Threads May Become Go-to Social Media Platform for Photographers

There has been a strong shift towards photography there as of late, and shutterbugs should consider joining now.

Threads, from Meta (the company that brings you Facebook and Intagram), was obviously born to compete with Twitter (X). But in an unexpected twist, it seems to be heading towards becoming a photographers’ haven rather than a forum for text-based political discourse.

My first impressions of Threads a couple of months back wasn’t mind-blowing, but I liked the clean look of it. One thing I noticed early is that people aren’t as angry as they are on Twitter — everyone was figuring out the new platform, offering each other tips.

Perhaps it’s because I engaged with photographers on Threads early on. But now my entire feed seems to be an artist of some kind. The bulk of those artists are fine art landscape, portrait, and street photographers.

There’s a trend on Threads right now where people “ask” the algorithm to connect them with photographers and other like-minded people. It seems to be working for a lot of photographers/videographers/cinematographers in particular, not to mention writers and authors too.

Since #hashtags aren’t really a thing on Threads (at least yet), you have to rely on your content quality more to direct people to you. The upside is that it makes you focus more on sharing your best work, without worrying about all the fancy tags to send it to the top of peoples’ feeds.

A simple caption seems to do well with photos on Threads, whereas on Instagram — which was originally made for photography — seems to demand a lot more effort. You can add effects and music to Instagram posts, so it almost calls for you to use them to stand out.

I have leaning more into Threads since leaving Twitter fairly recently. I had enough of Twitter/X becoming a breeding ground for hate in the guise of “freedom of speech”, with very little engagement on my writing and photos. It’s very obvious which direction that platform’s new owner has, and it’s not to the left.

Anyways, I’ve gained quite a few new followers since I started paying more attention. I currently have about 130 followers, which doesn’t seem like a lot. But consider I gained that many in about three months, whereas it took me more than 10 years on Twitter to break 1,000.

But there’s more to it. I also notice that instead of just getting “likes” on my photos posted on Threads, I’m also getting more meaningful engagement. Photographers appear to be more genuine on Threads, since they don’t have to appease the almighty algorithm as much. They give each other tips and praise each other’s work. It’s very refreshing.

So while I still get more action overall on Instagram — where I have attracted about 1,150 followers of my “art” profile — I think it’s a matter of quality of quantity when it comes to interactions.

Threads isn’t perfect, but it’s moving in the right direction

Yes, Threads is associated with Facebook, whose parent has had its own ethics issues. So I don’t think Threads is completely “squeaky clean.” However, the conversations seem to be a lot more respectful, and debates held with less vitriol from the get-go like on X.

I’m not sure if Meta’s goal was to make Threads a competitor of one of its own products (Instagram). But I’m seeing more and more posts from photogs (and others) who are making Threads their first place they post, rather than Instagram where their work sometimes gets lost in the void.

I have high hopes for Threads now, after being only mildly impressed at the start. It seems to be more of a show-and-tell type here are my photos, like them and discuss place now, rather than an endless, overwhelming sea of content like on Instagram.

Threads now has an estimated 137 million users, and that number is heading steadily upwards. Meanwhile, Instagram still far outweighs Threads at a reported 1.35 billion users, but Threads is slowly catching up to Twitter/X at around 550 million users (however, trends suggest users are leaving Twitter since the takeover.)

I’m not sure if the trend will continue to favour visual artists on Threads, but I plan to stay and find out. Come and follow me! If you’re a photographer or artist or just a cool person, I’ll follow you back.

(If you’re a sole Instagram user, you’ll notice that links to Threads profiles are on each users’ Instagram profile to make it easier to find them on the platform. The same is true from Instagram to Threads.)

Have you used Threads as a visual artist? Let us know in the comments how it’s going for you.