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 To Remove More Detailed Targeting Options for Ad Campaigns
Meta has announced that it’ll be removing and/or consolidating some of its detailed ad targeting options, either because they’re not widely used, are too granular, or they relate to topics that people may perceive as sensitive.
Meta said that starting January 15, 2024, it will be removing or consolidating some detailed targeting options that relate to topics people may perceive as sensitive. Existing ad sets with impacted targeting options will continue to run until March 18 2024, but will require you to update your targeting selections. After this date, Meta will stop delivering ads to the discontinued detailed targeting options, and impacted ad sets may be paused.
2. Meta’s New Disclosure Requirements for Digitally Altered Ad Content Are Now in Effect
Meta’s new disclosure requirements for digitally altered political ads are now in effect, with all advertisers looking to run ads about social issues, elections, and politics now required to indicate when their ad contains a photorealistic image or video, or realistic-sounding audio, that was digitally created or altered by AI or other methods.
Meta originally announced the new policy last November, in order to get ahead of an expected flood of generative AI ads in the upcoming U.S. Election campaign. With AI tools becoming better and better at producing realistic depictions, Meta, and every other platform, is now looking to implement new rules to disincentivize users from seeking to deceive with digitally created or modified messaging.
3. TikTok Announces Its 2024 Super Bowl Tailgate Event
TikTok has announced its annual Super Bowl Tailgate in-app event, which this year will feature singer Gwen Stefani as the star of the TikTok show.
In addition to the in-app activation, parts of TikTok’s event will also aired on TV as part of the CBS Super Bowl LVIII Pregame Show, which will give TikTok more exposure, further embedding it into the cultural zeitgeist.
4. TikTok Launches Chromecast Support to Further Enable Clip Viewing on Home TV Sets
TikTok has announced that users can now cast their TikTok feed to their TV via Chromecast. TikTok’s added a range of ways to watch TikTok content on bigger screens, via its connected TV app, as well as through a partnership with video content provider Atmosphere, and its “Out of Phone” ad option.
5. Instagram Tests Option To Create Stories for Friends
Some Instagram users are now seeing a new option in the Stories creation flow that enables them to share their Story to a friend via the “Friend’s Story” option.
If you choose to share a Story in this way, the connection you share it to will be able to review it, and then add it to their Story if they approve. The Story will get sent to your connection as a message, which will then enable them to check it out. If they choose to share it, it’ll be added to their Stories feed, with your handle listed on the Story, showing that you created it. It could be a handy way to collaborate with friends and enhance engagement and exposure in the app.
6. X Will No Longer Support NFT Profile Pictures
X is removing its support for NFT profile pictures, which had been a feature included in its X Premium package.
Originally launched in 2022, as a feature of its paid “Twitter Blue” offering, NFT profile pictures enabled digital art enthusiasts to showcase their radically overpriced JPEGs and linked back to information about the art via users’ crypto wallets. Conceptually, that fed into the push to use NFTs as a form of exposure for artists, and facilitating digital ownership. But the NFT market has crashed back to earth over the past 12 months, in alignment with the broader crypto blowback, amid questions of market need and ongoing regulatory concerns.
7. X Announces Expanded Partnership With Shopify To Facilitate New Opportunities for Merchants
X has announced a new partnership with Shopify, which will provide more opportunities for Shopify merchants to promote their products in the app.
The new deal, which both X and Shopify are developing, will facilitate all-new ways to help Shopify sellers advertise on X. Though it may not be a major update, given that Twitter already had a deal in place with Shopify to directly display products in-stream. Back in 2022, Twitter announced a new partnership with Shopify that enabled Shopify merchants to list their products on their Twitter Professional Profiles, with each item, when tapped, then redirecting users to the Shopify product page to make a purchase.
8. X Expands Partnership With IAS on Vertical Video Ad Placement
X has announced a new partnership with Integral Ad Science (IAS) on brand safety for vertical video ad placements. As per X, a growing number of users are actively watching and posting videos on X, fueling the platform’s rapid expansion. X is now a video-first platform, with video being part of more than 8 in 10 user sessions, and we’ve seen views increase almost 30% year over year.
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.