Social Media Buzz Weekly: Roundup of Social Media Updates
- ClickInsights
- 8 hours ago
- 8 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 Updates Brand Rights Protection System To Enhance Enforcement
Meta is adding some new elements to its Brand Rights Protection system, which will give IP holders more capacity to report violations, as well as related concerns within their niche, helping Meta refine and improve its enforcement measures.
Firstly, after beta testing it for a few months, Meta’s now going live with its expanded reporting functionality, which enables all businesses that are enrolled in Brand Rights Protection to report suspected scam ads at scale. Meta will also now enable brands to request action on ads that don’t explicitly use their IP, via a new “Other” category. Meta has also redesigned its takedown request experience, with fewer steps required to lodge a concern. The addition of new search options within the “Reports” tab could make it easier to find info on your reports.
2. Meta Enables Multiple Avatar Creation
Meta has introduced a new feature that allows users to create multiple avatars under one profile.
If you want to create an alternative avatar character for your Meta profile, which will then be displayed in avatar options across all of your linked accounts (Facebook, Messenger, Instagram), you can do so by going to your Settings, then selecting the “Avatar” option. That’ll take you to Meta’s Avatar editor, and from there, you can tap on the three dots menu and select “Switch Avatar” from the list. You’ll then be able to choose from another avatar, or create a new one, using Meta’s avatar creation tools.
3. TikTok Launches In-App Hub To Celebrate the Jonas Brothers Tour
TikTok has added a new Jonas Brothers in-app experience to celebrate their 20-year anniversary concert series.
The new Jonas Brothers hub will include songs from the new album, behind-the-scenes video content from the Jonas Brothers’ tour, live updates, “viral moments” and more. You’ll also be able to purchase limited-edition Jonas Brothers merchandise directly through the in-app experience on TikTok Shop.
4. TikTok Launches Donation Sticker To Support MrBeast’s Team Water Initiative
TikTok is partnering with YouTube's biggest creator, MrBeast, on a new initiative to help raise money for water supply projects around the world.
MrBeast’s “Team Water” project aims to raise $40 million to fund long-term sustainable water projects to assist remote communities around the world. The project follows on from the success of MrBeast’s “Team Trees” and “Team Seas” initiatives, which raised over $50 million collectively for charity projects. TikTok is among the various celebrities and brands joining the case, with TikTok looking to promote the charity push, while also enabling users to contribute via dedicated stickers and charitable donation tools.
5. TikTok Breaks Livestream Record With Tomorrowland 2025 Broadcast
TikTok continues to cement itself as the key hub for online music engagement, with its live stream broadcast of the latest “Tomorrowland” electronic music event drawing in more than 74 million viewers across both weekends of the event.
That bests TikTok’s previous Tomorrowland record back in 2023, which brought in 16 million live viewers. The popularity of the event once again underlines the power of TikTok to drive music engagement, which also extends to its broader coverage of the multi-weekend festival within the app.
6. TikTok Launches Simplified Affiliate Program for Hotel Promotions
TikTok has launched a new program that aims to make it easier to facilitate in-app promotions for selected businesses. It works via a simplified affiliate program, where creators can tag a business and earn commissions from any direct referrals from that post.
Called “TikTok Go,” the program is initially focused on hotel promotions, and enables creators to tag their location and use a relevant tag, in order to earn commissions from their content. The option is available in selected regions within the “Monetization” option in TikTok creator accounts. Tapping on the “TikTok Go” option will take you through to a listing of hotels, which will also display how much creators can earn from commissions for posting content about that provider.
7. Instagram Chief Dispels Engagement Myth, Says Using Edits Boosts Reach
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri recently noted that videos created in Meta’s new “Edits” app do get a little bit of a reach boost when shared to IG. He described this as a temporary initiative designed to increase awareness of the app.
Mosseri has also sought to dispel the myth that you need to engage with content relevant to your own niche/passion/business in order to maximize relevant reach. While he acknowledged that engaging with accounts within a similar niche could increase profile awareness and potentially generate more interaction, Mosseri clarified that this is not a direct factor in Instagram’s algorithmic recommendations.
8. Instagram Reiterates Location Sharing Is Optional
Instagram has reiterated that its location sharing feature is optional and people’s location won’t be shown unless they manually switch it on.
After announcing its new Friend Map feature, Instagram has been flooded with misguided complaints and concerns about how the new feature will expose people’s locations without them knowing, potentially putting millions of people at risk. Instagram’s new Friend Map will show you where your friends are at any given time, while also highlighting places friends have been, via location-tagged Stories that they’ve posted.
