Social media updates and new features to know this week
Including Instagram, TikTok, Meta and more.
Good morning, social strategists! This week there are lots of add-ons to social platforms that can jumpstart your creativity and help you plan ahead as well as some key algorithm updates. Let’s dive right in and see what new features you can benefit from.
TikTok
TikTok has made an update to how it credits songwriters in the app. The platform will now offer a separate tab to check out projects a songwriter has worked on when one of their songs is featured in a post, setting the stage for more promotion and monetization by drawing in a greater fanbase to that songwriter
According to TikTok, “The new features mean that songwriters’ musical works and their shared content will sit side-by-side in one place on TikTok for the first time, giving songwriters the opportunity to highlight the works they have written or co-written, to share stories about their work, their music and their lives, and to help fans of their music to explore, use, share and save further works from their catalogue.”
Additionally, the app is making it easier for creators to natively schedule posts. Social media researcher Radu Oncescu shared an example of what this looks like here. While TikTok already offers some third-party scheduling tools for videos, the in-app video scheduler is a small add-on that can take away some of the guess work when it comes to optimal times for posting by leaning on data from TikTok Studio analytics.
Instagram is in the early stages of testing auto-scroll for posts, not to be confused with Reels, which already auto-scrolls for you. The beta testing feature may appear as an option to some users under posts when they click to save or send a post with an option to turn on Auto Scroll through a toggle button. Social media analyst Lindsey Gamble shared what this will look like on your feed here.
The feature makes it easier for users to scroll through content without swiping.
Gamble also shared that IG now allows creators to see how many people liked their individual photos in a carousel. This can be found under Settings in the Insights tab. The data can help creators understand what’s resonating with their audience and adjust for greater reach and an improved carousel photo selection.
Another cool update from IG includes auto translation options for DMs so users can connect to people all over the world. This feature now includes 99 languages, per Instagram. Users interested in using this tool just need to tap and hold a DM and then hit “translate” when it pops up and the message will convert to your preferred language. Side note: you must first select your preferred or native language and it will automatically choose this option when you translate a message.
Meta
With more social platforms implementing age-restrictions for kids, Meta has moved to expand its selfie verification for underage users. Users attempting to change their age to over 18, or create an over 18 account, will be asked for a selfie or government ID. Meta’s third-party partners will attempt to verify the age of the person in their selfie or use their ID to approve the account’s creation.
In a push to drive more subscribers to its paid offerings, Meta also announced it will gift one-year, verified accounts to select users for free. This means you’ll get a blue checkmark next to your name. Verified users also have greater access to support, more profile options and protection within the app. The idea is to hand out some trials and see if it will prompt users to consider its paid offerings in the future. This was shared by social media consultant Matt Navarra.
Facebook has jumped on the music sharing trend by rolling out song tracks for individual posts. Users who want to share a message on their feed now have the ability to share a music track over the post.
From Facebook:
“Facebook is making it easier than ever to add music to your Feed posts for more ways to express yourself and create fun, engaging content to share with others.”
Additionally, Facebook also updated its algorithm so that unoriginal content has less of a reach. This is being done so that more original content has a chance at being shared and more users are seeing a variety of videos, according to the app-makers.
Per Facebook:
“Unoriginal content reuses or repurposes another creator’s content repeatedly without crediting them, taking advantage of their creativity and hard work. We love it when creators reshare content, add commentary in a reaction video or join in on a trend, adding their unique take. What we want to combat is the repeated reposting of content from other creators without permission or meaningful enhancements.”
X
X is working on an AI-generated text-to-video feature called Imagine. Using the generator Hotshot, which X acquired earlier this year, the platform will integrate Hotshot’s capabilities into xAI’s Grok model for video generation in order to create more viral videos, according to Social Media Today.
The tool is in the works and not much more is known.
LinkedIn users may have noticed that weeks-old posts were being shown more frequently on the social platform, making your new comment feel behind the curve.
LinkedIn recently said it had rolled back this algorithm, which was a part of some testing, in order to show more new and relevant content in line with what users said they wanted to see.
From Mediaweek, LinkedIn’s Bhairavi Jhaveri said in a now-deleted post on the app:
“This was part of some testing we were doing to strike the right balance between (prioritizing) relevant content vs recent content in your feed. The dramatic shift was only temporary and it will go back to feeling far more normal now.”
Courtney Blackann is a communications reporter. Connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at [email protected].
