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 Posts Strong Q2 Results as Facebook Crosses 3B Monthly Active Users
Meta has shared its latest performance update, which shows that Facebook added another 27 million users in the most recent quarter, while it also crossed 3 billion monthly active users for the first time, showing that there’s still life in the big blue app yet.
majority of Facebook’s user growth is still coming from the Asia Pacific region, where the app is seeing steady take-up in developing markets, including India and Indonesia. Improvements in local connectivity are bringing more people online, which logically sees more of them logging into the app, though growth in EU and U.S. has largely stalled, reflecting mass adoption in these regions.
2. Snapchat Rises to 397M Users, Sees More Active Advertisers in Q2
Snapchat has published its Q2 23 performance report, which shows an increase in overall users, especially in developing markets, as well as signs of recovery for Snap’s ad business, which now has more ad partners than ever, who are seeing improved optimization performance.
Snapchat added 14 million more daily active users (DAU) in Q2, taking it to 397 million DAU overall. The majority of that growth is still coming from the ‘Rest of the World’ category, with Snap only adding a million more users in both North America and EU respectively. Snap added 12 million more users outside of its main markets, with the app continuing to see solid take-up in India, where mobile adoption and improving connectivity has opened up new opportunities for the app to reach this audience.
3. Pinterest Announces 2023 ‘Pinterest Presents’ Advertiser Showcase Event
Pinterest is hosting its annual ‘Pinterest Presents’ advertiser summit in September, with attendees now able to register for the online event.
Pinterest Presents will see a range of Pinterest employees showcase the latest updates and innovations in the app, alongside a crew of entertainers to keep things lively. There’ll also be a lot of Pin reveals, including new features and ad tools, to consider. Previous events have seen Pinterest showcase new innovations in video pins, shopping tools, and more.
4. X Launches Legal Action Over Claims That Hate Speech Is Rising in the App
X Corp’s looking to fight back against claims that instances of hate speech have increased across the platform since Elon Musk purchased the app, by suing The Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) over various reports published by the group that track the rise of harmful content.
The CCDH has published several reports in which it claims to have tracked the rise of hate speech in the app since Musk’s purchase of the platform. Back in December, the group reported that slurs against Black and transgender people had significantly increased after Musk took over at the app, while its research also suggests that Twitter is not enforcing rule-breaking tweets posted by Twitter Blue subscribers, while it’s also allowing tweets that reference the LGBTQ+ community alongside ‘grooming’ slurs to remain active.
5. X Expands Community Notes Program, Adds ‘Top Writer’ Badge for Highly Rated Contributors
The X team continues to expand the availability of its Community Notes feature, with users in 18 more regions now able to apply to be part of the volunteer moderation program. This now means that Community Notes are available in 44 regions, significantly expanding the reach and capacity of the program.
Users can apply to be part of the Community Notes team (note: the link still goes to a ‘birdwatch’ URL), which then enables them to add contextual notes and links to false or misleading content in the app. Those notes are then reviewed by other Community Notes team members, which, if approved, then sees that additional info appended to the tweet, which can help to reduce the spread of false claims. In addition to this, X is also adding a new ‘Top Writer’ badge in order to lend more credibility to notes from highly rated contributors.
6. Elon Says that Dark Mode Will Soon be the Only Display Option for X
Elon Musk has said that soon the platform formerly known as Twitter will only be viewable in dark mode, in line with its new black color scheme. As noted by Musk, dark mode, in his opinion at least, is ‘better in every way’, while it also further aligns with the Batman-like color palette of the re-branded app, which is gradually being evolved into the new entity.
Though that may not please everyone. Some people, including those with dyslexia or astigmatism, can have difficulty reading white text on black background, and there are various other user groups that would have similar preference. As such, it seems like an unnecessary step for the platform to shift to only dark mode purely for the aesthetic desires of its chief.
7. LinkedIn Reports ‘Record Engagement’ Once Again in the Latest Performance Update
LinkedIn has once again reported ‘record engagement’ in the app, as part of parent company Microsoft’s latest earnings announcement, which has pretty much become par for the course in tracking LinkedIn’s performance updates.
LinkedIn engagement continues to grow, though what exactly that means is not entirely clear, as LinkedIn has reported the same ‘record levels of engagement’ note every quarter (except one) since 2018. In terms of revenue, LinkedIn saw a decline in overall ad spend in the most recent period, though Microsoft also reduced its overall marketing spend to offset this.
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.