Social Media Buzz Weekly: Roundup of Social Media Updates

Welcome to Social Media Buzz Weekly, your weekly bulletin of the latest social media updates. With the social media landscape evolving with each passing day, it can be challenging to keep a tab on the rapid developments. Well, not anymore, as we have taken it upon ourselves to keep you abreast of every happening in the social media space.

So, without any further ado, let’s look at some of the most significant developments from the last week in the world of social media.

1. Meta Launches Refreshed Safety Center to Help Users Access Focused Assistance

https://www.redmention.com/news/meta-launches-refreshed-security-middle-to-assist-customers-entry-centered-help/

Meta has launched its revamped Safety Center, which is designed to make it easier for users to find relevant information to address key issues and concerns, including direct access to tools, guides, external resources, and more.

The new Safety Center UI provides simplified navigation, with direct links to different aspects, helping to guide you to the specific elements you need. The updated format provides more direct, up-front access to each of these areas, making it easier to get to the key resources for your specific concerns.

2. TikTok reaches 150 Million US Users, Calls for Support to Avoid US Ban

https://www.reuters.com/technology/tiktok-tell-congress-it-has-150-million-monthly-active-us-users-2023-03-20/

TikTok has announced that it now has over 150 million US users. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew himself posted a video about the milestone, while also calling on US users for their support.

The new push further underlines just how significant the US ban threat is, with government officials reportedly already putting pressure on TikTok to separate from its Chinese parent company, in order to eliminate concerns related to potential data sharing.

3. TikTok Announces Updated Community Guidelines, Including New Rules Around AI-Generated Content

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/21/tiktok-overhauls-community-guidelines-adds-new-policies-ai-climate-misinformation/

TikTok has announced that it’s updated its Community Guidelines, which now includes new provisos relating to synthetic media, hate speech, and election integrity efforts.

The updates seem to better align with what US officials may prefer, in regards to its moderation approach, while TikTok also notes that its Community Principles are also based on its ’commitment to uphold human rights, and align with international legal frameworks’.

4. Instagram’s Testing Full-Length Reels Replays Within Stories

https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2023/03/instagram-tests-full-length-reels.html

Instagram’s working on a new way to integrate Stories and Reels, with a new experiment that sees some Reels playing for their full duration within the Stories flow. As a result, some users are now seeing full-length Reels playing within the Stories stream, as opposed to getting the first 15 seconds, then having to tap through to view the whole thing.

That could be another way to lean into the popularity of the Reels format, while Instagram chief Adam Mosseri has also noted that more people are now sharing content in Stories and DMs, as opposed to re-sharing posts to the main feed, so it could also be a means to tap into that evolving usage behavior, and keep users engaged for longer.

5. Instagram Adds Reminder Ads and Promoted Results in Search

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/21/instagram-is-bringing-ads-to-search-results-and-launching-reminder-ads/

Instagram’s launching two new ad options, with Reminder Ads, that enable users to opt into alerts ahead of an event, and ads in search results, helping to better connect with users in a discovery mindset.

Reminder Ads will enable users to opt into alerts about specific events in the app. Once a user opts-in via the ad CTA, they’ll then receive three subsequent notifications of that event, with the first coming a day before, then another 15 minutes ahead of the start time, with a final alert as it begins. Which will ensure that you don’t miss out – and while three reminders may seem a little much, if you’re really keen (or forgetful), it could be of benefit.

Instagram’s ads in search results help to connect with users based on contextual keywords. That’ll provide another way to get your promotions in front of users as they go looking for specific content, with Instagram also adding ads in Explore last year.

6. Snap Launches AR Enterprise Services Platform to Power Third-Party AR Experiences

https://www.zawya.com/en/press-release/companies-news/snap-inc-launches-ares-to-bring-the-power-of-its-augmented-reality-to-businesses-vpuvriz1

Snapchat has launched AR Enterprise Services (ARES) platform, which will provide tools and guidance to help brands integrate Snap’s AR technology into their own apps, websites, and physical locations.

