Social media updates and new features to know this week
Including Meta, Pinterest, X and more.
Hello, social butterflies! We’re in the last couple months of the year and many social platforms are launching more AI-powered tools to help you navigate the holiday season, or gain more leads. Let’s dive into this week’s updates and see where these new features can fit into your social media strategy.
Meta
Meta is rolling out a set of AI-enabled upgrades to its lead-generation advertising tools aimed at the post-holiday period from late December into January.
The new features include:
- Global availability of its Advantage+ Leads campaign format, which uses AI to optimize audience, placement and budget for higher-quality leads.
- Enhanced lead verification tools like SMS phone number verification, work-email checks and address validation to help reduce spam or invalid submissions.
- An option for automated “lead-nurturing via chatbots” on Messenger and WhatsApp, and third-party workflow integrations, like Manychat or Botcake, aiming to engage leads and increase follow-up efficiency.
Meta says it’s relying on its AI tools to help advertisers capture better leads during a period when advertising spend often drops, but consumer engagement remains high.
Pinterest has introduced Pinterest Assistant, an AI-powered, visual-first shopping companion.
Unlike typical search or chatbots that rely on keywords, Pinterest Assistant uses voice, image and text to create a conversational experience. Think more along the lines of talking to a personal stylist than using a search bar. The tool also takes into account saved content, style preferences and browsing history when offering recommendations.
The feature is rolling out in beta in the U.S. to users 18 and older, with wider availability planned soon, according to Pinterest.
Along these same lines, Pinterest is upgrading its Boards feature with new AI-powered tools that can turn users’ saved Pins into more personalized shopping and inspiration-based experiences.
The update has three new tabs, including:
- Make It Yours: This includes product suggestions for fashion and home decor.
- More Ideas: This is related content from adjacent categories like beauty, art or recipes.
- All Saves: This is for users’ existing saved items so that boards become more discovery-oriented rather than just storage.
The platform is also testing two additional features in the U.S. and Canada, called Styled for You, which creates AI-driven outfit or decor collages from your saved Pins, and Boards Made for You, which automatically generates personalized boards blending editorial picks and AI recommendations.
X
Elon Musk recently spoke about updates coming to X, including a range of AI-powered features.
Among the changes is a new “Following” tab that will show only top posts from people users follow, generated by the platform’s AI assistant Grok, so users are less likely to miss important updates.
Musk also said that Grok will soon process every post on X (about 100 million in English alone each day) in order to categorize and match content to users.
Other planned features include semantic search, where users ask questions rather than use keywords, and a separate messaging app called XChat with enhanced encryption.
X’s safety team has announced that any account using a security key or passkey for two-factor authentication must re-register that key to the “X.com” domain by Nov. 10.
If the key remains tied to the older “Twitter.com” domain after that deadline, the account could be temporarily locked or prevented from logging in, the app makers say.
This update is part of X’s effort to fully transition away from the old Twitter domain and ensure the security infrastructure aligns with its current branding.
LinkedIn is expanding its Thought Leader Ads program by adding enhanced content-discovery tools within the Campaign Manager tab.
The update allows marketers to search for organic posts from 1st, 2nd and 3rd-degree connections that mention their brand or event, and then, with the creator’s permission, sponsor that content as an ad, according to LinkedIn.
The idea is to make it easier to find real user-generated content that resonates, not just employee posts, and promote it to a wider audience while building influence more genuinely.
The new listing of discoverable posts appears in a “Partnerships” tab in Campaign Manager, where brands can filter by content type, reach out to creators and turn the posts into Thought Leader campaigns, LinkedIn says.
YouTube
YouTube is introducing a new AI‑powered creative assistant inside YouTube Studio,.
The tool lets users analyze video performance, identify trends in comments and get ideas for future content.
Instagram recently launched a feature called Competitive Insights for professional business and creator accounts.
Users will now be able to pick up to 10 other Instagram accounts to compare against and track things like how many followers they’ve gained and how often they’re posting, including Reels, feed posts and ads.
Courtney Blackann is a communications reporter. Connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at [email protected].
