. How simple is that?

Seamless Fun

Try it yourself: According to Threads, if you pinch both photos, it automatically connects them (at least on mobile).

Screenshot from Threads, November 2024

Staying Relatable And Real

I also noticed that people don’t even have to have followers to get engagement.

I’ve seen posts in German (like this one) and Spanish (this) show up on my home feed. Why? Because while I didn’t understand the language, they posted something related to my interest.

In this case, cozy gaming, upcoming travel to Japan, and related sub-genres like Japanese animation.

If you want to attract birds of the same feather to your Threads post, feature a short, heartfelt story that resonates.

More and more users now understand how authenticity on Threads captures attention and create posts that are vulnerable or raw – but honest.

This one was pretty clever and so was this one. You don’t have to be like Oscar Wilde to do well on Threads. Even if you’re not naturally witty, be clear and concise.

Why Short-Form Storytelling Matters For The Future Of Social Media

Threads is not the first platform to feature brevity and continuity. X (Twitter) and Reddit have done it first. But meaningful content shines on this platform in my experience.

For one, I don’t experience disruptive ads. The desktop version also lets you view various feeds vertically while scrolling through.

Screenshot from Threads by author, November 2024

It’s faster than reading a newspaper, watching a documentary, or turning pages of a book.

While maybe not as suitable for deep dives, social media platforms allow for more personalized and interactive content.

The post that took you five seconds to make could make you go viral, too. Don’t forget emojis and abbreviations because, according to research:

These linguistic modifications included the removal of subjects and articles, the use of initialisms like LOL (“Laughing Out Loud”) and BRB (“Be right back”), as well as inventive spelling and punctuation like “CU l8tr” (“See you later”) (Tagg, 2015).

Instead of suggesting a lack of proficiency in more conventional literacy skills, researchers discovered that the brevity of the texts demanded greater syntactic analysis and metalinguistic awareness (Kemp, 2010).

Short-form storytelling is a game of give and take as with every post, comments now spur on ideas for creators, replies spawn more replies, and readers and creators alike stalk each other’s accounts for possible clues to unanswered questions.

Keeping it short caters to attention spans and drives users to act faster than ever.

Conclusion: Embrace Brevity To Build Connections

Threads is the platform that gives back. It’s a unique outlet for personal short-form content – and even long-form if you cut copy into digestible snippets.

Some friends also call it “wholesome Twitter,” and I can see why.

My opinion is that the people joining the platform migrated from toxic name-callers to other platforms. (My educated guess is that X/Twitter’s policies are less restrictive, which attracts more controversy.)

My tip is to keep this in mind: The spirit of community, the act of helping and being heard, seems to be stronger on Threads (at least for me). But don’t take my word for it; there are plenty of spirited debaters on this app, too.

When you embrace brevity, you keep people’s attention spans in mind. Strangers and lurkers feel more compelled to read and respond.

Whether it’s a new customer, client, or friend, new connections await you to make your point.

More resources:

Featured Image: Vitalii Vodolazskyi/Shutterstock

Open a Facebook Shop in 2025

Social commerce is poised to take off in 2025, reaching 60% or more of Gen Z and Millennial shoppers worldwide, depending on the source.

TikTok is the trending social platform, with roughly 36 million shoppers, while Facebook is massive and established, with 68 million. Both are compelling options.

In this article, I will focus on Facebook Shop and its two key promotional opportunities.

Create a Facebook Page

Create a Facebook page by filling in a few fields and uploading images.

A Facebook Shop requires a Facebook page.

• Log in to your personal Facebook account.
• Go to the Pages section and create a new page.
• Select the “Public Page” option.

Work through the six setup screens using Facebook’s interface as a guide. By the end, you will have a minimal Facebook page, ready to do business.

Set Up a Business Suite Account

Meta Business Suite is the single location for managing your pages, including the one you just created for your store. The setup process is straightforward.

• Go to Business Suite.
• Click “Create Account” and follow the prompts.
• Add your Facebook page to Business Suite under “Business Settings” > “Accounts” > “Pages.”

Business Suite is a hub for Meta assets — Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp.

