Threads for brands: 500 characters, chains, what to post

Threads* is a text-first network tied to an Instagram* account, and every editor arrives with the same question: what do we put there, if it is neither Instagram nor a blog. The answer comes down to the format — 500 characters per post. The limit looks harsh, and it is exactly what determines everything else, from the shape of the text to how often you publish.

How Threads differs from its neighbours

	Threads*	Instagram*	Telegram
What carries the post	text, media optional	an image or video, text secondary	text and media equally
Length	500 characters	caption up to 2200 characters	up to 4096 characters
Where readers come from	the recommendation feed	follows and recommendations	follows
Tone	conversational, a remark	composed, polished	depends on the channel

The practical conclusion: on Threads a post is a remark, not a publication. Text that reads as a normal post in Telegram reads as a press release here. The tone is closer to how you would write to a colleague than to how you would dress up a news item on the site.

The second difference matters more than the first: readers arrive from the recommendation feed, which means people who don’t follow you are reading you. A post has to make sense with no context from the previous ones — “as we wrote yesterday” doesn’t work.

How much is 500 characters

Roughly 80 words in English. One medium paragraph. Or, counted in meaning, one complete thought: a claim, a short justification, and a full stop.

Here is a 410-character example — close to the ceiling:

For three months we answered the same question: why deliveries take longer in the rain. First we explained it in DMs, then we wrote a post, then we pinned it. The question didn’t go away, but the repetition did — people started sending each other the link. Simple rule: if a question comes up a third time, it isn’t a question, it’s a topic. Answering it once in public beats answering it forty times in private.

Note what fits: a story, an observation and a conclusion. The only thing that doesn’t fit is the run-up.

Four ways to make it fit

1. Cut the run-up. “We wanted to share an observation” and “in this post we’ll explain” eat a hundred characters and carry nothing. Start with the observation.
2. One thought per post. If the draft holds two claims, that is two posts, not one squeezed.
3. Numbers instead of adjectives. “Grew noticeably” is three words about nothing; “grew by a third” is three words and a fact.
4. Drop the hedges. “In our view”, “as a rule”, “in most cases” — politeness that reads as uncertainty in a short format.

The check: read the post aloud. Anywhere you want to draw breath mid-sentence, something is redundant.

When to split into a chain

A chain is several posts in a row, each a reply to the one before. It earns its place when the thought genuinely doesn’t fit: a three-step breakdown, a story with a development, a list of five.

Rules that keep a chain readable:

• the first post stands alone. It is the one that lands in the recommendation feed and gets read in isolation. It has to carry a finished thought, not a set-up;
• media goes in the first post. Further down the chain an image is lost — only the people who read that far will see it;
• each part has its own 500-character limit. It is not a shared budget for the chain, so split by meaning rather than by the counter;
• three to five parts is the ceiling for a brand. Anything longer is an article, and it belongs on a blog with a link in the first post of the chain;
• skip the numbering. “1/7” in the opening post tells the reader six more are coming, and some of them leave right there.

Eight formats that work

Threads dislikes the polished. Here is what gets read.

1. An observation from practice. One thing you noticed last week.
2. A short post-mortem. What went wrong, what it cost, how you fixed it.
3. A number with context. Not a report — one figure and what it means.
4. An answer to a frequent question. The one that lands in your DMs for the third time.
5. An opinion with a reason. Not “we believe”, but “we believe this because”.
6. Behind the process. How the work actually runs, without the gloss.
7. A reaction to industry news. Fast, while the news is alive, and in your own words.
8. A question to the audience. A real one you actually need answered, not “how about you?”.

What is not on the list: announcements for their own sake, holiday greetings, uncommented reshares, and posts consisting entirely of a link. Those don’t survive in a recommendation feed.

Cadence and timing

Threads tolerates a higher cadence than Instagram*: two or three remarks a week is the floor, and daily is normal. The format is short, and the feed doesn’t read it as pushiness.

But cadence only makes sense when you have something to say. A daily post written “because it’s on the schedule” is obvious — it is made of general words. Three strong remarks a week beat seven empty ones.

Timing matters less than in follow-based channels: a recommendation feed shows the post to people who weren’t online at that minute. Follow your audience’s activity, but don’t build a strategy around the clock.

Running Threads alongside Instagram

The temptation is obvious: copy the Instagram* caption into Threads*. Don’t — a caption is written to sit under an image, and without the image it falls apart.

A reuse scheme that works:

• take the claim from the Instagram post, not the text. One post, one remark, written from scratch;
• the reverse direction works too. A remark that got a response can be expanded into a full post with visuals;
• comments in both networks are a shared source of topics. What someone asked under a photo lives well as its own remark.

The requirements differ too: Threads accepts a post with no media at all, while an Instagram feed post does not — and the frame has to fit the allowed proportions (the requirements in detail).

Where the topics come from in the first place, and how not to invent them on publication day, is in the content plan.

A checklist before posting

• the post carries one thought and makes sense without the previous ones;
• it fits 500 characters without resorting to abbreviations;
• no run-up: the first sentence is already the point;
• if it’s a chain — the first post stands alone, media is in it, five parts maximum;
• no “1/5” numbering;
• if there is a link, it isn’t the entire content of the post;
• the text has been read aloud and doesn’t stumble anywhere.

How the same thing works in Telegram, with its bot permissions and limits, is in the Telegram setup guide.