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. Instagram Launches Nighttime Nudges To Get Teens To Shut It Down for the Night

https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/18/instagrams-new-nighttime-nudges-aim-to-reduce-teens-time-on-the-app/

Instagram has announced new nighttime nudges, which will prompt users to turn their phone off when they’re using it late at night.

The nighttime nudges will show up when teens have spent more than 10 minutes on Instagram in places like Reels or Direct Messages late at night. They’ll remind teens that it’s late, and encourage them to close the app.

2. Instagram Enables Users To Create Custom Sticker From Still Image Posts

https://socialbarrel.com/instagram-adds-the-ability-to-cut-out-custom-stickers-from-still-images/143953/

Instagram has added a new option that enables you to cut out elements of still image posts, which you can then re-use as stickers in your own Stories and Reels.

Instagram’s new “Create a cutout sticker” is available within the three dots menu display on any publicly posted still image post. When you activate it, Instagram’s system will then identify the focus entity in the image, which you can then save as a separate sticker.

3. You Can Now Cancel In-Progress Stories Uploads on Instagram

https://blog.push.fm/13260/cancel-instagram-stories-upload-process-new-meta-update/

Instagram will now give users the option to halt a Stories upload mid-process, which could be a valuable way to catch errors or issues before they get made viewable in the app.

There is now a button within the Stories upload flow that enables you to stop a Story from going live after you’ve hit “Share”. This option will come in handy if add the wrong link, notice a spelling error at the last minute, you forget to tag a profile, etc.

4. X Launches Audio and Video Calls on Android

https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/19/24043950/x-premium-audio-video-calling-feature-android-rollout-announcement

X has now added audio and video calls for Android users, a feature that it rolled out on iOS back in October.

This will allow you to connect more directly with someone via your X DMs. So long as you’re a paying user, as it’s only available to X Premium subscribers. It’s not entirely clear if it’s available to Premium Basic users, the cheapest tier of X subscription.

5. X Gains Money Transmitter Approval in Utah

https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musks-x-receives-money-transmitter-license-utah-2024-01-15/

X has gained money transmitter approval in Utah, making it the fifteenth U.S. state to grant the company a money transmitter license.

X has been collecting money transmitter approvals over the last few months, to launch the first stage of peer-to-peer payments in the app. A money transmitter license grants the business approval to facilitate funds transfers between senders and recipients, with the next step beyond that being payment processor licensing, which is required if X wants to facilitate direct shopping in-stream.

6. LinkedIn’s Removing Its Lookalike Audience Targeting Option as of Next Month

https://searchengineland.com/linkedin-sunset-lookalike-audiences-436885

LinkedIn has announced that it’s removing Lookalike Audiences as an ad targeting option, which could change the way that you look to reach your target audience in the app.

LinkedIn’s Lookalike Audience option enables you to input a list of customer information from your database, which LinkedIn’s system can scan for various traits. The process then matches those traits to other, potentially interested users in the app, helping you reach those with a similar profile.

7. LinkedIn’s Rolling Out a New Sponsored Post Option To Maximize Content Benefits

https://searchengineland.com/linkedin-launches-sponsored-articles-436705

LinkedIn is rolling out a new ad consideration, with sponsored posts coming to all users, providing another way to generate leads from your LinkedIn content.

Now, when a company page posts an article to LinkedIn, admins will have the option to promote it, which will include the capacity to add a CTA button, like “Unlock Article”, that requires the user sign-up to read the rest. That provides another lead generation tool in the app, which could enable a more direct means to measure response and maximize LinkedIn content performance.

Wrapping Up

And that was a wrap of this week’s Social Media Buzz. We’ll be back next week 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.