Meta’s Business Suite is the dashboard for managing stores on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Set Up a Commerce Account

Next, prepare your Facebook Shop.

• Go to the Facebook Commerce “Get started” page.
• Select “Add Products.”
• Toggle the “Connect to a partner platform” switch.
• Complete the form.

Facebook Shop integrates directly with Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and other stores. I will use Shopify for this example.

To start, enter your store’s Myshopify.com subdomain, located on the “Domains” tab in your Shopify account settings. Facebook will direct you to Shopify and add the Facebook and Instagram app.

Facebook integrates with many ecommerce platforms, including Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce.

Connect Your Store

Facebook profiles associated with multiple pages may need to specify the one to integrate with Shopify. Then set your desired level of data sharing between Facebook and Shopify. Meta will use the data to improve advertising results but may require updates to your Shopify privacy policy and settings.

You’ll likely see approved products on your Facebook page in just a few minutes, although it sometimes takes up to two days.

Customize Your Facebook Shop

Once the Shopify store and Facebook Shop are synchronized, customize the latter via the Facebook Commerce Manager, adding payment types, layout, and verifications. Facebook permits some shop customization but will also pull from Shopify.

Facebook typically provides a checklist with a handful of tasks to complete before your shop is live.

Facebook permits some shop customization but will pull a lot from Shopify.

Promote the Facebook Shop

Most sellers promote Facebook Shops in two ways: Meta advertising and organic social media content.

Meta advertising. By accessing the shared Shopify data, Meta can confirm purchases, track website activity via its pixel, and view online chats.

All that information will guide Meta in identifying and targeting likely customers in a privacy-compliant manner. The optimized advertising should perform well. A few published reports, including one from Omnichat, describe a tenfold improvement in return on advertising spend for online merchants using Shopify and Facebook Shops.

Organic social media content. The second promotional opportunity comes from content marketing and email address capture.

Think of Facebook as a content distribution channel for your store. Share blog posts, product videos, and the like on that platform. Its algorithms (and your followers) will help expose the shop.

Always include email capture on your Facebook page and store. On the page, add a “newsletter” or “subscribe” custom action button linked to an email subscription form. Then include those subscribers in your store’s regular promotional email messages.

TikTok Shop’s Coming Seller Boom

TikTok faces an unprecedented U.S. ban, caught between its massive consumer popularity and lawmakers’ distrust. The crisis started in 2020 when some citizens and legislators grew concerned about the China-based social media company’s privacy practices and its relationship with that country’s communist government.

In April 2024, President Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, requiring TikTok’s parent company to sell the platform by January 19, 2025.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear an appeal on January 10, 2025, and many commentators expect TikTok to survive in the United States, with or without new owners.

TikTok Shop

Meanwhile, TikTok Shop has been a boon for some sellers. The social commerce platform will reportedly reach $50 billion in worldwide gross merchandise volume in 2024. More than $10 billion of that total is likely to come from the U.S. market.

TikTok Shop is among the top social commerce platforms but has not likely reached its full potential.

Collectively, the nascent social commerce platform recorded $137 million in 2024 Black Friday and Cyber Monday U.S. sales.

Yet TikTok Shop may be far from its potential as online sellers, great and small, are waiting to learn how the ban plays out before adding another platform.

Ecommerce platforms now include at least four types of selling environments.

• Ecommerce shops are storefronts from software suppliers such as Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Wix, to name a few. Most ecommerce merchants use these storefronts as a home base or flagship store online.

• Ecommerce marketplaces — Amazon, Walmart, eBay, many more — are also common, if not essential, for online sellers. The number of marketplaces continues to grow, perhaps most notably with Temu’s U.S. seller program.

• Ecommerce mobile apps for Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android are common for enterprise retailers as a primary storefront or separate.

• Social commerce storefronts include TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and others. Published estimates put the total global social commerce market at $2.9 trillion. Consumers increasingly expect sellers to have a presence on multiple social commerce platforms.

These various and sometimes repetitive ecommerce selling platforms are necessary because American shoppers tend to use several of them.

Mixed Signals

One could argue that U.S. consumers send a lot of mixed signals. Consider a few examples of contradictory survey results.

