New trends and tactics for gaining followers are constantly emerging on social media. Lately, we've seen a surge of recent trends on Threads, Instagram's new social media platform designed to stand up against X (formerly Twitter) that mirrors the 'follow for follow' trends of the early days of Instagram. But the question is, are these reimagined 'follow for follow' trends on Threads effective, and can they help you grow your followers on Instagram, too? Let's find out!

What are the New "Follow for Follow" trends on Threads?

The 'Algorithm, please connect me with...' and This account is for' trends have been going strong since the inception of Threads.

With these trends, Thread users typically list the topics they post about in hopes that the algorithm will connect them to interested accounts. These trends are a clever way to let people know what content they can expect to see by engaging with your content in a way that doesn't feel forced or spammy. These trends have garnered a lot of engagement, especially for early adopters on Threads.

Instagram's algorithm prioritizes search engine optimation (SEO), meaning it's essential to use keywords in your content that your audience is likely to search for to gain more visibility. These 'follow for follow' trends are popular and effective because they are an easy way to introduce yourself to a new audience with SEO-rich content.

Plus, with Threads being a new platform, people are eager to build community and find new people to follow. So tactics like the 'follow for follow' trends are a great way to gain traction on a new social media platform as an early adopter, where everyone is actively looking for new accounts to follow.

These trends are also emerging on other platforms. 'Welcome to the corner of the internet' and the POV: You discovered my account...' are trends that have been circulating on Instagram and TikTok:

These trends are great ways to leverage SEO in your captions and videos to introduce yourself to a new audience and immediately inform them of the value they'll receive from following your account. While these social media trends may go in and out of popularity, the idea behind them is evergreen, and all brands should consider incorporating more introduction-style content like this into their posting schedule regularly.

Can I use Threads to grow my Instagram account?

We know that Instagram owns Threads, so the platforms are very integrated, making it easy to bring your audience over to Threads from Instagram. Instagram also integrates Threads content into your feed, which makes it easy for people on Instagram to discover your Threads account. But it isn't clear whether Threads can provide the same growth opportunities on Instagram.

If you're sharing highly valuable and engaging content on Threads that gets a lot of reposts, this can bring a lot of new eyes and followers to your Threads account, which does connect people back to your Instagram account. However, this would mean that people would have to leave Threads to go to Instagram to follow you, which is an extra step some people may not be interested in taking. Nevertheless, having a strategy to create content for both platforms that complements each other can lead to significant growth for your accounts on each platform overall.

The biggest lesson we can take away from the re-emergence of 'follow for follow' trends on Threads and other social media platforms is that it's always a good idea to incorporate SEO into your social media content and consistently create content that makes it clear what people can expect when they follow your account. Keep these lessons in mind, and your social media following will grow consistently.