Social Media Buzz Weekly: Roundup of Social Media Updates
- ClickInsights
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
Welcome to Social Media Buzz Weekly, your weekly bulletin of the latest social media updates. With the social media landscape evolving with each passing day, it can be challenging to keep a tab on the rapid developments. Well, not anymore, as we have taken it upon ourselves to keep you abreast of every happening in the social media space.
So, without any further ado, let’s look at some of the most significant developments from the last week in the world of social media.
1. Meta Moves To Expand Video Selfie Age-Checking
As more regions consider new laws that would require social platforms to enforce age access restrictions, Meta is laying the foundations for a broader roll-out of video selfie verification, in order to align with this push.
Over on the Facebook Help Center page on video age checking, it’s now updated the wording to make this sound like a more definitive requirement for accessing certain content. As per Facebook, if you are under 18 and trying to change your age on Facebook to over 18 or access a Facebook feature or product intended for adults, you will be asked to give the platform additional information to help verify your age. Users will be able to submit their government-issued ID, or take a video selfie, which will then be cross-checked with a third-party vendor.
2. TikTok Adds New Features To Highlight Songwriters
TikTok has added a new way to credit songwriters for their contributions, as another expansion of its music elements.
Songwriters will now get direct accreditation in the app, with users able to discover songs that they’ve created in a separate profile tab. The new features mean that songwriters’ musical works and their shared content will sit side-by-side in one place on TikTok for the first time, giving songwriters the opportunity to highlight the works they have written or co-written, to share stories about their work, their music and their lives, and to help fans of their music to explore, use, share and save further works from their catalogue.
3. Threads Tests Option To Sign up for an Account Using Facebook
Meta is testing a new option that enables users to sign-up to the app by using their Facebook profile, instead of cross-linking their IG account.
That’ll provide another easy connection option, enabling incoming Threads users to populate their Threads graph based on their Facebook account info instead of their Instagram connections. Meta says that for users who sign up using their Facebook account, it’ll display content on Threads based on your Facebook info, and your profile information and activity across accounts. It’ll also use your Facebook data to recommend relevant content on Threads, which is something that Threads has actually scaled back on with its IG connection process.
4. Instagram Tests Auto Scroll Option for Posts
Instagram is testing a new auto-scroll option with some users, which could make it easier to consume a heap of posts that are fed to you by IG’s algorithm.
Some Instagram users now have a new “Auto scroll” toggle within their post settings, which, as it sounds, enables you to activate an automatic scrolling main feed, so you don’t have to go to the effort of swiping down to get to the next update.
5. Instagram Promotes DM Translation and Scheduling Features for Business Users
Instagram has expanded access to its DM translation and scheduling tools, with more businesses now able to access these options, providing additional engagement opportunities.
Instagram initially began testing DM translations earlier this year. Now, more businesses can access this option, which would enable you to expand your business into new regions. To translate a message, you can hold down on the specific DM, then select “Translate.” The translated text will then be displayed below the original message in-stream. You can also select a language preference, so that your DMs are automatically translated into your native language.
6. Instagram Tests Like Counts For Individual Frames in a Carousel
Instagram is testing a new addition to its post analytics which would show how many likes each specific frame within a carousel post has garnered (sort of), which could give you more insight into what your audience is most interested in.
Instagram’s new carousel frame data allocates like counts based on whatever frame was on screen when the like was applied, which is then attributed to a like count for each image. The counter on each image theoretically gives you an indicator of that specific frame’s popularity.
7. Snapchat Partners With Togethxr To Help Female Athletes Boost Their Presence
Snapchat’s looking to expand its reach into sports content, via a new partnership with Togethxr, a sports media company founded by a group of former high-profile athletes, which aims to elevate attention for women in sport.
The initiative will see Snapchat launch a new content accelerator program called “Snap the Gap,” in which Snapchat’s team will work with an initial group of nine female athletes to help them grow their Snap presence. Togethxr and Snapchat will equip the athletes with direct mentorship from Snapchat, as well as provide content guidance from Togethxr to transform their athletic journeys into compelling, monetizable stories in this first-of-its-kind program from women athletes.
8. Research Shows That Snapchat Delivers Better Results for E-Commerce Brands
Snapchat has shared some new data on the performance of e-commerce brands in the app, and how Snap ads can help to drive purchase activity.
In order to glean more insight on this element, Snapchat recently commissioned Triple Whale to conduct a study of 20,000 ecommerce advertisers, with a cumulative $3 billion ad spend across platforms, in order to get a better understanding of how Snap ads are performing for online retailers. The research reveals that despite being a smaller platform by spend share, Snapchat achieved a 7.5% ROAS improvement while most platforms declined.
9. X Restricts Emoji Use in Promoted Posts
After recently outlawing hashtags in promoted posts, X is now taking aim at another aesthetic element, with the platform implementing new restrictions on ads that contain more than one emoji.
Effective shortly, ads with more than one emoji in the ad copy or creative will have a lower quality score and may experience higher pricing. The exceptions, as X notes, are promotions in Japan and Korea, which will not see any penalties even if they exceed this new emoji limit. But any other ads that include more than one emoji will be restricted to some degree.
10. xAI Launches Companions That Can Engage in NSFW Chats
xAI has launched a new animated companion option, which enables users to interact with a flirty anime character, a misbehaving panda, or another type of digital character, with more set to be launched in future.
Companions is a new feature for SuperGrok subscribers, providing interactive 3D animated AI personas like Ani (a goth anime girl) and Bad Rudy. Enable it in settings to chat; they react with movements, expressions, and can handle NSFW modes.
11. X Looks To Add Branding Markers to Screenshots of Posts
According to reports, screenshots of X posts on iOS will soon come with new “X.com” watermarks, as a means to expand the X brand.
X is working on updated X branding for screenshots of posts taken on the iOS app. A heap of X posts are re-posted on other apps, and gain significant traction, without any of that traffic going back to X itself. As such, this may be an important brand element, expanding on the branding in post embeds to help raise awareness of X as the source of various viral updates.
12. X Partners With AppsFlyer for Third-Party Ad Performance Measurement
X has announced a new partnership with app analytics provider AppsFlyer, which will enable advertisers to glean more insight into the performance of their ads.
The new Advanced Self-Reporting Network (SRN) integration will enable X advertisers to track conversions stemming from their X ads, with more accurate determinations of actual results, improving ROAS measurement. It will give you more data on your ad performance, with more specific figures related to audience response, based on AppsFlyer’s measurement methodology.
13. X Plans To Launch AI Text-To-Video Option, New AI Companions
X is likely to soon integrate its AI-generated text-to-video tool Hotshot, which it acquired back in March, with X owner Elon Musk noting that they’re developing a new AI process to “make creative viral videos fast.”
The new process, which Elon says will be called “Imagine,” looks set to integrate Hotshot’s functionality with xAI’s Grok engine, in order to give X users their own text-to-video generation tool. Before being acquired by xAI, Hotshot had developed a range of text-to-video and text-to-GIF AI models, and had gained traction among AI enthusiasts for its rapidly developing AI tools.
Wrapping Up
And that was a wrap of this week’s Social Media Buzz. We’ll be back next week with more news and updates for you from the social media world. Till then, stay tuned!
If you want to read more on the latest developments taking place in the social media space, take a look at ClickInsights’ Social Media Buzz, wherein we bring to you monthly reports on everything going on in social media, ranging from platform updates to policy changes that influence the way we market.
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