While I am yet to be convinced that Meta has the formula right to truly maximize the growth of Threads as yet, the platform is growing, with users seeking to build their Threads presence specifically, a view to broadening their online footprint.

And if this is you, that may be helpful. Today, Meta launched a new Threads tips mini-site with notes and pointers on how to make the most out of your Threads approach, based on data-backed best practices.
Meta has described:

We built Threads because we believe everyone has something worth saying; we want you to be able to create communities of interest around your best ideas and most interesting thoughts. That's why, today, we're launching new educational resources to help you learn how to drive conversations on Threads and get more eyeballs on your work.

The mini-site introduces you to Threads and its key features - including safety controls, working, and details of specific features
Then comes the Q and A section, containing various tips on how to improve your performance on Threads 
Personally speaking, there is not much hands-on insight into how you can grow your threads' audience, although Meta also provides some additional notes on what is driving current performance on Threads:

Replies constitute almost half of the views on Threads. Meta encourages contributing to related conversations.
Posting more often is synonymous with more impressions per post. Meta advises posting at least 2-5 times a week if you want to grow your audience
Humor-based content receives nearly as much views as any other form of content on Threads
Video, photo, and carousel posts with text receive nearly as many views as those without
Having more posts on weekends can get one to be more active
Text and video in a post are likely to receive more views
Having posts that provoke a conversation or more of a discussion will most probably lead to more recommendations
Meta also states that for the creators who have earned the most number of replies on Threads, most of these topics included:

TV & Movies
Photography
Books & Literature
Fashion & Style
Fitness & Workouts
Sports
Music
Food & Drink
Beauty
Technology
Travel & Leisure
So, basically, news and/or politics in no way. Keep it to these lighter topics, and you will do better on Threads, though this very point is also the reason why I'm not quite sure that Threads has got its approach totally right as yet.

Still, I am not going to sugarcoat this: Threads is already a huge success in relative terms. The Twitter clone app had a meteoric rise, racing to 100 million members in record time, and is now up to 200 million monthly active users - a very good achievement in itself.

But on the other hand, Threads was provided with an on-ramp to success when people were literally searching for a real alternative to the X project led by Elon Musk, and Meta is also using its scale to cross-promote its real-time social alternative.

And while threads in general is pretty good user experience, it still feels that Meta's aversion for certain topics will somewhat restrain its growth, and narrow what people view on the app.

Like, it feels sometimes like the algorithm shows you light, pointless stuff, when you know real discussion is happening elsewhere. Because Meta'd prefer to entertain than inform. And add to this the fact that Threads continues to show you posts that are days old, and it often lacks freshness, and feels like you're being placated with less relevant bloat. Which might well keep people scrolling, but also feels like a waste of time and not a "finger on the pulse" style stream of global consciousness.

Which is really the key point. Threads feels like a sheltered existence to some degree, as if Meta is deliberately keeping you to more light, more positive elements, in order to keep things happy and friendly. Because people are getting sick of divisive conversations in social apps, and Meta's getting sick of being blamed for all the ills of the world.
It makes sense that Meta would move in this direction, understandable across the board in Facebook and IG. But in the threads context, it still doesn't feel like they're showing you the re-run of yesterday's best jokes while ignoring discussions of more pressing matters.

Maybe that's just anecdatum, and maybe Meta's actually getting it right, and people will end up spending more time on Threads as a result. But it feels, for me at least, less alive than Twitter did at peak.

In that respect, overall, this could end up being a better approach, but it also means the way to win on Threads is to focus on light-hearted, less topical content.

Is it a better experience for a real-time social app?