New social media features and updates to know this week
Including Meta, Pinterest, TikTok and more.
This week brings A LOT of social updates, most notably with the launch of several new tools from the TikTok World Event last week. Buckle up and take a look – and see what tools are most relevant to your marketing strategies.
Meta
Meta has recently expanded offerings for its AI-powered ads that it says will help drive better performance and show more insights to advertisers so they can target their audience more specifically.
From Meta:
“We have made updates to our existing value optimization solution, which has helped contribute to the product delivering an average of 12% higher ROAS for advertisers compared to when they solely maximize the volume of conversions.”
The move will help bring Meta closer to developing fully automated ad campaigns.
Pinterest has updated its TransAct prediction model for user behavior and engagement. Known as TransActV2, the model measures “160 times more interactive inputs per user to better understand their behaviors, and thus, interests, over time,” Social Media Today reports.
Unlike the previous model, TransActV2 relies not only on past interactions to predict future behaviors, but also accesses more real-time inputs.
LinkedIn is expanding its video ad services, including “First Impression Ads,” “Reserved Ads” and more options for Connected TV Select offerings.
The idea behind First Impressions Ads is to run a single-day campaign in the format of a full-screen video ad that targets users when they first login to LinkedIn. This is helpful in engaging users in short periods of time at the top of their feed, hence the name of the tool.
The Reserved Ads feature allows for greater reach with targeted audiences in other forms of sponsored content.
Finally, CTV Select is getting “expanded reach” across Paramount’s premium content.
LinkedIn said: “Our CTV Select offering – formerly known as LinkedIn Premiere – allows you to run campaigns served exclusively on a single publisher’s streaming portfolio with fixed pricing. By welcoming Paramount as our latest publisher to this program, advertisers can now combine LinkedIn’s professional audience data and Paramount’s premium streaming inventory to reach millions of monthly viewers.”
The other update to CTV Select are more integrations via VAST tags.
“VAST tags make it easier to leverage existing video assets and reach the right people – no matter where they’re watching,” LinkedIn said. “Now, with new VAST tag capabilities powered by Innovid, marketers can easily connect and repurpose their creative assets within the Innovid platform to run CTV Ads targeting LinkedIn’s professional audiences.”
X
With X continually updating its XChat feature, the platform has launched a new framework for encrypted DMs.
From X:
“When entering Chat for the first time, a private-public key pair is created specific to each user. Users are prompted to enter a PIN (which never leaves the device), which is used to keep the private key securely stored on X’s infrastructure. This private key can then be recovered from any device if the user knows that PIN. In addition to the private-public key pairs, there is a per-conversation key that is used to encrypt the content of the messages. The private-public key pairs are used to exchange the conversation key securely between participating users.”
Encrypted messages can only be sent using the latest version of X and the recipient must have some prior relationship with the sender, whether that be a prior message exchange or they follow the sender, to receive the encrypted message.
X also rolled out guidelines for what verification means in a bid to avoid fines from the European Union’s Digital Services Act, which aims to prevent the spread of illegal or harmful activities online as well as the spread of disinformation.
The point in the guidelines is to show what those blue checkmarks actually represent and providing more context on its verification system, according to Bloomberg.
In addition, X’s Community Notes team is testing a new method to combat disinformation.
From X:
“A subset of Community Notes contributors – representing a wide range of viewpoints – will occasionally see a new callout in the product. The callout shows based on early and limited Like signals on the post. Contributors will then be able to rate and provide more feedback about the post, helping to develop an open source algorithm that could effectively identify posts liked by people from different perspectives.”
In other words, content that seems agreeable to users with varying political parties will be highlighted in an attempt to create a more inclusive social community. Users will also have the option to provide input on what they like or don’t like about the highlighted post or piece of content.
Snapchat
Snapchat recently announced a new app for the Apple Watch in a bid to make the platform available across more devices.
From Snapchat:
“With the Snapchat app on Apple Watch, you can preview an incoming message and reply using the Keyboard, Scribble, Dictation, or send an emoji. Respond to let your friend know you’re “here” when you’re meeting up at a restaurant. Out for a run? Glance down and send a quick reply without breaking stride.”
In addition, Snapchat has broadened its augmented reality tools with the launch of its Lens Studio mobile app. This allows users to get creative with their AR experiences.
From Snapchat:
“We’re excited to introduce the Lens Studio iOS app and web tool. These are experimental new tools that make it easier than ever to create, publish, and play with Snapchat Lenses made by you. Now, you can generate your own AI effects, add your dancing Bitmoji to the fun, and express yourself with Lenses that reflect your mood or an inside joke–whether you’re on the go or near your computer.”
Instagram is creating new features for its Edits app, including new video transition features, an “Apply All Volume” tool that lets users apply sound across all clips at once and track handling sensitivity, according to Social Media Today.
For its transition effects, both “Zoom Ripple” and “Vertical Stretch” were added to the app to make a total of 35 video transition effects. The volume feature helps maintain even sound throughout all clips, ensuring there are no drastic changes when using different types of audio and the track sensitivity feature enables smoother cuts to clips.
Reddit has rolled out updates to its user profiles that include engagement, post counts and activity summaries.
Customization is also available for how profiles are presented and what interactions and activity are visible to others.
Per Social Media Today: “Via the “Curate Your Profile” menu, you can now choose to restrict certain info on your profile display, while you can also choose your activity within specific subreddits to keep hidden from visitor view.
“So if you’re regularly engaging in r/dankmemes, you can now keep that to yourself, and avoid any imperial entanglements.”
Moderators will still be allowed access to your full profile and user history for 28 days after requesting to join a community, according to Reddit.
TikTok
TikTok has updated some control options with the new feature “Manage Topics,” available now to all users. The control option helps users curate the content they want from a range of topics. It also updated its “For You” content guide to share how its algorithm recommends content and how users can make this more personalized.
From TikTok:
“With Manage Topics, you can customize how often content related to over 10 popular topics is recommended in your feed – from Creative Arts, Travel, Nature and Sports. These settings won’t eliminate any topics entirely, but can influence how often they’re recommended as your interests evolve over time.”
The social app is also enabling more content filters, including an AI-powered “Smart Keyword Filters” that lets users eliminate or at least limit content you don’t want to see, Social Media Today reports.
“You can now enter keywords or hashtags that relate to content that you don’t want to see at all in the app, and TikTok’s system will then filter them out, so you’re ideally not exposed to related videos in-stream,” the article stated.
Additionally, TikTok has launched a new platform specifically for musical artists and bands called “TikTok For Artists.” The feature specifically helps individuals track their insights and analytics.
TikTok has also made some updates to its Ads tools with the launch of Market Scope and Brand Consideration Ads as well as new TikTok One features.
Market Scope “enables advertisers to examine key audience insights, based on where they are within the buying cycle,” Social Media Today reports from the app developer’s TikTok World event last week.
“The new insights tool will separate your audience into “Awareness,” “Consideration,” and “Conversion” categories, so you can glean more insight into different audience specifics,” the article stated.
Brand Consideration Ads builds from Market Scope data points. Once you have the insights from Market Scope, Brand Consideration allows advertisers to create more personalized ad promotions.
Additionally, TikTok One, the platform that connects brands to content creators, launched “TikTok One Insight Spotlight” to gauge people are interacting with and what you’re target audience is looking for.
See the full list of updates announced at the event here.
Courtney Blackann is a communications reporter. Connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at [email protected].
