New social media features and updates to know this week
Updates to X, Meta, YouTube and more.
Happy Wednesday, PR and comms pros. We hope you enjoyed a day off (if you had one!) Now, we’re a day late but not a dollar short. So, let’s read the latest edition of social media updates!
X
X News Daily posted that X is updating its Explore page. The platform will display trending topic summaries created by its AI tool Grok. User @swak_12 noted on X that the new Explore page sectioncould replace the current What’s Happening section located on the home timeline.
In other news, X announced on a company blog that it’s debuting a new Creator Targeting program. Creator Targeting will let advertisers place ads “against a curated list of premium content creators via Creator Targeting,” according to the announcement. Creator Targeting works in addition to X’s primary brand safety solutions, Sensitivity Settings and Adjacency Controls. The platform will soon feature ads on an individual creator’s profile “completely eliminating the unlikely event of unwanted adjacencies while aligning your brand to creators you love most,” according to X. Creator Targeting is described as an extension of X’s Amplify Pre-roll program, which got off to a shaky start after MrBeast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, seemingly received preferential treatment with his initial post.
Meta
Social Media Today reported that Meta is testing a Verified comment-filtering process on Instagram. This would allow users to surface comments from blue check-marked accounts first, which could help them prioritize responding to these comments from verified humans.
Threads
Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, posted on Threads that the platform is finally testing a much-requested trending topics feature. “Today’s topics on Threads will be on the search page and in the For You feed. The topics are determined by our AI systems based on what people are engaging with right now on Threads,” Mosseri wrote.
A Threads post indicated that the platform is conducting some fact-checking. The notice reads: “The same false information was reviewed in another thread by fact-checkers. There may be small differences. Independent fact-checkers say this information has no basis in fact.” Keep an eye out for more of these as we enter election season.
Social media expert Matt Navarra posted on Threads that Instagram seems to be testing the limit on how many hashtags users can add to a post. An image in the post featured six hashtags with a notification at the bottom that says, “You can only add 5 hashtags to this post.”
In other news, Jonah Manzano, social media enthusiast and singer-songwriter, posted on Threads that Instagram is letting users take video cutouts and turn them into stickers. Instagram already announced photo cutouts last month. To create a sticker, select a video or photo “with one distinct object.” See the process here.
Mosseri posted a video on Instagram announcing that the platform is updating the direct message process for creators by adding a filter for people you follow. “Because maybe you DM a lot of people you don’t follow yet, negotiating deals, figuring out collaborations, but sometimes you just want to focus the experience on people you know in order to make the experience a bit safer and more positive,” Mosseri said.
App trendspotter Radu Oncescu posted on Threads that Instagram is testing video carousels of Reels on Android.
TikTok
Next month, TikTok will debut a local language Election Centre in the app for nations in the EU ahead of the union’s June elections, according to a TikTok newsroom announcement. “This initiative is just one element of a wider strategy to ensure that TikTok remains a creative, safe, and civil place for our community during the election period,” the announcement noted. Some feature initiatives include:
- Policy enforcement: Over 6,000 people moderate EU language content along with technological tools to enforce rules and root out “covert influence operations.”
- Handling misinformation: Misinformation moderators who have specialized training will take down problematic content, working alongside experts who can add local knowledge to capture the full nuance of each market.
- Media literacy: TikTok launched media literacy campaigns last year in 18 European countries to address misinformation. There are nine more campaigns on tap this year.
LinkedIn announced a Media Planning API tool to help agencies. When creating a brand campaign, an agency can use the API to understand the “forecasted reach and frequency of brand campaigns before spending any budget.”
YouTube
Creator Insider announced updates to mobile, posts-only feeds and free creator gifting elements. Creators can now upload videos or Shorts directly from YouTube Studio mobile. Creators can also set the video’s monetization status from YouTube Studio.
The platform also built out a posts-only feed for iOS and Android mobile devices. Users can access this feed by selecting the “view all posts” link on the community posts in the home tab. After tapping that button, users will be able to see posts from channels they’ve viewed previously or posts the platform thinks you’ll fancy.
The platform also launched affiliate product tagging on livestreams. Creators in the YouTube shopping affiliate program can tag products from involved merchants directly in their livestreams. Creators can promote products in long-form videos, livestreams and shorts. When creators tag products featured in their own livestreams, a shopping button will pop up to create a more engaging way to shop. Creators can also pin products during livestreams.
The YouTube Official Blog announced that creators can add some extra flair to their Shorts with music video remixes. Go to YouTube and hit the “Remix” button to choose from one of four remix options: Green Screen, Sound, Cut and Collab. Here are the feature deets:
- Users can use the sound from a video as a soundtrack.
- Make a Short right next to the video featuring the artist.
- Green Screen. Let the video be your next Short background and film your reaction.
- Cut a scene from the music vid and add it to a Short.
Pinterest
Lindsey Gamble, associate director of Influencer Innovation at Later, posted on Threads that Pinterest updated its Business Manager feature (formerly known as Business Access) to create and share assets like profiles and ad accounts, assign partner and employee permissions, and more. “This is a long-awaited update, as Pinterest now has similar capabilities to Meta and TikTok’s Business Managers, making it easier for brands/agencies to collaborate,” Gamble said. “It should lead to more paid media amplification of Pinterest creator content, too.”
The new features include:
- Audience sharing to repeat popular social media tactics on other accounts.
- Asset groups. Make custom groups according to needs by brand, product line or language.
- Two-factor authentication. Business owners can make employees use a two-factor authentication process to access assets, according to Pinterest.
Sherri Kolade is a writer and conference producer at Ragan Communications. She enjoys watching old films, reading and building an authentically curated life. Follow her on LinkedIn. Have a great PR/comms speaker in mind for one of Ragan’s events? Email her at sherrik@ragan.com.
