New social media features and updates to know this week
Updates to X, Meta, TikTok and more.
Hello, PR and comms pros! It’s Tuesday and you know what that means – we have the most recent social media updates. Now let’s get to it.
X
X is wooing advertisers with promises of a “video-first experience.” The app recently announced that all advertisers in the U.S. and globally can purchase “pre-screened, brand-suitable vertical video inventory” thanks to an expanded partnership with Integral Ad Science. Advertisers can choose where their ads are shown on X in the vertical video feed near organic content.
Also, X engineer Dong Wook Chung posted on the platform that X Community admins can add tags to improve their community’s visibility in search results and recommendations on the web. To access this feature:
- Look under admin tools and click settings.
- Go to the edit search tags section.
- Add relevant search tags in the search bar.
A previously announced plan to add video to X Spaces is getting closer to reality, according to a post from X Designer Andrea Conway. Currently, Spaces are audio only. There’s no date set yet for when the video feature drops. Check back here for the update.
Meta
Meta announced a new tool that lets advertisers see conversions from their video ads through Engaged-view. Engaged-view reports if a user plays a video ad for at least 10 seconds or watches 97% of a video if under 10 seconds and takes a desired ad action within the next day. Engaged-view is not available for Facebook in-stream video ads that aren’t skippable.
Social media marketer Nadja Bella Marrero posted on LinkedIn that Instagram recently launched a platform feature that lets users preview what carousels or photos would look like in their feed before making it public. The preview feature does not work for Reel covers. To access, hit the “show preview” button in the pre-post stage and view the grid preview and switch up the photos until they suit you – or post once you see what you like!
TikTok
Social media expert Matt Navarra posted on Threads that TikTok is encouraging users to post horizontal videos that are over one minute long. Qualifying longer horizontal vids will receive boosted views within 72 hours of posting. Original content – no lipsyncing or “random recordings” – is prioritized, and ads won’t see the boost either. To get the boost, accounts must have been on TikTok for at least three months.
TikTok owner ByteDance debuted an AI model, “StreamVoice” system, which can mimic a person’s voice using “just a few utterances,” according to a Business Insider article that Social Media Today pulled information from. Time will tell exactly how this could be integrated with TikTok, which already embraces AI.
LinkedIn announced that it’s debuting Website Actions, which lets B2B marketers see buyer preferences and interests through Insight Tag and improve their marketing strategies. The tool lets marketers learn and measure website actions minus the extra tracking codes on websites, according to the announcement.
To access Website Actions, log into Campaign Manager.
YouTube
YouTube’s Creator Insider recently announced a new playlist chip in the content tab in the platform’s analytics where users can compare their top playlists right next to each other. To access, click on a playlist to see grouped analytics for videos featured in the playlist. Audience metrics, top-performing videos and other viewer-behavior metrics are available.
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.
