The Pace Report Vol. 4

It’s often an overused cliche to say that a full-time artist in 2023 must be a “wearer of many hats” - but Tropix particularly takes that advice to heart.

The producer, content creator, and entrepreneur has demonstrated a repeatable process for growth hacking on social media and building sustainable communities. To date, he’s racked up over 75M streams across platforms, and boasts a combined social media following of over 500K.

We asked Tropix about his insights on Threads thus far, where he’s already gleaned valuable insights on how to use the platform to drive traffic. Amid a recent report that over half of Threads users have left the platform since its record breaking rollout, Tropix says now is the time to get serious about building on the platform.

The Pace Report: Tropix, Threads has been out for a little less than a month, tell us about what you see the platform doing for your business so far.

Tropix: Threads has allowed me to find like-minded, passionate people with shared interests, which is refreshing because Threads is not underpinned by an algorithm driven primarily by ads, politics, or commerce.

There’s a view I see being expressed that says one’s success on Threads is only predicated upon the size of their Instagram following, but I disagree. My Threads following is 90% organic to the platform. My posts on Threads average 30-50 comments and 200-400 likes and this is all within 3 weeks of building on the platform with people I've never met or interacted with previously elsewhere on social media.

On Threads, it’s about organic discovery and being authentic and unpolished in such a way perhaps you otherwise wouldn’t be on another platform. On Threads, I feel that people are primarily supporting me and my journey as a human, but they’re also supporting me professionally. For example, my website over the last 30 days saw an uptick of 300% more clicks driven directly by my link in bio.

It’s a great time to start building on Threads as the demographic spans all ages and additionally includes people who’ve never used another text-based social media platform before, such as Twitter.

The Pace Report: What type of content is working on Threads right now?

Tropix: As an artist, DJ, creator, & builder, it’s hard to find a platform where you can share your honest & authentic thoughts. On platforms like Instagram and TikTok, people are presenting a highly curated version of themselves that only shows the highlights. Threads on the other hand incentivizes creators to be vulnerable, raw, and unpolished. People are being honest with themselves first, while also seeking to motivate and uplift others in the space.

You typically see engagement groups on other platforms, but on Threads there’s a lot more value in building a community that responds organically and honestly. In my anecdotal experience, responses are more well thought out on Threads and come from the heart. I want people to support me as a person first, and I want to show others that we all experience similar things in different ways. It’s how you communicate those experiences that allows others to derive value from them.

The Pace Report: Has growth hacking on Threads been different compared to any of the other platforms where you’ve had success?

Tropix: Yes, because it’s easier to see through gimmicks on Threads. It’s not as simple as forcing people to engage or interact with your posts. I’ve noticed that the way to grow on Threads is to provide others with thoughtful replies, not just liking their posts, but taking that extra second to add to the conversation. Threads doesn’t display how many people you follow on your profile, so it makes you feel like you can follow as many people as you’d like who align with your interests rather than caring about a follow-to-following ratio.

The Pace Report: There’s a viewpoint that the only people who will be successful on Threads are those who possess a large Instagram following already. What do you say to that?

Tropix: Definitely not true! As I’ve said previously, you become successful on Threads by interacting with others who are also active on Threads. I’ve grown my Threads account to 7,000 followers thus far and can confidently say that 6,500 of them found me organically on Threads. Many creators joined and then quickly left Threads because their engagement was lower, which is a decision I can respect. If you have a platform that you’ve found your community on, you should maximize it - wherever that may be.

However, the perspective that your Threads is only as good as your Instagram following is wrong in my view. Despite the unique circumstances under which Threads was launched, essentially as a sort of sister-app to Instagram, over time there will be people who are uniquely successful on Threads, just like there are creators on every other platform. Identifying and building with those particular creators is the goal if you want to be successful in the long-term.

The Pace Report: Threads is being launched as part of the “Fediverse,” what are your thoughts on how this influences the long-term viability of the platform?

Tropix: The “Fediverse” is a very interesting concept as it has thousands of servers connected together to build one universal social hub. Every server has communities, but your profile carries over to each with the possibility of your followers using the platform and your account being connected. Another big platform using Fediverse is Mastadon in Europe. This is a really significant added value proposition that Threads can build upon over time. I’ve experimented with Layer 2 solutions that have leveraged this concept already and I truly believe it’s the future of how we look at the totality of someone’s social profile.

Imagine being able to seamlessly bring your followers that exist on one account over to multiple platforms. I really love the idea of having one comprehensive social profile that remains interconnected to various disparate platforms.