Yesterday Meta opened the doors to Threads for normal folks like you and me.

Now, just over 20 hours later, the app has officially passed 30 million users. They hit 10 million in the first 7 hours alone, a mark that took Google+ a couple days to reach.

But with Twitter struggling and Meta used by nearly 3.6 billion (with a B) people, there is certainly wind to fill their sails.

Now the question is, should resorts use it?

Well, so far at least 31 resorts are – a number that will likely double in the next day or two. Thanks to an onboarding process that replicates much of an account’s presence on Instagram, follower counts are already pretty impressive.

• Vail is just shy of 10,000 followers
• Steamboat has 2,500 even though they haven’t posted
• Mammoth has 5,000 even though they haven’t posted either
• Alta is closing in on 1,000
• Deer Valley just passed 4,000

Engagement seems to be solid as well, especially when compared to Twitter. Vail’s first two posts averaged 40 likes and 7 comments which is fairly close to their Twitter account where they have 7.5x as many followers. Deer Valley is averaging around 30 likes and 2-3 comments per post which is more than double what their typical posts sees on Twitter where they, similarly, have 7x as many followers

But these are early adopters excitedly exploring an app for the first time. Engagement will drop, growth will slow, and inevitably some of the riffraff that folks are trying to escape will make it’s way onto the platform.

So, again, should resorts use it?

The answer, as always, is maybe.

If you have the time and want to ride an early wave of adoption? Now’s a great time to spin up an account and help the community find it’s vibe around content and voice. I think Deer Valley has done a great job of this so far.

If you want to give it a few weeks or a month? That’s fine too, though it might be worth spending 10 minutes to create an account in the event that their Instagram-linked signup flow changes and the username-squatting-stuff becomes more of a possibility. Even big resorts like Beaver Creek haven’t posted, they’re just saving their place.

But if you don’t care and have other things to do? As always, that’s totally fine. Threads is a tool, not a rule. Use it or don’t depending on your needs. The last thing any resort should feel is any sort of pressure to build and maintain a presence on yet another platform when they’ve already got a full plate.

So what’s my prediction for the app?

As far as we know, Twitter has around 450 million active users. I could be completely wrong – Facebook certainly has the reach to throw everything they have at getting this app traction – but I just don’t see enough people leaving Twitter and going to a new site that does the same thing to ever reach 450m. A few hundred million, certainly, but this migration feels a bit like the trends around religion in recent decades. Lots of people are leaving the church they grew up in, but most aren’t going to other churches. Why? They’re burned out on the idea of church in general, not just the idea of their current church.

I think the same could happen. Twitter has been a roller coaster for many users over the last few years, but especially since Elon took over. So, yes, there will be a loyal core that migrates, but I think the lurkers and less frequent tweeters will just call it good and move on.

That, however, could result in an especially engaged community over on Threads even if the raw numbers aren’t as impressive.

As always, time will tell. And I think those indicators will happen sooner than we think. In 30 days we’ll have a good idea about how much resorts should care about this app. I’ll check back in then.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.