In a past blog post, we discussed how Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition had fellow change managers and communicators wondering about the state of the company and the ripple effects on corporate social media outreach. As a communications and change management consultant, my advice to someone in Elon’s position was to bring on professionals to help him plan the change and communicate with intent, engage champions, execute his vision, and keep an ear to the street.
But after Twitter’s numerous missteps and HR disasters, Mark Zuckerberg and other leaders at Meta recognized an opportunity to capitalize on change management gone wrong and meet users where they are. On July 5, 2023—the day after “Independence Day”—the company rolled out Threads as if their intent was to free users from the hot mess that is now Twitter. The company met users where they are successfully by presenting them with a similar product that integrates with Instagram, another Meta product. As I’m drafting this blog post, Threads has more than 50 million sign-ups, 95 million posts, and 190 million likes. Elon is now accusing Meta of “unlawful misappropriation” of Twitter trade secrets. But how did Twitter wind up in this position in the first place?
My guess is that Meta did a better job of managing change than Twitter did.
For Twitter, the major change was Elon’s acquisition of the company. However, Meta recognized that for everyone else, the real change was how Elon’s missteps threatened the way people used Twitter and relied on it for information. So how did Meta manage that change? By doing the following:
Plan change and communicate with intent. Twitter left the door wide open for a strong competitor to develop a Twitter-killer product. In this case, Meta planned a reaction to the change that would address issues with platform reliability and information integrity. Although the roll out of Threads wasn’t widely known to the public, Meta employees and other stakeholders (including a select set of influencers) were aware of how this app would address the void Twitter created and the change that would come with developing and launching this new app. Meta’s leadership recognized how launching Threads would benefit, not hinder, Meta’s future growth.
Engage champions. Meta reached out to influencers and media outlets to ensure that they were among the first to create accounts, which brings their followers with them and creates groundswell of users gravitating to Threads at lightning speed. Because these individuals understand the void that Twitter left in their businesses, they were the best ones to understand the switch to Threads and its potential benefits. As early adopters, they’re empowered to communicate benefits with other users who might be resistant or apathetic (hence the memes that contrast the acts of tweeting versus threading).
Execute the vision. Meta implemented the transition to Meta while providing stakeholders with the information they needed to adjust. They also built on the existing Instagram functionality to make the transition and user experience as seamless as possible.
Keep an ear to the street. Like Twitter, Meta allows for a free exchange of thought. And what will users do when they join Threads and play around with it? Announce what they like and don’t like about the new social media platform. Users have already pointed out that there’s no desktop version of Threads, the feed is powered algorithmically, and it lacks accessibility for people with disabilities. Meta can watch these conversations to gauge how users are adjusting to the new technology and if their rollout is having the outcome they expected. They can then respond by tailoring the app accordingly and keeping users abreast of the updates.
Will Threads become the Twitter killer? Only time will tell. However, damage to Twitter’s brand and trustworthiness among its stakeholders has already been done. Meta only did what any smart business powerhouse would do—capitalize on Twitter’s very public inability to manage change.