• “49% of customers start and end their shopping journeys on retailer websites or apps,” according to a Hostinger article — points for ecommerce shops and mobile apps.

• “Amazon accounted for 37.6% of the U.S. ecommerce market in 2023, followed by Walmart (6.4%), Apple (3.6%), eBay (3%), [and] Target (1.9%),” according to Jungle Scout — chalk up one for marketplace platforms.

• “56% of consumers start their product searches on Amazon,” according to Jungle Scout again — continuing the argument for marketplaces.

• “People aged 18 to 34 were the most into buying through social media, with about 73% of them saying they’ve bought something via social media channels,” according to an article from SellersCommerce — validating the need to use social commerce too.

Those statistics confirm why online merchants use many platforms in combination — including post-ban-paranoia TikTok Shop.

TikTok Redeemed

So if, as some predict, TikTok remains in the U.S. market and its future is no longer in doubt, expect a boom in sellers. Many ecommerce businesses, from small merchants to massive enterprises, will likely begin offering their products on the social platform.

TikTok Expands Shop Tools as Ban Looms

TikTok continues to face legal challenges. A U.S. federal appeals court upheld a law requiring China-based ByteDance to divest TikTok in the U.S. by January 19 or face a ban. The deadline may receive a 90-day extension from President Biden, and TikTok plans to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Still, the social media app remains central to trade tensions between the U.S. and China.

In response to the appeals court decision, TikTok released the following statement:

The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue. Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people. The TikTok ban, unless stopped, will silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the U.S. and around the world on January 19, 2025.

Despite the political difficulties, TikTok’s ecommerce efforts in the last year have been impressive. Since the launch of its Shop platform in 2023, TikTok has released a series of tools and partnerships, and the results appear to be gaining momentum.

What follows is a rundown of TikTok’s new and updated commerce tools for merchants, creators, and brands.

TikTok Commerce Tools, Resources

TikTok Shop, launched in the U.S. in September 2023, is an integrated ecommerce platform within the TikTok app, allowing merchants, brands, and creators to sell products via shoppable videos, livestreams, profile pages with product collections, shop tabs with searchable product listings and shoppable content, and affiliate program features.

Sellers can leverage TikTok Shop Ads and, for logistics, Fulfilled by TikTok. TikTok Shop integrates with platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce, as well as multichannel partners such as ChannelAdvisor, Feedonomics, and ChannelEngine.

In 2024, TikTok Shop launched an initiative to support small businesses called SOAR (Supporting Our Artisans and Retailers).

TikTok Shop

TikTok Shop Live enables sellers and creators to run livestreams where shoppers can purchase merchandise directly. The number of U.S. TikTok Shop Live sessions hosted each month nearly tripled in 2024, per TikTok, which stated beauty brand founder Stormi Steele (@iamstormisteele) surpassed $2 million in Black Friday 2024 sales, setting a new record for a single live session.

Subscription is a recently expanded feature for live and non-live creators that offers access to exclusive perks, unique experiences, and a members-only community for a monthly fee. Creators can customize their subscription packages in tiers, including private community channels, exclusive content, and custom perks.

Creator Affiliate Program lets creators earn commissions from merchants by sharing preferred products in short videos and livestreams. In addition, TikTok is reportedly letting some creators add product links from third-party affiliate networks (including Amazon, Walmart, Target, Rakuten, and Temu) directly to their posts through a new integration.

Creator Rewards Program lets creators monetize original videos over one minute with an optimized rewards formula focused on four areas: originality, play duration, search value, and audience engagement. Creators must be 18 years old, have at least 10,000 followers, and a minimum of 100,000 views in the last 30 days.

TikTok Studio is a platform to create, edit, upload, manage, and analyze videos. Creators can post to TikTok directly from Studio and use tools such as auto caption, photo editor, and autocut. The monetization module in Studio contains an overview of all platform offerings, personalized recommendations, and growth opportunities.

TikTok Studio

Smart+ automates advertising across targeting, bidding, and creative to optimize cost and performance. Advertisers input their assets, budget, and targeting goals, and Smart+ automatically creates or selects the best creative asset and, utilizing AI-powered TikTok Symphony, chooses the right audience and optimal time. Smart+ includes campaigns for web traffic, catalog ads, app installs, and lead generation.

