The Week of July 14, 2023 Marketing and Business News: Thread Lightly - Ryan Shares His Opinion on the Latest App

 you're listening to the ride cast a top 25 worldwide business podcast if it's
 radical we cover it. Here's your host Ryan Alford. Hey guys what's up welcome to
 the latest edition of the rad cast it's Friday July 14th 20 23 are weekly
 marketing and business news of the week and you've got numero uno my friends
 solo for the first time your monologue host I'm Ryan Alfred the host your regular
 host of the rad cast Christina's made her way to New York we talked about this
 last week she's making it to the big times so here alone we'll see how it goes I
 kind of I don't mind talking um it'll mind me the center of attention but we'll
 see how it goes I'll listen back I'll get your feedback somebody will do you
 me go man that was awesome or you won't be afraid to tell me hey you need some
 breaks in there you need some I don't know some either lighthearted female like
 voices like to break up my deep voice monologue or otherwise but I hope everybody's
 had a great I know we're getting mid through July here I was taking Nash to a
 couple of points today burning her asses off here in South Carolina where it's
 90 plus and got to thinking how fast they're gonna be back in school so we're
 midway through July halfway through summer it feels even though I was just
 talking about summer kicking off but the kids are active let me tell you we're
 headed to camp this week we're actually camping so let's say a deep creek in
 North Carolina so going up doing some tubing if you're is
 done in tubing before it's just a great activity you get in the tube you get
 you got to put a cooler beer in there next to you as long as you kind of float
 down the river and that drink beer as you go I don't know who made this up but I'm
 here for it we're gonna be doing it this weekend with all the kids and get some
 good news we talked last week a little bit about this release but now that I've
 had time to spend time with I do want to spend a majority today talking about
 threads Facebook slash Instagram slash meta who can keep up latest app release
 the Twitter clone as I'll call it and I actually wrote a newsletter this is
 fresh on my my hit list here of how I feel about it my perspective on it what
 does it mean for marketing what does it mean for business what's the user
 experience like so it's fresh in my mind I've used it for probably I don't
 know five or six hours now and last week maybe an hour a day just trying to get
 perspective like what do I feel about it this is gonna be a game changer should
 brands that we're working with be going heavy on it should I be heavy on it with
 my personal brand with the radcast and so I've got some perspective on it and
 I'll give you a little hint I titled my newsletter if you want to I do encourage
 y'all to go to Ryan offer dot com and send up the newsletter doing one one drop
 a week as I like to say rad Ryan offer drops one one one topic a week and this
 week it is about threads and I tell you know the subject was thread lightly and
 here's my thought number one really polished experience for a first time app
 what would you expect from a billion dollars of Facebook and meta they obviously
 have the developers to make the the overall experience very polished so the
 biggest thing that you'll notice is how easy it is to transfer from Instagram
 directly into threads because I think there was some strategy here I think
 Zuck knows that Instagram is the hip or cooler app and so it's called Instagram
 threads if you dig far enough to get that far using the at logo that's very
 uniquely designed I like the simpleness of the design of the logo but once you
 get in the experience it's really easy to transfer your username immediately from
 threads Instagram and I think this is played into why you've seen a hundred
 million users already on the platform because they made it super simple for
 everyone already using Instagram to move and to transfer immediately into that
 which allows for a couple things one it allows for really simple sign up it was
 super easy was like download the app it's three clicks and you're in and if
 anybody knows the biggest thing was signing up with new apps or new anything is
 the friction of signing up so that friction is really low if you're already on
 Instagram which most people are either they don't use Instagram much that
 transfer super easy so I think that's why the numbers but there's a couple of
 things that have me pausing first and foremost there's no new features here if you
 use Twitter and you know that experience and you know the thread and
 conversation experience that exists on Twitter you know exactly what you're
 gonna get with threads very similar experience you have that text messaging type
 thread going on to back and forth dialogue and so it's very text-based but you
 can also obviously upload images and videos depending on how you want to start
 the message or thread or dialogue but there's nothing there's no new ground
 broken here it's an exact kind of copy of what's happening on Twitter and so
