All you need to know about Threads with Matthias Lüfkens

The European Digital Diplomacy Exchange (EDDE) invites you to join us on Thursday, March 21, at 15:00 CET for a virtual lecture All you need to know about Threads with Matthias Lüfkens.

Since Elon Musk took over, the situation at X has been chaotic, to say the least. There has been a rise in hate speech, technical problems due to the firing of the majority of its workforce, surveillance concerns, election violence, and an increase of users’ security and privacy risks. Consequently, the number of users has dropped, and advertising has shrunk. Meta saw this as an opportunity and created and, in the summer of 2023, launched Threads, a new text-based app to rival X. It became available in Europe in December 2023, and while X still dominates the market, Threads is becoming slowly but surely more popular and relevant. Hence, it is not a surprise that many governments and international organisations already opened their account on that new platform, and many are yet to follow. But like every platform also, Threads has its advantages and disadvantages and like every platform, also Threads has its features. We need to understand it, learn to use it and get to know its tricks. That is why Matthias Lüfkens, founder and CEO of DigiTips, will join us at our next virtual session. Matthias Lüfkens is social media savvy and an author of Twiplomacy Study 2017. He is up to date with all social media trends and new platforms. The primary focus of the lecture will, of course, be the relatively new social media platform Threads. We will get to know its perks and flaws which might attract followers and increase engagement rates. Next, Matthias will broaden our horizons on strategic digital campaign fundamentals and the importance of engagement analytics.

Bio: Matthias Lüfkens has over 35 years of experience in digital and traditional communications. He is the founder and CEO of DigiTips, a Geneva-based boutique communication agency. Among others, his clients include leading international organisations like ITU, GAVI, WIPO, WHO, UNICEF, WWF and some other non-governmental organisations, as well as corporations wishing to improve their digital profiles. Previously, he was responsible for digital media at the World Economic Forum, where he designed and implemented the digital strategy. He is an author of the Twiplomacy, a study that examines how governments, international organisations and world leaders use digital platforms. Matthias started his career as a journalist at Agence France Presse, Libération and the Daily Telegraph and later EuroNews television. During that time, he founded the In Your Pocket city guide series in Lithuania, now Central Europe’s premier publisher and provider of city information.