Social media updates and new features to know this week
Including Meta, X, Threads and more.
Happy Tuesday, social friends! This week, we’re seeing more AI features take on tasks from language translation to ad targeting. There are also new updates to performance insights and hashtag limitations. Let’s dive in and see where these new features can benefit you the most.
Meta
Meta recently updated its Professional Dashboard insights for the web. This is a response to direct feedback from creators who are using both the web and mobile to track KPIs, Meta said. The web version offers an expanded layout so you can see more data on one screen than what’s appearing on the mobile version.
The updates include graphs that track overall performance, content insights and content monetization performance.
The updates have improved consistency across the mobile and web version of Professional Dashboard, the app makers say.
The update also includes a “Popular With Your Followers” module that allows you to see what’s performing especially well within the community you’ve built.
In other news, Meta has consolidated ad targeting with an automated system using AI. This means your input on ad-targeting will likely be less relevant and less specific.
TikTok
A small change here, but one that hasn’t gone unnoticed from TikTok users. It appears that some creators have received notifications that the app is now limiting the number of hashtags allowed per post.
This user shared a post on X showing that TikTok limited hashtags to five per post. As insights and targeting have evolved, this isn’t completely off the cuff, though I’m sure some creators may find the change a bit annoying.
One thing to note: TikTok has not addressed this change publicly.
Threads
Threads has added an automated post-counter for message threads (would have been better if they called it a thread count). Rather than manually typing “post 1/3,” it will simply appear in the corner.
You can visually see what this looks like from social media expert Radu Oncescu here. This will help users group posts together more easily while seeing exactly how many links there are in a post.
WhatsApp has added some new features that may be recognizable if you’ve ever used Teams or Zoom. The app now can both make group calls or schedule calls ahead of time via a calendar invite.
WhatsApp explains: “You can see and manage all your upcoming calls in the Calls tab, alongside a list of attendees and call links to add to your personal calendar or share with others. Helpfully, all participants will receive a notification when a call is about to begin.”
During these group calls or meetings, participants will have options to perform actions like “raise hand” and other responses, the app makers said.
In a similar vein, users will see when others scheduled on the group call have “joined” the call.
LinkedIn has integrated Thought Leader Event Ads.
How does it work?? When a brand promotes an event via LinkedIn, and a user uses the repost with your thoughts function, the event promoter can take that organic promo and turn it into an ad for the event (with the user’s permission).
“Marketers can login to Campaign Manager to set up their Thought Leader Event Ad. From there, they can choose ’Browse Existing‘ in the Content Library to search for a member’s post containing an event to sponsor.”
This builds on real excitement, which helps boost a brand’s credibility.
X
X’s Grok is now offering more language translation in-stream.
xAI engineer Ray Hotate shared on the platform that, “We have released the Grok auto-translate feature for X posts to all the U.S. users. Not only Japanese but languages from around the world will be automatically translated into English by @Grok. X Posts will transcend language barriers.”
His message was originally posted in Japanese, but translated through Grok to English, showing its capabilities.
Users will now have access to this feature, with most languages supported by the AI tool.
Google Translate was X’s primary translation tool prior to this announcement, which they began phasing out in June.
Courtney Blackann is a communications reporter. Connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at [email protected].