GMV Max is a new service enabling TikTok Shop merchants to automate advertising campaigns. GMV Max leverages all available creatives automatically (organic videos, affiliate videos, and ads) and deploys them in a single automated campaign, whether it’s promoting an entire shop or select products. Advertisers select the products to promote, define a return-on-investment target, and set the budget.

TikTok One is a new centralized hub for marketers to access creative tools. Brands can access 2 million TikTok creators, production partners, and insights, as well as the Creator Marketplace and Creative Challenge.

TikTok Symphony is a new AI suite to help marketers scale content development, creativity, and productivity on TikTok. Symphony supports scriptwriting, video production, and asset optimization. Symphony Assistant can summarize trends, create TikTok-native scripts, brainstorm creative concepts, identify creative ideas, and more.

TikTok Symphony

The Rise Of Micro-Communities: What This Means For Social Media Marketers via @sejournal, @rio_seo

Human nature craves connection, so much so that we seek it almost everywhere we can find it – at social events, in our jobs, and now online in micro-communities.

The desire to feel camaraderie and a sense of belonging is innate.

In recent years, social media platforms have shifted from shouting into a void to engaging in a much more meaningful way, sharing our innermost thoughts within a deeply connected community of like-minded individuals.

Micro-communities are on the rise, enabling users to find groups that share the same values, ideas, and interests. In turn, micro-community engagement is rife with feedback as users feel comfortable freely expressing their thoughts and opinions.

For social media marketers, this emerging trend presents myriad opportunities, but it also comes with its own set of unique challenges.

Understanding how to effectively engage with micro-communities is essential in order to leverage this medium in an authentic manner that yields returns.

What Are Micro-Communities?

To reach a micro-community successfully requires a thorough understanding of what it is exactly.

A micro-community is a small, highly engaged, and motivated group of individuals who share a common goal, interest, or passion.

These groups are typically built around certain niches, such as fearful flyers, celebrities, veganism, a specific movie genre, and more.

Unlike larger communities that may attract hundreds of thousands of comments, micro-communities tend to be much smaller, which allows for a deeper sense of belonging and connection among community members.

It also allows for more nuanced discussion, where members can keep up with the conversation and engage at their leisure.

Micro-communities are often associated with popular social media platforms like Reddit, Discord, and Facebook groups.

On these platforms, users are able to search for the micro-community of their interest, join, and then actively participate in discussions with other group members.

Why Do People Join Micro-Communities?

More users are flocking to micro-communities than ever before to voice their thoughts, feelings, and opinions.

Discord, for example, saw a staggering 87% jump in registered users in January 2023 compared to its number of users in June 2020.

In an era where it can be hard to differentiate oneself and stand out from the crowd, micro-communities are becoming the go-to for those who crave deeper relationships and are able to connect with others on a more personal level.

They allow community members to be the true versions of themselves, eliminating the need to put on a facade to merge with the masses.

Micro-communities also enable members to remain virtually anonymous as social media platforms like Discord and Reddit allow its members to essentially hide behind a user name.

Unlike social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, micro-community members can remain essentially anonymous should they choose to.

Given the close-knit small community, it can be easier to garner trust among members.

For businesses, this presents a unique opportunity as a growing portion of consumers (41%) trust online recommendations as much as they do personal ones.

The Explosive Growth Of Micro-Communities And Why It Matters For Businesses

Micro-community-focused platforms, like Reddit, are rapidly scaling.

In fact, Reddit is responsible for over 1.6% of total social media website traffic in the United States alone.

Additionally, it’s the fifth most visited site in the United States and the ninth most visited site in the world.

Users on Reddit are highly motivated and spend ample time browsing the platform, with a user spending an average of 20 minutes per day on the platform.

As more users turn to micro-communities for entertainment, recommendations, and relationship building, now is the prime time for businesses to capitalize on this growing social media opportunity.

Micro-communities offer a unique, largely untapped way for businesses to engage with a highly targeted group of individuals who may be receptive to messaging when done the right way.

Blanketed messages are unlikely to land with micro-communities.