The new solution will provide the opportunity for businesses to directly integrate Snap’s AR tools into their own experiences, beginning with Shopping Suite, Snap’s AR tools designed to enhance the online shopping experience.

7. Pinterest Provides New Tips on Effective Pin Advertising Approaches

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/pinterest-provides-new-tips-on-effective-pin-advertising-approaches/645520/

Pinterest has provided some new Pin ad tips, based on various brand lift studies, incorporating feedback from over 120,000 Pinners.

The data shows that taking a multi-format, multi-stage approach can provide bigger returns, with brands that focus on awareness, consideration, and conversion seeing, on average, three times higher conversion rates than those aligned with just one objective.

8. Twitter Will Begin Removing ‘Legacy’ Blue Checkmarks from Next Week

https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/23/23654206/twitter-legacy-blue-verified-checkmarks-april-fools-day

Twitter has announced that ‘legacy’ blue checkmarks will begin being revoked as of 1st April.

Twitter’s hoping to boost Twitter Blue and Verification for Business subscribers by prompting them to start paying for their blue tick instead. Twitter’s also alerting blue tick account holders with this in-stream notification. That could see some legacy verified accounts paying up, bringing in a few more Twitter Blue subscribers - though the amount that are going to revert to Verification for Business, which costs $1,000 per month, will be far less.

9. Twitter Expands ‘Verification for Organizations’ to More Regions

https://socialbarrel.com/twitter-expands-verification-for-organizations-to-more-countries/140299/

Twitter is pushing ahead with the rollout of its ‘Verification for Organizations’ offering, which enables brands to purchase a gold checkmark for their main account, and verify their employee profiles as affiliates. Verification for Organizations is now available in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the UK, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, India, Indonesia, and Brazil.

Twitter first put out the call for selected businesses to sign up to the program back in January, as part of its broader revamp of verification, which aims to both democratize access to checkmarks in the app, while also establishing a new revenue stream for the business. Now, more brands in more regions are being invited to register their interest, which could soon see a lot more gold checkmarks and square profile pictures appearing in your feed.

10. Twitter Looks to Add ID Verification to its Twitter Blue Sign-Up Process

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/20/twitter-testing-government-id-based-verification-new-screenshots-show/

Twitter is currently testing the new ID verification element, which would be tied to the Twitter Blue sign-up process.

ID verification was flagged as a key element in Twitter’s revised Twitter Blue sign-up process back in December, after the initial launch of Twitter’s buyable checkmark system led to a raft of impersonation issues. But Twitter didn’t actually implement ID verification within its new process, opting instead to hasten the rollout, in order to maximize revenue intake from the scheme.

11. LinkedIn Adds Native Post Scheduling for Company Pages

https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2023/03/linkedin-launches-new-native-post.html

LinkedIn is launching a native post scheduling feature, while company pages will also now be able to follow other pages in the app. This means that now when you compose a post on the web, you’ll also be able to select a date and time that you want the update to go live.

While marketers have been able to schedule LinkedIn posts via third-party social media management apps for years, native scheduling tools can, in some ways, be a better way to go, as they’re more directly aligned with the platform systems, which can make it easier to, for example, tag other pages, or see how your post will look in the app.

12. LinkedIn Adds New Option to Share a Post with Multiple Members at Once

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/linkedin-adds-new-option-to-share-a-post-with-multiple-members-at-once/645988/

LinkedIn has added a new option to forward a LinkedIn feed post to multiple members at once, while you’ll also now be able to create a new group message when forwarding a post.

This means that now you’ll now be able to select multiple recipients when sharing a LinkedIn post, with the capacity to either forward the post to each member separately or create a new chat group with the selected users. You can also add a personal note to your message to include your own thoughts or points.

Wrapping Up

And that was a wrap of this week’s Social Media Buzz. We’ll be back next Monday with more news and updates for you from the social media world. Till then, stay tuned!

If you want to read more on the latest developments taking place in the social media space, take a look at ClickInsights’ Social Media Buzz, wherein we bring to you monthly reports on everything going on in social media, ranging from platform updates to policy changes that influence the way we market.