There’s been a disturbance in the force. In a world of constantly evolving social media platforms, a new contender has burst onto the scene, capturing the attention of millions and leaving a trail of excitement in its wake.

Threads, Meta’s Twitter rival, has taken the digital realm by storm, offering a refreshing and dynamic experience for users growing weary of Muskian meddling and looking for a unique social media adventure.

Let’s delve into the exhilarating launch of Threads, explore the number of users who have flocked to the platform, and discover the types of individuals we think it might attract.

A Diverse User Base Flocks to Threads

Threads has become the talk of the town. Since its much-anticipated launch, the platform has amassed 30+ million registered users worldwide, 5m reportedly arriving in the first 4 hours of operation. Industry experts predict his rapid growth will position Threads as a significant player in the digital realm, rivaling established giants such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Threads: A Haven for Digital Mavericks and Creatives

One of the most intriguing aspects of Threads is its potential to attract a diverse range of users. The platform’s unique features and captivating interface appeal to people of all ages, interests, and backgrounds. From Gen Z trendsetters to seasoned professionals seeking a fresh networking platform, Threads offers something for everyone.

Threads will quickly become a haven for digital mavericks who yearn for a distinct online experience. These early adopters thrive on innovation, eagerly embracing new technologies and platforms. Their active presence on Threads will result in a vibrant and cutting-edge community that in turn will attract more thrill seekers.

The platform will also be a magnet for creatives, drawing in artists, designers, photographers, and writers. The platform’s visually immersive nature allows users to showcase their talents and connect with like-minded individuals. We guess. Threads will become a hub of inspiration and collaboration for global artists.

Threads: The Go-To Platform for Networking Professionals

For professionals searching for fresh networking and career growth avenues, Threads will emerge as the go-to platform. Its interactive and intuitive interface enables users to build meaningful connections, exchange ideas, and explore job opportunities. The platform’s focus on fostering professional relationships differentiates it from traditional social media networks.

Amplifying Voices and Effecting Positive Change on Threads

Threads is not just about self-expression; it will also attract passionate individuals who want to make a difference. Users dedicated to social causes and activism can find a home on the platform, utilizing its extensive reach to raise awareness and mobilize communities. Threads will prove a powerful platform for amplifying voices and effecting positive change.

Setting Threads Apart: Seamlessness, User Experience, and Privacy Measures

What sets Threads apart from its competitors? Its appeal lies in combining seamless functionality with a seductive user experience. The platform’s innovative features, including dynamic threads, immersive multimedia integration, and intelligent algorithms that tailor content to individual interests, have proved a real draw. Moreover, Threads’ commitment to user privacy and data security has provided a real draw. Threads app offers fresh air in an era of data breaches and privacy concerns by prioritizing transparency and implementing robust privacy measures.

The Impact of Threads: A Force to be Reckoned With

Threads has unquestionably ignited the social media landscape. With its explosive launch, staggering user numbers, and diverse user base, the platform has proven it will be a force to be reckoned with. Whether you’re a digital maverick, creative connoisseur, networking ninja, or cause champion, Threads promises to be the reactive social media platform of choice, and its impact on the digital landscape is only set to grow. Stand by for a new world order, one connected by threads.

Look at the date on your phone, it might as well be 1920 and COVID-19 might as well be the Spanish Flu, humans are still helpless. Forget the technology, right now you just need four walls, soap and water and if you dare venture outside, a piece of cloth covering your nose and mouth. 

While it’s hard not to feel the despair and fear all around us now, everyone around the world is finally coming to the realization that regardless of when and how this situation will end, the world we know is never going to be the same.

World War II, 9/11, and most recently, the global financial crisis in 2008 were major incidents among others that have reshaped how the world functioned both socially and economically creating new power balances and affecting how people lived and worked. COVID-19’s impact is arguably more than anything the world has experienced since WWII, according to McKinsey & Company as it is expected, according to financial forecasts, that the EU would see a drop average in GDP from -9.5% to -12.2%  and the US from -3.9% to -8.0% by the end of 2020.

A New Normal – not so new!

“For some organizations, near-term survival is the only agenda item. Others are peering through the fog of uncertainty, thinking about how to position themselves once the crisis has passed and things return to normal. The question is, “What will normal look like?”  Ian Davis quoted this from McKinsey & Company amidst the financial crisis in 2009.

However, in many ways, the new Normal is being redefined as I write these words right “Now”, from new “social norms” to some jobs, skills, and tasks becoming obsolete within days, you can easily now notice how you, your family, your company or even your government have taken serious steps and have implemented processes to ensure “continuity”.  At least I hope you have.

Life Continuity

The operative word for the rest of your life, post-COVID-19, is continuity. And here is why, as you probably have heard by now, some of the world’s largest organizations and enterprises are laying off more people than ever (regardless of how considerate and humane they are about it). 

Top Technology Company Lay-Offs to date:

1. Groupon has laid off 2,800 employees
2. Airbnb has laid off 1,900 employees
3. Uber has laid off 6,700 employees
4. Lyft has laid off 982 employees
5. TripAdvisor has laid off 900 employees 
6. Brex has laid 62 off 473 employees

Source: Business Insider

Source: Business Insider

This still means the business map is changing because what used to matter most no longer matters at all. So now, as a career person, you are wondering, is everything meant to last? And if so, how will it exactly ‘ continue’?

Right now the CEO may not matter much, your next-door nurse neighbor is now more important in the grand scheme of things, just for life to continue. And that sole fact is exactly how you should re-evaluate your career, your business if you are an owner- or even your family’s priorities. Are the fixtures of your lives continuity-ready? Can it all endure the next phase of re-evaluations and re-definitions?

