Open the Threads app or website and create a profile. You can create it with your business's Instagram account or, where Threads offers it, with an email address or phone number. Then write a one-line bio, add your website link and publish a few useful posts before you invite anyone to follow.
Choose how to create the profile
Meta's Threads Privacy Policy (the EU version) describes two ways to create a profile. The option to sign up without Instagram was added to that policy in May 2025. Which options you see can depend on your country and app version, so check the sign-up screen.
| Create it with | What carries over | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Your business Instagram account | Your name and username come from Instagram | To change the Threads username, you change the Instagram username. Threads can suggest profiles you already follow on Instagram. |
| An email address or phone number | Nothing from Instagram | Meta says it does not use information from any Instagram accounts you have to personalize your Threads experience or ads. |
If the business already has an Instagram account, signing in with it keeps the name and handle the same in both places. That consistency helps customers recognize you.
Set up the profile for a business
- Name and handle. Use the business name people already search for. If you sign in with Instagram, the handle is your Instagram handle.
- Bio. One line: what you do, who it is for and where. Write it for a conversational feed, so it can be shorter and plainer than a website tagline.
- Link. Point it at the page a new customer needs first, usually your homepage or your main service page.
- First posts. Publish three before you announce the profile. Good starting material: a question customers often ask, a distinction you explain in the work and a timely note about the business.
- Replies. Decide who answers comments and how often someone checks. Threads is built for conversation, so an unanswered question reads as a closed door.
Is Threads worth it for a local business?
It is worth it when you have something specific to add to a conversation: a useful answer, a clear opinion with context or a timely local note. It is not worth treating as one more channel that must be fed every day. If your customers are not on Threads, keep the profile accurate and spend your time where they are.
An invented example
This example is made up to show the order of steps. A solo esthetician already has an Instagram business account. She signs in to Threads with it, so her name and handle match. She shortens her Instagram bio into one plainer line, links her booking page and posts the skincare question clients ask her most, with her answer. She checks replies once a day.
If writing the posts is the hard part
The setup takes one sitting. Keeping the profile useful is the ongoing work. Threads posts and replies with AI shows how to draft a week of posts and replies from your own material, with you reading every line before it goes out.
Sources checked October 9, 2026
- Meta, Threads Privacy Policy, EU version, as recorded on May 14, 2025 by Open Terms Archive (summary, recorded text): "You can use Threads by creating a profile with your Instagram account or, alternatively, with your email address or phone number." The same version says a profile created with Instagram takes its name and username from Instagram, that Threads may suggest profiles you already follow on Instagram, and that a profile created with an email address or phone number does not use information from your Instagram accounts.