With X, formerly Twitter, experiencing turbulence how is Threads shaping up as a platform for public sector organisations?
Threads, you may know, is Meta’s platform to try and take down the Elon Musk platform. Globally, it has 175 million users against 400 million users for what used to be Twitter.
In the UK, figures are harder to come across with Ofcom suggesting ‘hundreds of thousands’ of monthly users in the UK.
The Threads figure may have taken a bounce in summer 2024 after Elon Musk went to war with UK Government and organisations started to move away from the platform.
So, how is it shaping out?
As a platform there is life on Threads
In the UK, Arsenal Football Club have the largest presence on the platform with more than three million followers.
https://www.threads.net/@arsenal
Sure, a Premier League club like this has a global following rather than simply a UK one. But the size of those numbers do show that there is life on Threads.
The top 100 UK Threads influencers according to influencer platform Starngage are dominated by football teams and Instagram influencers who are already plenty big on sister site Instagram.
But how about public sector organisations?
The public sector top 10 in 2024
Doing some digging, here’s the UK public sector top 10 on Threads.
I’ve used a fairly liberal use of what makes public sector. Topping the list is Kew Gardens which is classed as a non-departmental public body. That’s 142nd in the Starngage list.
Kew Gardens https://www.threads.net/@kewgardens 103,000
British Library https://www.threads.net/@britishlibrary 87,800
British Army https://www.threads.net/@britisharmy 84,900
The Met Office https://www.threads.net/@metoffice 77,200
Royal Marines https://www.threads.net/@royalmarines 58,200
Royal Air Force https://www.threads.net/@royalairforceuk 27,900
Ordnance Survey https://www.threads.net/@ordnancesurvey 25,900
Transport for London https://www.threads.net/@transportforlondon 25,400
Discover Cymru https://www.threads.net/@discovercymru 13,800
Visit NI https://www.threads.net/@discoverni 12,200
British Library comes in second place.
Elsewhere in the list the armed forces figure strongly with three places in the top 10 and tourism-focussed also taking up space.
Let me know if I’ve missed any.
Government is lagging
When Threads first launched there was a spate of councils, police forces, NHS bodies and others taking out an account to stop cyber-squatting. Since then, they’ve more often and not turned dormant.
The largest government accounts are:
UK Government, Scotland https://www.threads.net/@ukgovscotland?hl=en 5,061
Welsh Government https://www.threads.net/@welshgovernment?hl=en 1,426
Given that 3.5 million people live in Scotland a return of 5,000 is a poor return.
Elsewhere, the biggest police account is…
British Transport Police https://www.threads.net/@britishtransportpolice 10,400
The biggest fire and rescue account is…
West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue https://www.threads.net/@wyfrs 1,081
The biggest council is…
Exeter City Council https://www.threads.net/@exetercouncil?hl=en 1,027
So what‘s the bottom line?
It’s clear that the audience for Threads is building in the UK but the public sector are being hesitant in diving in with it. This is not such a bad strategy. There’s plenty to occupy the time of people who work in the sector.
At some point it does become chicken and egg. If you don’t post you don’t get followers. But the lack of followers on space holder accounts does make it a bit dull.
This isn’t a X/Twitter or Threads straight swap. If there’s an audience then by all means do both but right now for me Threads is a nice to have rather than a must have.