PIVOT, PIVOT, PIVOT

Reading this might start making the view dark and twisted, but not really. It is an act of god that forces us to re-evaluate every piece of information that we have taken for granted. What we have been taught and what we have practiced for yours no longer apply.

Your team will not be healthy because it participates in Team Building activities or goes out for beers or coffee once a month “on a casual basis” your HR director won’t have the same powers anymore if you thought your company was super cool to allow 1 working day from home per week, it now may as well be the norm for the rest of your career to be remote.

Your company isn’t the same; some employees will have to step up to the plate and prepare for new job descriptions and new expectations.

That means a healthy workforce will not be the group of people bonding by the water cooler every morning, instead, a healthy workforce will be a workforce that actually works together and communicates well without ever having to meet personally, ever.

In my experience leading an organization for almost 20 years now, this is the core of business continuity post-COVID-19; businesses should be all about change management instead of crisis management. With such change comes a large responsibility and enough awareness from founders and managers to contemplate adapting the company’s core values, workplace dynamics, and in some cases, the entire business model. 

It is time to consciously pivot your company’s mindset, gearing it to be more aligned with the new norm as opposed to a company struggling to keep its- now virtual- doors open. 

According to  Mckinsey’s report titled “Beyond Coronavirus: the path to the next normal”, there are five stages to surviving the current status quo and moving into the next World E-Order, and it all falls on the shoulders of management and leadership. Your focus is to Resolve the current crisis and keep your business’s Resilience because “this is a marathon, not a sprint,” in the words of Fady Younan, Extreme Solution’s GM; return your business to ‘functioning cash-positive (if possible) state the soonest all the while focusing, planning and aiming towards the final two stages Reimagination and Reform; which are self-explanatory by definition.

Finally, If you are a business leader, executive, or manager and you are trying to figure out how to navigate the waters of the “New Norm” to sail your ship into safety, my advice would be to start planning and executing a transformation strategy. Change management, workforce modernization, and digital transformation are different stages to ensure your business and workforce are equipped for the “New Norm”.  

Humankind is trying to figure out ways to fight and control the pandemic that has hit the world, causing tens of thousands of getting sick and thousands to be dead, and numbers are only rising till this minute.

Different countries and societies are taking extreme measures trying to be a step ahead of the disease. While the verdict is still out towards the results of those measures, what is evident is that new norms are being set on how everyone is going by their daily lives. Employees are asked to work from home, businesses are searching their playbooks on maintaining business continuity, teams are exploring new tools and processes to ensure projects or work would remain flowing, or we would hit an economic “Ice Age.”

Digital transformation has become a humanitarian necessity rather than just an economic for business continuity in such a context.

Social distancing becomes almost mandatory to limit the virus spread, yet it has proved to be harder to implement as it disrupts the very way we live. Digitalizing activities, performing daily activities, and moving to more contactless modes of operations, becomes a necessity rather than a luxury.

According to Richard Kozul-Wright, Director, Division on Globalization and Development Strategies at UNCTAD, it is predicted the pandemic would cost the global economy around 1 trillion$, according to just for this year.

So while the Human tragedy is yet to come to an end, businesses must explore new ways to go about things both within internal operations or by adopting new business models within their respective markets to survive and support their employees and clients.

A case for digital transformation

Businesses, Governments, and societies believed that we are ready to operate effectively in a similar crisis, yet it is clear now that we were far from being prepared. The outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has shown the value and effectiveness of various technology solutions to ensure business continuity, and enterprises that have undergone their digital transformation journey have been the least affected.

Collaborative office, Video conferencing, remote customer management & support have been on top of the technology solutions that lead businesses to carry on with operations during the crisis.

As the community goes through the crisis trying to fight and contain, additional digital forms of services will be required, especially in the undeveloped countries: digital payments, Contactless delivery, Online goods orders, Online education, and many others.

Are we Digital-Transform Ready?!

Many companies have had work from home policies implemented for years, some of which are more mature than others as talent becomes distributed worldwide. There is no need to make a case for remote work.

Is the majority of the workforce “remote-work” ready?

Such a dramatic shift in how businesses must operate to service requires the right mindset, processes, and tools. Understandably, most businesses lack those to enable their workforce to be as effective during such times.

The business pandemic extends not only just to the workforce but how core business operations are being set. While workers and employees will adapt to the new norm, companies may not be set with the required infrastructure, access policies, Data access, and compliance geared for such use cases. Businesses that are not cloud-native by design or haven’t factored in cloud strategies as part of their Digital transformation might suffer a lot in the coming weeks or months as they try to accommodate the new norms.

Digital transformation is not about the tools or digitizing processes. Still, more of a change mindset top to bottom within an organization ensures a business is scalable, reliable, and able to function in a healthy mode regardless of how changing this fast-paced world. So are you ready to do what it takes to get your businesses to survive?!

The Future is now

While the dust hasn’t settled yet, the fact is different businesses and markets will have to accommodate new ways to conduct business not sure to ensure the safety of their workforce but to remain in businesses and serve their community and customers.

• Telehealth and Telemedicine
• Virtual Events
• Online & Remote education
• Collaboration and Remote workforce

Those are only examples of markets that must fast-track their transformation journey through tools, infrastructure, business models, and above all, mindsets to accommodate the new world order that is being laid upon us as we as individuals are adapting to new terms and habits.

Stay Safe, stay healthy, and stay productive.