Keep in mind this audience has a low tolerance for spammy or sales-driven strategies. They’re intelligent and can tell the difference between a well-intended conversation, and one meant to spur sales.

Instead of crafting sales pitches, businesses will be more likely to succeed by sharing content that’s relevant to the community and offers some form of value.

How can social media marketers tap into their desired micro-community effectively? We’ve outlined a few strategies to give you some food for thought.

Actionable Micro-Community Engagement Strategies For Social Media Marketers

For social media marketers who want to tap into or create their own micro-communities, it’s important to start on the right foot.

Having a solid strategy in place can help establish a framework for how to best approach tapping into a micro-community audience, steps to gain traction, guidelines for messaging, and how to measure the program’s success.

Here are a few strategies to help you get started with your micro-community marketing endeavors.

Identify Your Audience

It’s important to get your audience right. As a marketer, you’ve likely already defined your target audience.

However, it’s important to truly understand what makes this audience tick by identifying their interests and hobbies.

Social media listening tools are a great way to track conversations your customers are actively discussing, which can give you insight into what niche micro-communities they may be interested in joining.

Join Existing Communities

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Once you’ve identified your niche, your business can join existing communities that align with your brand.

Build credibility and authority by actively participating in conversations, sharing valuable content (it doesn’t have to be your own content), and building relationships with community members.

This approach allows you to dip your toe in before fully submerging and introducing your brand right away to the community.

Create Your Own Community

If the niche you’re searching for doesn’t exist, be the first to create a community for it. Once you’ve created your own micro-community, ask your brand advocates to be the first to join for exclusive promotions and product sneak peeks.

Platforms like Reddit, Facebook Groups, and Discord make it easy to create private communities where you can connect with your target audience.

Value will be your key driver in your community. Be sure to create meaningful connections that resonate with your target audience rather than hard-selling your products.

Offer a reward in return for joining your community, such as 10% off their next purchase with your business.

Value Over Sales

As a marketer, it can be difficult to invest time in efforts that don’t necessarily return immediate sales.

After all, most businesses value what is added to the bottom line. For tangible results, it’s imperative to prioritize value over direct sales.

Micro-community engagement requires social media marketers to test their patience – relying on sharing helpful resources, answering questions, and delving into meaningful conversations first.

When members see your brand is an asset to the community, they’ll be more likely to trust you and engage with your products and services.

Let Your Community Do The Work For You

Once you’ve gained the trust of your micro-community, they’re likely to be open to doing some of the hard work on your behalf.

Encourage members of your micro-community to transparently share their experiences with your business, both good and bad.

Keep in mind that perfect reviews across the board are more likely to seem disingenuous to consumers, which is why some negative reviews can actually benefit a business.

User-generated content holds the potential to build credibility and trust among other community members, as well as anyone searching for your product or service that happens to check out your community during the marketing journey.

Measure Your Results

As with any marketing activity, it’s important to determine if your time investment is worthwhile. Regularly measure your performance on a monthly basis at minimum to measure the effectiveness of your efforts and make adjustments if necessary.

Track engagement metrics, monitor feedback, and assess the impact of your micro-community efforts in terms of sales and brand awareness.

Engagement metrics may include likes, comments, awards, and conversations.

How Brands Are Engaging With Micro-Communities

As evidenced, the value micro-communities can provide for businesses is measurable and massive. These communities can help build brand trust, authority, and credibility.

They can also help boost brand awareness, effectively introducing a business to a new, highly motivated, and engaged audience who has the same ideals.

As a result, micro-communities can be an invaluable tool for generating qualified leads and sales.

Many businesses have caught onto the micro-community hype and are already reaping the rewards of more targeted, personalized social media marketing efforts.

Here are a few examples of how brands are successfully reaching and conversing with these focused groups:

Product Launches

By leveraging social listening tools, brands can gain a deeper understanding of what customers crave and need.

Brands are increasingly listening to what customers are asking for in micro-communities.

For example, a beauty brand might see chatter around a desire for vegan formulas in micro-communities or non-toxic cookware from a retailer. These valuable insights can better inform future product strategy and help businesses refine their product portfolios.