 why is that important I think in the short term it's not important makes it
 easier to use the app it makes for Twitter people that might be coming over it
 easy experience but here's why that's a problem it's because is it gonna keep
 you there and here's the problem it the biggest problem at hand is you have a
 mismatch of users you have a very casual crowd on Instagram that looks at
 videos watch reels it's a very casual experience it's a passive experience in
 many ways you're not truly active engaged in it in in the way with which
 Twitter users are the news and debate crowd this is a very passionate a crowd
 about what's the latest news how are we debating it what are we talking about
 what's my opinion on it how can I troll you and on Instagram you have a
 user base that's more creative typically a little more laid back and so you
 may be bringing all these users over from Instagram but you're gonna have an
 immediate clash of personalities for people that have been on Twitter with all
 this Instagram crowd and no real new functionality to keep you there beyond the
 dialogue that's happening and I think you're gonna see a lot of users but I
 want to see the engagement rates so pay close attention to what the engagement
 and use rates are over the next 30 to 60 days and here's the punchline so
 basically you're going okay do I need to be invested in this do I need to get
 involved in this if I'm missing out FOMO is real here's a deal I'm on it I'm
 gonna stay semi-active on it I think you should dabble in it but here it is if
 you're a business you're an influencer or you're someone that's trying to gain
 traction or get your name out there sure dabble in it but the reality is there
 are real marketing opportunities that exist on TikTok on Instagram on Facebook
 on LinkedIn so where am I gonna spend my next minute my next dollar my next hour of
 real-time developing content and trying to build an audience and trying to gain
 business and dollars and since from this I don't think threads is where that's
 gonna be today now don't get me wrong I really like first mover advantage that's
 why I'm on there I want to gavel up a few more users a new audience someone playing
 the long term hey sign me up I'll play the long game I'm trying to build
 audience over time I'm not trying to monetize that audience today if you're trying to
 audience if you're trying to monetize audience today threads is gonna be very
 difficult other than super low-hanging fruit if you just totally have a niche that
 you're going after but there's not ad products there yet there's not ways to even see
 your engagement levels there's not way to even see the analytics of what you're doing
 so you're purely gonna be playing the game of organic reach which is very high right now
 but I do think there are better ways to spend your time and money if you need an immediate business
 outcome from what's happening and that's really what I touched on the newsletter which is look
 it's a great app they have tons of advantages being meta and having all of the user base that
 already exists on Instagram and you have a moment in time where everyone's pissed off at you on
 musk oh musk that crazy son of a bitch he's pissing me off he's made me mad and now I'm gonna leave
 Twitter and I'm gonna go over here to threads for a little less of an experience that has no
 real-new users experience and that's fleeting if you're only reason to move to threads is you hate
 Elon Musk you're gonna be soiled sorely disappointed in the next like 30 to 60 days when the audience
 ties down all those core Instagram users use it less and then the Twitter users go wait a second
 this isn't even as good as Twitter is now so if Elon Musk follows through on what he said he's
 gonna do which is ultimately get out of the way let us CEO around the company go back to doing
 what he does best then I think you're gonna see a little bit of this noise die down I think more of
 those Twitter users will go back using a platform that's more established with a user base that
 more aligns with that audience and thus you'll see threads start to mellow out the end of the day I
 do not see threads being a core platform what do I mean about that Facebook Instagram TikTok
 LinkedIn I think those are core platforms you too if you want to consider that a social platform
 those are core platforms where people spend a large majority of their time and there's core
 audiences there I do not think threads will be one of those core four core five over time I don't
 think it's gonna go away the way of of certain music apps and other apps that kind of come on hard
 and then disappear I don't think that's gonna happen I think threads will stick around it's just too
 big not to and I think you'll piece all people and they'll find audiences and they'll have ads
 and it'll get better but in the short term I do not see this as a play for marketers or businesses
 or personal brands to do more than just dabble a bit see if you can pick off a few more audiences a
 few more people and just watch where it goes but you're better I still believe hardcore the 80-20
