In the fast-paced world of real estate, social media has become an essential tool for agents to connect with potential buyers and sellers.
(Photo from LinkedIn)
This begs the question - which platform is better suited for real estate agents?
Let's dive into the debate and explore the strengths and weaknesses of each.
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Twitter is a popular social media platform that allows users to share and read short messages known as "tweets." It was created in 2006 and has since become a significant platform for news, social interactions, and public discussions. Twitter enables users to express their thoughts, opinions, and ideas in 280 characters or less.
On Twitter, users can follow other accounts to see their tweets in their feed. Similarly, other users can follow your account to see your tweets. This creates a network of connections where you can interact with friends, family, celebrities, organizations, and even strangers who share common interests.
Tweets can contain text, links, photos, videos, and GIFs, providing a multimedia experience. Users can also "like" tweets to express appreciation or "retweet" them to share them with their own followers. Twitter also utilizes hashtags, which are words or phrases preceded by the '#' symbol, to categorize and organize tweets around specific topics. Twitter's real-time nature and wide reach make it a powerful tool for communication and information sharing.
Threads, on the other hand, is an app launched by Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp-parent Meta on July 5. As quoted from The Hindu, "Threads is a text-based public conversation app that was built by the team behind the photo-sharing app Instagram. Both iOS and Android users in over 100 countries could access the app this week."
It's worth noting that Threads and Twitter provide a similar experience, offering users a feed of text-based posts that keep them updated on current events and allow them to engage in conversations.
While Twitter is a standalone app, Threads is part of a user’s Instagram account. Users of Threads must register through Instagram and can transfer their original usernames and Instagram accounts they were following. The two platforms sync a number of settings, including blocking, restricting users, and hiding words. However, a user can only deactivate their account if they decide they don't like Threads. Threads' Instagram account would also be deleted if they were to delete Threads. Users see suggested content in addition to content from the accounts they follow on Instagram and Threads.
(You can check out The Hindu's article here: https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/explained-what-should-you-know-about-metas-social-media-app-threads/article67060377.ece)
(Photo from The Wall Street Journal)
Well... sort of! With regard to its user interface and fundamental features, Threads is comparable to Twitter. However, they do have subtle differences that may encourage real estate agents to use one platform over another, according to the website Tom's Guide.
Here's some of the differences that stood out to us:
| Threads | ||
|
Availability |
- Twitter has been around for years and years, way before the first iPhone even existed. Thus, it is accessible on multiple platforms. | - Threads, being a new platform, is only available as an app - available to download from the iOS and Android app stores, making it strictly for mobile. |
|
Text Posts |
- The Twitter character limit is 280. However, if you subscribe to Twitter Blue ($8 a month), you can type up to 10,000 characters. | - The Threads character limit is 500, allowing longer posts to be shared. |
|
Multimedia Content |
- Twitter has a limit of 4 photos/videos/etc. per social post. However, if you subscribe to Twitter Blue ($8 a month), you can now upload longer videos up to ~60 minutes long and up to 2GB file size (1080p). | - On the other hand, Threads allows you to post up to 10 photos/videos/etc. per social post, similar to Instagram. |
|
Content Discovery |
- Twitter allows more control over what content you see on your feed, through the separation of the "For You" and "Following" feeds. | - Meanwhile, Threads is more of a mix of such, and doesn't separate the two. |
|
Messaging |
- Twitter has a messaging feature. | - Threads, on the other hand, does not have a messaging feature. |
|
Pricing |
- Twitter, while mostly free to use, has a subscription feature for users to subscribe to Twitter Blue, which is $8 a month. | - Threads, on the other hand, is completely free of charge. |
|
Account Management |
- Since Twitter is a standalone app, you can easily delete your account if necessary. | - Meanwhile, as for Threads, it is connected to your Instagram account, so if you wanted to delete your account, you'd need to delete your Instagram account as well. |
|
Users (at time of writing) |
- Twitter has around 353.9 million users annually, which should not come as a surprise given it's been around for awhile. | - Threads, on the other hand, has surpassed expectations and achieved around 100 million downloads since its release on July 6, 2023. |
You can check out Tom's Guide's full comparison here: https://www.tomsguide.com/face-off/threads-vs-twitter
(Photo from ABC7 News)
To conclude, all things considered, with the differences in features alone, it's definitely hard to choose one over the other. So, with that in mind, we'd leave the decision to choose which platform works best over to you, based on your own personal preference! If you feel that the flexibility longer word count for posts and the option to include more multimedia content benefits you as an agent, then Threads could work better for you.
However, if you feel that Twitter's overall reach, hassle-free account management system, and content discovery bodes well for your target audience, sticking with Twitter's bread and butter could be the better move.
As for us, we'll be using both tools! Both platforms have the power to reach new audiences, showcase relevant topics in the real estate space, and lead to new discoveries. Social media in general is a powerful tool, so why not use both to harness its full capabilities?
As always, thank you guys so much for taking the time to read this blog post - we here at Transactly are always grateful for the support! Stay tuned for more content coming every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.
We'd also like to list down some additional sites that provided the inspiration for this blog post - go give them a read as well:
Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/articles/threads-app-twitter-features-differences-dc943cd2
Geekflare: https://geekflare.com/twitter-vs-threads/
Dataconomy: https://dataconomy.com/2023/07/10/threads-vs-twitter/
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