User-Generated Content

Many brands are encouraging members of micro-communities to create and share content related to their products or services. This approach not only helps brands build authenticity but also offers free promotion from a third party that other members will more likely trust for recommendations.

User-generated content also empowers users to become brand advocates. For example, a sports retailer might ask buyers to share a picture of their product out in the wild, and reward the best submission as an added layer of encouragement.

Collaborations And Partnerships

Brands may also want to collaborate with influencers who have already built a strong following within micro-communities.

These partnerships allow brands to effectively tap into a pre-existing audience who already trusts the influencer’s audience, making it easier to build credibility among that audience.

Look for influencers who align closely with your brand’s values and goals within your niche.

Offers And Promotions

It’s no secret that special offers and promotions entice consumers to act.

Providing micro-community members exclusive access or promotions designated only for the community can help foster a greater sense of inclusivity.

Members can receive early access to new products, limited edition items, or coupon codes that are only valid to the members.

It’s key to making your community members feel valued and special to encourage brand advocacy and loyalty and to forge stronger relationships.

Relevant Content

Helpful content is key to ensuring a positive customer experience at all stages of the marketing journey.

Often, consumers will be first introduced to your business when they come across it in a micro-community, making it beneficial to share top-of-funnel awareness stage content in this forum.

Whether through thought leadership-type blog posts, how-to short-form videos, or influencer product reels, creating content that speaks to the passions of the community will help establish a stronger emotional connection.

Next Steps For Social Media Marketers

Now is the time for social media marketers to act and devise a strategy to penetrate the micro-community market.

Nearly two-thirds (66%) of businesses cite communities having a positive impact on customer retention. Additionally, the same percentage of brand community members say they’re loyal to the brand.

It’s still a relatively new forum that many brands currently aren’t tapping into, which leaves ample opportunity at hand for savvy social media marketers.

Honing in on niche communities and fostering genuine connections can help businesses build strong relationships with community members while also driving qualified traffic to their sites.

By embracing this rapidly rising trend, social media marketers will uncover a new, powerful way to connect with their audience while driving brand growth and revenue.

As always, it’s crucial to measure and revise your micro-community strategy, ensuring it remains a worthwhile marketing endeavor to pursue.

More resources:

Featured Image: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock

X Alternatives Compared, for Marketing

There has been much speculation following the U.S. elections about Elon Musk’s X. According to social analytics firm Similarweb, more than 115,000 U.S. users deactivated their X accounts on Election Day.

Prominent celebrities and brands have left X, and alternative microblogging social media apps such as Bluesky and Threads have seen spikes in signups. However, X is no longer publicly listed and thus is not obligated to disclose its performance.

Nonetheless, it’s a good time for marketers and brands to explore alternatives to publish real-time news and engage with followers.

Threads

Threads

Threads is a real-time microblogging network from Meta that requires an Instagram account to use. Threads reserves your existing Instagram user name and verification badge and, via a few taps, automatically follows the same accounts you follow on Instagram. Threads is text-based, with a 500-word maximum for each post, and allows for replies, creating conversation threads. Users on Threads can customize their settings and control who can see their content, reply to your threads, or mention you. Threads does not contain ads, although it plans to.

Initially referred to as Project 92, Threads launched in 2023 as an alternative to Twitter, according to Meta’s chief product officer, Chris Cox. The platform gained over 100 million users in its first five days. Early in November 2024, Threads surpassed 275 million monthly active users.

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Bluesky

Bluesky

Bluesky, started by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, began as a research project within Twitter to explore the possibility of decentralizing and developing an open standard for social media, giving users more control over their data. Bluesky launched as an independent company in 2021 and was invitation-only until it opened to the public in February 2024. Several celebrities and brands have announced they’re joining Bluesky and leaving X, including pop singer Lizzo and the Guardian newspaper. According to Bluesky, the platform has over 23 million users.

Bluesky resides on the AT Protocol, an open-source toolbox for building social apps that can communicate with each other. The AT Protocol offers account portability, algorithmic choice, and composable moderation with features including automated filtering, manual admin actions, and community labeling. Bluesky does not offer advertising, but it’s exploring other ways to generate revenue

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Substack

Substack

Substack is a platform for subscription newsletters, with support for podcasts and subscriber-based discussion threads. Authors can offer free or paid subscriptions and make posts publicly available to non-subscribers. In 2023, Substack added a microblogging component, Notes, where writers can publish short-form posts, share ideas, and join conversations. Through Notes, writers can share posts, links, images, quotes, and comments with their subscribers and the greater Substack network.

