New social media features and updates to know this week
New updates from Instagram, LinkedIn and more.
Last week it was a bit quiet on the social media update front, but the apps are making up for it now.
Not only are there plenty of updates to the platforms, there is also a realignment happening. X challenger Bluesky is seeing explosive growth in the wake of the U.S. election, adding 1 million users a day and breaking the 19 million user mark. While that’s still dwarfed by the more mainstream social platforms, it’s growth worth watching (and parking your handle).
Here’s what’s happening elsewhere across the social media landscape.
LinkedIn is introducing a feel-good feature where users can indicate if they are Open to Volunteer. Users can select causes they’re passionate about, the skills they bring to the table and other information about their volunteering preferences. From there, organizations can reach out and find new people to help make a difference. LinkedIn will also surface more relevant volunteer opportunities for those who have opted in.
TikTok
Another week and more AI tools are being added to social media platforms. This week, our first is TikTok. Their new Symphony Creative Suite will allow advertisers to create videos using product information or a URL. The videos are clearly labeled and use only copyright cleared assets, TikTok said. Custom avatars can also be created by uploading videos of spokespeople (with their consent). For an additional layer of protection against images being used without permission, spokespeople must approve every video before it goes live.
Symphony Creative Suite can also be used to translate and dub content into other languages.
TikTok is also making it easier to add affiliate links by automatically placing a link in the comments of a video. This is a setting that must be toggled on before the post is made public.
Finally, TikTok hopes to drum up more interest in its photo app Lemon8 by creating a single logon system. The two will remain separate apps, TikTok said, but users won’t need to create a separate account for Lemon8. This is surely an attempt to reduce friction and encourage more users to give the photo app a try.
Instagram has a few app tweaks this week, including:
- You will no longer be able to follow hashtags in your feed after Dec. 13. Existing tags you follow will no longer be visible. It’s unclear whether or not you’ll still be able to search with hashtags or if this change only impacts following from directly in-feed.
- Story highlights will be moved to a dedicated tab on the profile grid.
- Instagram is making it easier to see which accounts follow you that have been deactivated. This is handy for purging follower lists of dead accounts to get accurate numbers for reporting or influencer deals.
- Finally, you may soon be able to turn an image into an AI-generated profile photo from within Instagram, if that’s a thing you want to do for some reason.
Facebook is following in Instagram’s footsteps by making views its primary metric for distribution. According to the app itself, views measure “the number of times a reel or video was played or the number of times photo or text posts were on screen.” Views will replace plays on reels and videos and impressions for stories, text and video posts. On the one hand, this might make reporting easier when you have apples-to-apples comparisons across platforms and you aren’t juggling terminology across post types. On the other, it could reduce nuance in measurement and attempt a one-size-fits-all approach that may not always work.
YouTube
YouTube is continuing to build its Shorts brand. Notable for communicators, YouTube says that 40% of Shorts users don’t use similar services like Reels or TikTok, making them a valuable and unique audience. New ad formats and ad controls will give more options for advertisers, while Stickers will enable retailers to show off product automatically based on their catalog.
YouTube’s new Jewels are a way of paying creators during live vertical streams. Users can gift their favorite creators with these Jewels and give them real cash. One “Ruby” is the equivalent of 1 U.S. cent.
Users will also be able to set reminders about Live streams or Premieres 24 hours in advance.
Threads
More than a year after launch, Threads continues to roll out new features in a bid to become the best X knockoff there is. This week, they’ve announced testing of interests feeds. Alongside For You and Following, these new feeds will allow users to track topics, like Soccer or Men’s Fashion.
In a boon for social media managers, you can now save up to 100 drafts on mobile.
Snapchat
Snapchat has introduced a number of new family friendly features for their younger users. Among these are the ability for parents to track their child’s location using Snap Map – or parents to share it as well. Parents will also be able to set three chosen locations – think school, home or work – and see when their child departs those locations. Finally, parents will be able to see who else teens have shared their locations with.
Pinterest is going heavy on holiday gift guides this year. Featuring more than 1,000 celebrity-curated guides, users can easily tap to add items to a wish list, save with a tap and more.
Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.
