An artist who was able to pay off credit card debt, a photographer who makes extra money by responding to the most polarizing posts he can find, a food blogger trying to start interesting conversations. These are some of the creators who get paid by Meta to post on Threads.
Meta introduced the invitation-only program in April, but only shared limited details about how it works. Engadget spoke to half a dozen creators who have joined the program over the past few months. They described their strategies for achieving required engagement metrics and the sometimes confusing nature of Threads' recommendation algorithm.
Creators are classified into different tiers of the program, which determines how much their bonuses can be and what kind of metrics their posts must achieve. None of the creators who spoke to Engadget knew how or why they had been selected for the bonus program, although they all had established followers on instagram. (One of the known requirements is a professional instagram account).
Audrey Woulard is a photographer with more than 25,000 followers on instagram and about 5,500 followers on Threads. He uses his facebook and instagram accounts to promote his portrait photography business. But when she was invited to the Threads bonus program, she saw an opportunity to experiment with different types of content.
His strategy, he says, is about answers. It focuses exclusively on responding to other users' posts instead of creating your own. “I'm not necessarily generating content on my own,” he explains. “I'm turning on other people's content.” By focusing on the responses, he claims he can reach the necessary 60 threads with at least 750 views each to qualify for a $500 monthly bonus.
This has helped her become particularly attuned to the types of topics that are likely to attract a lot of views. “Polarizing content, anything that keeps people talking,” he explains. Specifically, look for topics that people tend to have strong opinions about, such as marriage, parenting, aging, and politics, although try to avoid responding to obvious commitment baits.
Woulard's experience is not unique. Threads defaults to a “for you” timeline that relies heavily on recommended posts rather than posts from accounts you already follow. Meta has also said it does not want to “encourage” users to post about news and politics. Perhaps as a consequence of this, Threads' “for you” feed often seems much slower and less focused on current events than it does on x.
However, what the algorithm does prioritize are posts that receive a lot of responses, even if they are about a seemingly mundane topic. This has resulted in a strangely random quality to the feed, according to blogger Max Read nicknamed “The social network of gas leaks.” It's not uncommon to see a recommended post from someone you have no connection with talking about a trivial inconvenience, medical condition, or some other bland anecdote. However, what these posts have in common is a lot of answers.
It has also created an opportunity for people looking to game the app's algorithm by posting spam content, generic questions or polarizing opinions aimed at attracting as many responses as possible. (Meta executives have said they are trying to fix this issue after an increase in these types of posts, even as they acknowledge that posts with replies are most likely to be recommended.)
But for Woulard, Meta's emphasis on “public conversations” has worked in his favor. She says that so far she's been able to maximize three months of bonuses simply by responding to Threads. Woulard generates more income from his facebook page, but enjoys the simplicity of the Threads bonus program. “It's so easy for me to make this money that I can literally sit in my room and respond to a bunch in 30 minutes.”
For Meta, offering bonuses to instagram creators to post on Threads is part of its strategy to use instagram to grow the year-old service. The company has leaned heavily on instagram to grow Threads, which has already attracted 200 million users. But there are likely some growing pains, too, says social media consultant Matt Navarra.
“I think it's harder for people to create for platforms like Threads,” Navarra tells Engadget. “Writing interesting and engaging posts for a text-based platform, like x, twitter or Threads, is a different set of skills. And I think it's a little complicated for some types of creators.”
Josh Kirkham, an artist who specializes in Bob Ross-style painting videos, has experienced this firsthand. With nearly 800,000 followers on instagram, he's at the top tier of the bonus program, making him eligible to earn up to $5,000 a month for his posts on Threads. He has been able to maximize his bonus by sharing painting videos clipped from his live streams on instagram and TikTok.
Despite the success, he hasn't been able to detect any patterns in what types of videos are likely to take off. He has more than 150,000 followers on Threads, but like other creators in the bonus program, he relies on the app's recommendation algorithm to make his posts stand out. “At first, I would post mountain videos, and those were the ones that were doing the best compared to everything else,” he says, “and then a week later, all the mountain videos would be nothing. Sometimes videos that I think are going to do well don't do well at all, and vice versa.”
Kirkham says he almost never responds to Threads posts when trying to get a bonus because he worries that it will dilute his chances of getting the 5,000 views per post needed to get the maximum payout. Still, he says he's grateful for the show as a full-time artist and creator. “It's allowed me to pay off my credit card debt and then increase my credit score tremendously,” he says. “I hope at least a few more.”
Nearly every creator who spoke to Engadget also expressed some skepticism that Meta would continue the bonus program at its current level for long. In the past, the company has offered creators generous bonuses when trying to push a new format like instagram Reels or facebook Live only for those payouts to eventually dwindle as more people join and Meta inevitably changes its strategy (and the funds to the creators) elsewhere. .
Logan Reavis is a photographer with almost 50,000 followers on instagram and about 8,500 on Threads. Although he has more followers on instagram, he says the Threads algorithm is more favorable to creators. “The (Threads) algorithm works completely differently, especially as a photographer,” he says. “I feel like it's been difficult to share my photos on instagram, but it's recommended on Threads. In fact, I reach a completely different audience.”
Still, he says he's had to deal with the quirks of the Threads algorithm and its penchant for highlighting commitment bait. “Replying to threads that have a lot of comments or conversations is what generates the most additional views, which is also frustrating because there is a lot of clickbait,” he says. So far, Reavis has not been able to reach his potential maximum monthly bonus of $500 on Threads.
While the creators are part of Meta's strategy to make Threads its next app for a billion people, the company hasn't always been able to explain what its newest app is actually for. So it should come as no surprise that even creators who get paid to publish there see it as something of an experiment.
“I still don't think it has its own exclusive place in the social media ecosystem,” Navarra says. “He doesn't really have much of an identity or personality of his own, and I think that's one of his many problems right now.”