Substack states the essence of its community and 35 million registered users is a shared appreciation for quality independent writing. The platform facilitates sponsored content but not other forms of advertising. Brands and marketers can find followers by sponsoring compelling niche content.

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Mastodon

Mastodon

Mastodon is a free and open-source social media network built on a decentralized protocol. Each Mastodon server is an independent entity with its own rules and able to sync with others to form one global social network. Users can go to a different Mastodon server and take their followers.

Mastodon supports audio, video and picture posts, accessibility descriptions, polls, content warnings, animated avatars, custom emojis, thumbnail crop control, and more. Mastodon will not serve ads or use algorithms to promote content. However, marketers can utilize collaborations, sponsorships, and user-generated content campaigns to engage followers.

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Spill

Spill

Spill, created by former Twitter employees, is a social platform that establishes a fun, safe, and culturally relevant conversation space for marginalized communities, especially people of color and the LGBTQ+ community.

Users can create, comment, amplify, or share a random thought, called a “Spill,” with the public. Users can (i) create a virtual space via Tea Parties for conversations with live audio, video, and chat, (ii) launch groups and discover members with shared interests, (iii) discover popular Spills, and (iv) automatically get paid if a Spill goes viral and the platform monetizes against it.

Spill is in an open beta release.

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Reddit

Reddit

Reddit is a network for social news aggregation. The platform has over 100,000 communities, called “subreddits,” dedicated to specific topics. Users submit content such as links, text posts, images, and videos, which other users then vote up or down. Voting on posts and comments increases or decreases the creator’s “karma” and helps popular and relevant posts rise to the top while filtering out inferior or irrelevant posts. Some communities require karma to post or comment, which helps maintain content quality and community standards.

Experts, brands, and marketers can leverage Reddit by hosting “Ask Me Anything” discussions, which are unfiltered Q&A sessions to update followers and answer questions honestly.

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Tumblr

Tumblr

Tumblr is a microblogging and social networking site founded in 2007 and then acquired by Yahoo. Automattic, the WordPress company, now owns it. Tumblr states its platform hosts over 600 million blogs and most new users are Generation Z.

Tumblr utilizes a dashboard as the primary management tool for users, with a live feed of recent posts from followed blogs. Users can like and repost blogs, publish comments, and schedule posts. Users can also upload text posts, images, videos, and links and publish to other networks. Tags help users find content for a topic.

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Hive Social

Hive Social

Hive Social is a social media platform aiming to improve user experiences through a chronological timeline with no personalization algorithms. It offers self-expression features such as profile music, profile banners, image and text posts, Zodiac signs, pronouns, and full app color themes. Hive Social doesn’t have a character limit, but it does have a verify feature.

The app reached number one on Apple’s App Store in November 2022, during the controversy from Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter. Launched in 2019 by two college students and bringing on just one full-stack developer in 2021, Hive suffered some initial crashing due to the massive influx of users.

Hive Social reportedly has over 2 million users as of late 2023.

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Discord

Discord

Discord is an instant messaging and social platform with audio and video calls, text messaging, and media. Conversations can take place in virtual servers accessed through invite links. Gamers primarily use Discord, though the share of users interested in other niche topics is growing. As of 2024, the service has about 150 million monthly active users, with approximately one-fourth of its traffic coming from the U.S.

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TikTok

TikTok

TikTok, from China-based ByteDance, is a social network for creating and sharing short-form videos ranging from three seconds to one hour. The TikTok app has been downloaded more than 130 million times in the U.S. and over 2 billion times worldwide. TikTok also has an ecommerce platform, TikTok Shop, launched in September 2023.

While it’s not exactly a microblogging platform for real-time news, TikTok might be what your followers want right now, especially millennials and Gen Z users, to discover and share new ideas and trends. TikTok’s Ads Manager can help brands create, manage, and optimize campaigns.