 rule 80% of your business comes from 20% of your users where are those users at if you're in B2B
 they're still at LinkedIn if you're a consumer they're still on Facebook no matter what people say
 Facebook's dead no it's not it's actually better we'll get some of the best return on
 the head spins than we've ever had for certain clients so Facebook Instagram TikTok still growing
 still booming and still becoming more than a 18 to or 13 to 23 year old platform still become
 more and more mainstream and the ad platforms a ton better so spend your time energy and efforts
 in growing there if you want immediate business and spend 5% of your dabbling budget on threads
 but red lightly that's my perspective on threads more to come we'll be talking more as they develop
 new features opportunities ads as they start to come out I joked I'm doing I'm usually I'm
 actually using it more for memes like posting memes from different things so I think I enjoy it
 now to the ads come so there you have it I thought this was really fun burger king has released
 it's real cheeseburger this is pretty hilarious I looked on I go to Google trends a lot
 so if you don't know where so we get something news from for the radcast we go to Google trends
 quite a bit and this popped out so it's a real cheeseburger and there you might be going okay it's
 real meat it's the not so the lab grown meat now it's actually 10 slices of cheese in between a bun
 Google other real cheeseburger you'll see a picture of it it's hilarious we'll have a picture
 here on some of the social media feed I'm sure but no meat and up to 20 slices of cheese depending
 if you get extra cheese so fun Burger King always does great marketing I don't know that always
 translates to market share because no matter what my kids still want to go to Burger King our excuse
 me to McDonald's no matter what Burger King does my kids still ask for happy meals it's like
 I never get hey dad that's good at Burger King but the Burger King is always fun so we'll see
 and then truly hard seltzer is launching a zero gravity pop up bar so essentially a seven
 they're going to have a bar on a Boeing 727 where you get zero gravity I want to see how you drink
 a drink with zero gravity though I guess somehow you can get it like flowing into your mouth
 holding it upside down I don't know but it's going to be like drops in the air so their tagline is
 lightly fantastic so fun I can never really get behind the trullies I did graduate to like
 bud like next but the problem with trullies is I was getting some aftertaste then whatever
 did I like get an aftertaste of these things I don't know like I can drink like one of them and I'm
 like the first like four sips are really refreshing and then when I'm tasting it the entire night
 I'm like oh I don't know that's just me today's podcast brought to you by truly never they will
 they will not be sponsoring us but who does is VK I actually put on VK before the podcast today
 my tennis elbow has been flaring up I call it that I don't even play tennis it's more for
 working out so rolling on the roll off the pain.com our CBD roll on from VK really works actually I
 have dubbed my wrist that I hurt lifting I've dubbed it cured partially from rehab and I'm going
 to take sleep say the CBD definitely helped my doctor said it did so go to roll off the pain.com
 where you can down or buy our latest product this is our latest product we've got a couple of
 new lines coming out as well but I did work I go to a chiropractor who's actually been working on
 my planter fasciitis and I gave him some of our product and he didn't really go on I'm actually
 going to post some videos on my social media that he's done so if you're good to take a VK.com
 you'll see our full lineup and you go to roll off the pain.com for a quick and easy way to get
 the CBD roll on and if you saw our latest rad cast news this week we launched digital platforms
 that are shaping the future some past episodes where we had some big wigs a river rava chandron
 from one of the biggest and best I know you hear zoom and you think that but before that was zoom
 you had adobe and they make the best video conferencing platform on the planet so we talked with
 a ruda about this and several other CEOs in the digital platform space so check that episode out
 launched on Tuesday and then next week had a really fun episode recording this week with a good
 friend Spencer Krandel we're gonna play a couple of his latest hits on the promo video you'll see
 that but really thoughtful guy like sometimes I talk to people and it's like I feel like they're
 answering questions because they've been interviewed a lot but I feel like Spencer's like super thoughtful
 like he I feel like he was thoughtful in his responses and what he talked about I feel like
 even if you weren't interested in like the music business you're gonna take something away from
 this from a thoughtful guy and you're probably gonna want to download his music because he's just a
 fun guy down to earth listen Nashville now from Denver originally had a lot of fun talking with
