The Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast

175 ⎸ Threads: Is it worth it?

• Serena Shoup, CPA • Episode 175

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In this solo episode, I’m diving into the world of Threads. Is it the next best thing for bookkeepers or just another time-sink? Let's figure it out together.

In this episode you’ll hear:

  • the lowdown on what Threads is
  • how Threads can pull over your Instagram followers
  • how, in just three months, Threads helped me land a bunch of podcast interviews, a guest workshop, and even snag some new clients
  • tips on managing your time on Threads


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Welcome to the ambitious bookkeeper channel. In today's episode, I'm going to chat about threads. whether it is worth spending time on as a bookkeeper or if it's not worth your time. So stay tuned and listening. If you're interested in hearing about how to utilize threads. Okay. So threads is a new ish platform it's owned by Instagram. Came out over a year ago, I think. And when it came out, I started an account and then I immediately got really overwhelmed with all the channels of everything. And I was like, I'm not going to use this. So I just deleted it off my phone. And didn't touch it for an entire year. Well, when did they created the threads platform they made it really easy to like when you created your account, you could just automatically follow everyone that you're already following on Instagram. And so by that feature, I already had quite a few followers. I don't know if I documented how many I had at that point. I don't think I did. But I re-downloaded threads. A few months ago around June 20, 24. So depending on when you're watching this video, this is airing in October, 2024. So I re- downloaded it in June and posted my first thread on June 5th. As you can see here. I just basically used threads as just a place to put thoughts that didn't really fit into a social media post, which I don't do my own social media anymore. So I'm not the one doing our like regular posts, except I do handle the life lately ones. So I posted that first thread. And then by August 27th. I had a thousand followers. So a lot of your followers will automatically come from Instagram. Like I said before, So, if you've done the work to build an audience there, a lot of it comes across. Although my Instagram has almost 7,000 followers and threads is only a thousand, but I'm going to get into the more important piece of how threads works is not really on the followers. It's the algorithm right now, at least. So from. Using threads from June to August. So June, July, August three months, right? Just three months. I was able to get six. external podcast interviews, meaning I was a guest on six other podcasts. Five and counting interviews scheduled for my own podcast. One guest workshop and a client directly from me just liking one of her posts and then her looking at my profile and going down the rabbit hole. So. My strategy. That I'm sharing today is basically this engage authentically. So I wasn't posting a lot of threads. I was just posting here and there maybe once a week. but more so I'm engaging on threads. So I'm reading through other's posts, I'm commenting. And when you comment on other people's posts, it. Feeds it to other people's algorithm. And then the reach just becomes far and wide. Which is how Facebook used to work at the very beginning. And sometimes LinkedIn works that way as well. And then I follow certain hashtags or threads. And one of the ones that I'm following is podcast threads, because that's what I'm using threads as for a strategy is to source guests and to become a guest on other podcasts. So I encourage you to think of. How you want to use threads and follow those hashtags so that you are being fed things from that topic. And you can interact with it. and then since I'm following those threads, I'm commenting when people post threads on calls for speakers or for podcast interviews, or they want to be on someone's podcast. I will do a little work on like looking to see what their stuff is about. And if maybe I would be a good guest on their podcast or vice versa, if they would be a good guest for my podcast, I do my research and then I comment. And I follow up. So that's the other piece is following up. So you'll notice if you start commenting on. Someone's call for speakers for their podcasts like guests for they want a guest on their, podcast. You'll notice. Tons and tons of other people are commenting. Well, I had a chat with someone that I ended up on their podcast through this process And she was saying, yeah, I had tons of interest on that thread that I posted, but not very many people actually followed up. So. I was kind of in the top running for guessing on her podcast because out of the 30 plus people that commented maybe five or so actually followed up in the DMS on Instagram and said, Hey, I commented on your post. Here's all the things that I could talk about on your podcast and basically re pitched themselves. So you have to do that extra work to show that you actually want to be on their podcast instead of just being like, hi me, I'm a bookkeeper. I can talk about this. do the followup. and then my last tip in strategy is to just have fun with it. Is to not get all like, worked up on like the algorithm and like, is it working if you don't actually have fun this goes for any platform. If you don't actually have fun over there, then it's not going to work for you. It might work temporarily, but you're either going to get burned out or it's just not going to be fun. And you're not going to want to keep following up. So that's my strategy for threads. And then I have some tips for managing your time on threads as well. Like setting timers. There's actually a way in the settings in threads where you can have it tell you, oh, Hey, you've been on here for 15 minutes. Do you want to take a break? So I have that turned on. And that was really helpful because it's really easy to get. Could to go down the rabbit hole on threatens. Um, that algorithm just pinpoints you immediately. so I set that timer and I log off whenever I get that 15 minutes, just to put it into context. My other social media, like I pulled up in August, whenever it was putting the outline together for this podcast episode, this is how long I've been promising this. I'm sorry, guys. I took a screenshot of my weekly screen time on my iPhone, and this is really embarrassing. I'm just going to put it up on the screen right here. Instagram was 10 hours. That week, although I will say I do a lot of chatting back and forth. On business stuff with potential customers and clients and students. But I'm going to admit here that a lot of that is actually personal time. I do a lot of like scrolling through reels and sending memes to friends. And then, LinkedIn, I spent two hours, almost three hours that week. There's some times that I just, I haven't logged into LinkedIn since that time probably. And then threads, I spent two and a half hours on. So to put it into context, like the return on your time investment, if I only spent two and a half hours a week, On threads, but I got all of these podcast interviews that widen your reach, even more reach different audiences, these people aren't on threads. I talk about things on podcasts that I'm not talking about on threads. Like. It's worth the investment. If you stay focused and utilize it. And my other tip is, to maybe post things on threads that are a little bit like. Questions or maybe controversial, like your hot take on certain things. And then on the ones that I'm like really proud of, I'll share them on Instagram so that we'll get more people over to threads following you. but yeah, so that's how I've used threads. And since this, boom in podcast interviews, it actually enabled me to batch out almost the rest of the year of podcasts. On my podcasts on the ambitious bookkeeper podcast here. And, that feels really cool. Although, I will say there was a timeframe where I was like, oh my gosh, I must've been so ambitious booking all of this stuff because now all of these appointments are on my calendar and. I'm not going to lie. I rescheduled a couple of them, cause I was like, this is just too much. so keep that in mind, if you are the same type where you're like doing a lot of outreach when you're like really energetic and then later on. Scheduling those interviews or they're on your calendar during a time when you know, you're not going to be more energetic, like us women, we have cycles and there's peaks and valleys of our energy levels. And so be mindful of that when you're scheduling, if you utilize this strategy and schedule podcasts, interviews, be mindful of the times that you're selecting to be on someone's podcast. And, hopefully the energy matches. So, thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. If you liked this. episode. Rate and review the podcast. If you're watching this on YouTube, go ahead and subscribe. I am trying to put out more YouTube content this year or this next year probably is what's really gonna happen. So thank you so much for tuning in and we'll talk to you later.

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