How to enter giveaways on Threads

Have you joined Threads yet? It’s Meta’s alternative to Twitter, launched in a hurry on 6 July because Twitter users haven’t been impressed with the changes made by Elon Musk, and were looking for a suitable alternative. Threads reached 100 million users in just five days, and brands are starting to run giveaways on this new platform while there’s such a buzz!

Although lacking a lot of the elements that make Twitter great, Threads is already being used by many brands, and with low entry numbers at this early stage it’s worth a look at the competitions on offer. It’s super simple and uncluttered, in comparison to Twitter. Currently Threads can only be used on the mobile app – you can view a thread on a computer but won’t be able to interact with it.

How to join Threads

Download the Threads from Instagram app on App Store or Google Play. If you have an Instagram account, you can easily sign in using that, and will have the same username. You can choose to keep your profile pic and bio information exactly the same, to make things easy to get up and running. But be warned – if you delete your Threads account, your Instagram account will also be deleted too! It’s OK to deactivate your Threads account though – that won’t affect Instagram. If you don’t have an Instagram account, select Create New Account to set one up.

When you join Threads you’ll be asked if you wish to follow the same accounts that you follow on Instagram, which saves time and already gives you a busy feed – however, your feed isn’t only the accounts you follow, it also shows content from accounts you don’t follow. To change from the For You feed to the Following feed (as on Twitter) simply tap the Threads icon at the top of the screen.

Your Threads profile page

On your own profile page, tap the lines at the top right to access the settings menu. Here you can choose what notifications to receive, adjust privacy settings and ‘take a break’ or deactivate your profile.

At the bottom of the screen, the options are Home – Search – Create a thread – Activity – Profile

Interacting on Threads

Threads is very similar to Twitter, with threads instead of tweets. Under a thread, you’ll find the Like – Reply – Repost – Share buttons.

To create a thread, tap the icon in the bottom centre of your home screen. Use the @ to tag your friends – most will have the same usernames as Instagram!

When you repost, like Twitter, you can do a regular repost or you can quote the original thread adding your own text. Both of these will create a notification for the original poster.

If you use the share option, you can add the thread to your Insta story or feed, tweet a link, or copy the link to share elsewhere. I’ve had a few issues with copying links to Facebook – some links work well, and show a preview – but others don’t work at all!

On a user’s profile page you can Follow a user and tap the bell icon to set notifications for when they post. Tap the Instagram icon to visit their profile on Instagram. On their profile you can see their threads – tap Replies to see the threads they have replied to.

Tip: From your feed, tap the + sign on a profile image to quickly follow a user without visiting their profile.

How to find giveaways on Threads

A big problem with Threads is the lack of a search function for content – currently you can only search for usernames, so there’s no way of tracking down comps using ‘win’ or ‘giveaway’ I’m afraid! There’s also no clickable hashtags yet. Your best bet is to follow lots of compers, and check their profile for reposts and replies to competition threads – and of course, simply to scroll through your home feed hoping some might pop up from accounts you already follow!

How are brand running giveaways on Threads?

It’s early days but so far Threads giveaways are simple, with a combination of the classic Follow, Repost, Like and Reply tasks. Winners are contacted by DM on their connected Instagram account (if they have one), as there’s no messaging function on Threads yet.

Tracking entries is an issue at the moment. The apps and tools that are used to choose a random winner from Facebook, Instagram or Twitter likes and comments aren’t yet able to do the same for Threads. As far as I can tell it’s a case of a brand manually scrolling through replies or likes to choose a ‘random’ winner – this won’t be too bad with low entry numbers, for example if you had 150 replies you could ask random.org to choose a number between 1 and 150, and then scroll through counting to that entrant!

I do always recommend that compers should try to make their entry stand out, because not every promoter chooses a winner using a randomiser tool – and this is certainly the case in these early days of Threads where they will be scrolling through entries to choose their winner. Add emojis, GIFs, stories, photos – as I’ve mentioned in my Twitter tips and Instagram tips videos, you want the brand to see you as their perfect customer!

I would LOVE to know how Mr Beast managed to choose his random Tesla winner on Threads launch day…

What Threads is missing

From a compers point of view, Threads is lacking a lot compared to Twitter, which isn’t surprising. I’d like a choice of feeds, lists, bookmarks, search, hashtags and DMs. From a promoter’s point of view, insights and stats would be nice, plus the ability to switch between accounts easily. The Threads team are working on improvements and updates and the best account to follow for news is @Mosseri.

Win! £25 Tesco gift card on Threads (CLOSED)

I’m testing out Threads by running a giveaway on the platform – one winner will received a £25 Tesco gift card. Giveaway is closed – the winner is @judipluscombe

Let me know in the comments what you think of Threads so far!