9. Instagram Experiments With a New Way To Highlight Interests
Instagram is developing a new feature called “Picks” to help users discover shared interests with friends.
Instagram is currently in the early stages of prototyping Picks, which you would be able to access via an icon at the top of your inbox in the app. Picks would enable you to highlight your interests, in order to find overlap with friends who are all about it too. For example, you would be able to search for a topic within the Picks display, and then choose from specific subjects in the list. It could be another way to encourage more connection in the app, which aligns with a core function of Instagram, in bringing people together.
10. Snapchat Adds Saturn Connection To Provide More Insight Into Friends’ Calendars
After recently acquiring student planning app Saturn, Snapchat is now moving to integrate Saturn status info directly into Snap profiles, which will give you more ways to connect with Snap friends, and keep up with what they’re up to at any given time.
Saturn is primarily focused on making it easier for students to stay on track with their school commitments, but that also expands to sharing your calendar with friends, and even chatting and joining events in-app. You can connect your Saturn account from either the Snap or Saturn apps, via an automated connection process linking the two. You can then manage your Saturn connection from within the “Partner Connections” element of your Snapchat Settings. Once connected your Saturn calendar status will be displayed on your Snap profile beneath your display name.
11. Snapchat Faces Major Challenges Based on Its Q2 Performance Numbers
Snapchat has published its latest performance report, which shows a slower-than-expected growth in Q2 2025.
Snapchat reached 469 million daily active users in Q2, an increase of 9 million on its Q1 numbers. While any growth is a positive, the fact that Snap is losing users in the U.S. is a standout note from this chart. Almost all of Snap’s growth is still coming from the “Rest of World” category, with India in particular seeing more take-up. But the U.S. and EU is where Snap generates the majority of its revenue, and as such, the stagnant results here are potentially problematic.
12. Pinterest Reaches 578M Users, Improves Revenue Intake in Q2
Pinterest has published its latest performance report, showing double-digit year-over-year increases in both users and revenue.
Pinterest is now up to 578 million monthly actives, up 8 million on its Q1 usage stats. All of Pinterest’s audience growth came in the “Rest of World” category, where it added 9 million extra users. A significant concern, however, is that Pinterest lost 2 million actives in Europe, and remained flat, quarter-on-quarter, in the U.S. That’s a problem, because these markets generate the vast majority of Pinterest’s revenue.
13. X Makes Grok 4 Free to All Users To Boost Interest in Its AI Offerings
X is very keen to get more people using its AI tools, with the platform announcing that Grok 4 is now free to access for all users worldwide.
Grok 4 is the latest version of xAI’s model, using the power of xAI’s expanding processing stack to power its rapid responses. xAI claims that Grok 4 has achieved the best results in all AI benchmarking tests, significantly outperforming the latest models from OpenAI and Meta (though some third-party testing contradicts this claim).
14. X Looks To Use Grok To Verify User Ages
X is looking to utilize its own xAI tools to verify user ages, in order to meet the recently enacted regulations in the U.K., with the platform now experimenting with a new, in-stream selfie-verification process, which will then ensure that only approved adults are allowed to access sensitive content.
Under the U.K.’s Online Safety Act, all social media platforms and search services need to implement measures to prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content. So it’s now a requirement that all platforms implement some form of age checking, in order to protect youngsters from potentially harmful exposure in their apps.
15. Elon Outlines the Future of X Ads, Including AI Targeting, and Ads in Grok Answers
In an X Spaces session, X owner Elon Musk and X’s ad team recently outlined their vision for the future of X ads, and made their pitch to potential ad partners, in regards to systematic improvements.
X says that Grok will assess all ad creatives, in order to judge the aesthetics of your ad. Additionally, X is developing new ad formats, like its updated Dynamic Product Ads, which will display relevant products to users based on AI targeting.
16. LinkedIn Adds New Animations for Professional Announcements
LinkedIn has launched an updated set of achievement animations and images, which will provide a fresh look to these posts in-stream.
LinkedIn has a series of in-built GIFs and image templates to go along with various professional achievements and announcements, including that sun one, those planes, the cupcake, etc. Though LinkedIn’s used the exact same animations for a long time, and they’ve pretty much lost their appeal or resonance. In fact, LinkedIn retired several of them late last year, but now, it’s rolling out some updated graphics to help make your professional updates stand out.
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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