 Spencer Krandel and I do think his latest songs gonna be a hit I've been listening to that
 called didn't do so check it out that'll be next week wherever you listen to our episodes
 or it might be in the past depending on when where and how you listen to this episode the other
 thing I want to mention purely like functional this is in our news our team that puts the new notes
 together we spent a lot of money actually countly and there's been a lot of these launches lately
 there was link tree that's been around forever we had to pay to use link tree and now Instagram
 built it into the app I always wonder when this was gonna come but now Gmail has built the
 calendar style functionality right into the app so literally you go into Gmail it's taking this
 out right before the episode and you can send a link just like you can't account I don't know how
 these apps that build on top of others ultimately stay in business they made probably millions if
 not billions in the short term to try to add on functions and then the apps themselves launch it
 and so I'm gonna play around with this we'll see but calendar might be in a little bit of trouble
 but I do think it's cool to have the built right into Gmail app and just for the record we use Gmail
 but it's the business version so no at Google email addresses I think I've gotten on that
 soapbox before do not use at Gmail for your business account you must buy your URL if you want to be
 taking seriously and finally today I did want to bring back an oldie but it but a goodie never gets
 too old it's time for another absurd holiday there's no shortage of dumb things to celebrate
 yeah I never gets old even if I'm due and I'll the most due and I'll 46 year old man
 every time I hear it it's funny in all seriousness there were too many good social media holidays I
 know look a lot of you listen to your in marketing and advertising you've got your social media
 calendars out you're like what are we gonna talk about here you go if you're really listen to us
 topically then you can get ahead if you're listening to us like three weeks in the future you
 may be a little behind on a few of these that's always the asterisk caveat but today July 14th
 we've got three days of note today's national french fry day I'm telling you what folks between
 potato chicks and french fries if I was left on like a deserted island it'd be like a close one
 two which one I could eat the most of and it's still hard to beat McDonald's McDonald's should be
 blowing this out they still got the best fries national french fry day today and you know what you
 can win these two my kids love this it there's at least a seven year supply in the offered house
 it's called mac and cheese folks national mac and cheese how did mac and cheese and french fries
 have to share a holiday that's what I want to know get all these holidays made up and they're having
 to share the day let's just blend them I think craft and McDonald's need to do a mashup craft mac
 and cheese with some macaroni or some McDonald's french fries and lastly national tape measure day
 never a little sure about that but we'll see about it and like I couldn't miss this one Saturday
 July 15th national gummy worm day if you go to Ryan's like house and you go to like my secret drawer
 where I keep I really need some candy and I gotta hide it for my kids you will find some gummy
 worms in there so this is I had to mention it that and today is also or the 15th is I love horses
 day oh your horse lovers out there and nationally national give something away day you know what I'm saying
 Saturday night give something away folks with your imagination go there Sunday national personal
 chef day and finally this I couldn't go without missing I had to mention it's national ice cream day
 it's a middle of summer Sunday July 16th you need to get some ice cream the offered house has seven
 gallons at all time because everyone of our kids likes a different flavor so national ice cream day
 there's your weekends social media holidays even if you didn't enjoy the holidays you know
 you enjoyed the song that's all I got folks your national social media holidays don't forget about
 the radcast.com you'll learn about everything got a short tidy 20 minute episode today I really
 wanted to get my input on threads because I've asked I get a lot of questions about it friends and
 family actually go what's this dreads thing I'll get text message I'm like it's just another app
 and everybody's like oh god I don't want another app I don't want another app but here you go I
 want to give everybody my perspective on it whether you should be involved in it where he's
 been in dollars on developing content specifically for it so there you have it will be talking more
 about it in the future but you find all the highlights clips from today at the radcast.com search
 should be at Ryan offer don't all the social media platforms I get on my newsletter at Ryan
 allford.com we'll see you next time to listen and watch full episodes visit us on the web
 at the radcast.com or follow us on social media at our Instagram account v.rad.cast or at Ryan
 allford stay radical