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 Brings Its AI Chatbot to Indian Users

https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/23/meta-makes-its-ai-chatbot-available-to-all-users-in-india/

After testing it with Indian users over the last few months, Meta is now rolling out its new AI search element to Indian users, beginning with English language queries.

Meta initially began testing its AI chatbot with Indian users back in April but delayed an expanded roll-out due to the nation’s general elections. But now, Meta is expanding access to the tool, bringing its Llama 3-powered chatbot to Facebook’s biggest user nation, where 378 million people access the platform every month.

2. Apple’s 30% Fee for Facebook and IG Ads Expands to More Regions

https://www.socialsamosa.com/news-2/apple-increases-facebook-instagram-ad-fee-globally-4789065

From next week, when you purchase ads via an iOS device, you’re going to have to pay an extra 30% fee that goes direct to Apple, unless you purchase via facebook.com or instagram.com on a desktop instead.

The change was first rolled out to U.S. advertisers back in February and is now being expanded to all advertisers in all regions. Meta has implemented new processes on the web to facilitate boosting, while avoiding Apple’s extra charges, with all the same functionality that’s available on iOS devices. And if you want to avoid paying the extra fee, you’re going to have to switch to a desktop PC, as opposed to quickly boosting in-stream.

3. Meta is Rolling out Broadcast Channels to Pages With Over 10K Followers

https://mediapract.com/news/meta-expanding-access-to-broadcast-channels-with-over-10k-followers/

Meta’s expanding access to its Broadcast Channels feature, with all Facebook Pages that have more than 10k followers now able to create their own channel on Facebook and Messenger.

Meta first launched Broadcast Channels for Facebook and Messenger in October last year, after seeing success with its initial launch on IG. And now, it’s opening up the one-to-many chat option to even more Pages, while it’s also adding new elements. Meta has also added the capacity to share your channel messages from Instagram to Facebook - Automatically share updates from your Instagram channel to your Facebook channel, providing another way to expand the reach of your messages.

Moreover, channel managers can now also publish Facebook posts to channel members before they go live on your Page as an exclusive perk (while also giving you an opportunity to test posts before they go live more broadly).

4. Snapchat Rolls Out Improved Protection Tools

https://abc7news.com/post/snapchat-is-rolling-new-safety-tools-aimed-protecting/15000838/

Snapchat is adding some new ways to keep users safe, with expanded restrictions on connections in the app, updated blocking tools, and new in-app warnings when previously reported users attempt to connect.

First off, Snap is adding new warning notes when users who’ve previously been blocked or reported by others attempt to connect. As such, users will now see an in-app warning when someone who’s been reported by others attempts to connect. The warning will also be displayed if the user is from a region where the user’s network isn’t typically located.

Snapchat is also implementing more limits on friend requests from people with whom you have no mutual connections. Snap already restricts its connection recommendations when users don’t share any friends in common, and it will now also expand its restrictions on who can send friend requests based on shared connections and location.

5. Pinterest Adds Options for Sharing Pin Boards To Other Apps

https://360prconsultants.com/pinterest-introduces-new-options-for-sharing-pin-boards-to-other-apps/

Pinterest has added a new way to raise awareness of your Pin presence, via improved board sharing, which will make it easier to share your Pinterest collections across other social apps.

Pinterest's improved board sharing will provide a more visually appealing way to promote your Pin collections within other platforms and formats. This will also include a “Curated on Pinterest” marker, which could be seen as a watermark and could harm your distribution in some alternative formats (Reels, for example, downranks videos with watermarks). But the Pinterest marker does disappear, and it’s not aimed, exactly, at Reels sharing as such, but more towards Stories, and re-sharing your Pins via that format.

6. X Launches Ads Academy Marketing Education Platform

https://www.socialsamosa.com/news-2/x-unveils-x-ads-academy-4782799

The platform formerly known as Twitter has refreshed and relaunched its “Flight School” ads education platform, with X’s new “Ads Academy” now available to those who want to improve their X ads knowledge.

X’s Ads Academy is designed to help businesses and marketers create more effective ad campaigns, with a range of courses that provide helpful overviews of X’s ad system. This is seemingly X’s new angle, that while it can’t match the reach offered by other platforms, its user base is more influential, which is why brands should be looking to up their X ad spend.

7. Musk Claims X Reached Usage High After Presidential Debate

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/elon-musk-says-x-saw-record-usage-during-us-presidential-debate/articleshow/111358937.cms

Tech-billionaire owner of X, Elon Musk has said that his social media platform witnessed record usage during the recent televised debate between US President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the upcoming presidential elections later this year.

Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, took to his account on X to detail that the microblogging platform which was formerly known as Twitter touched 76 Billion User-Seconds in the United States. The previous record, which X surpassed by 5 percent, underscores the platform’s growth and resilience in a highly competitive social media landscape. The announcement comes at a time when social media platforms are vying for user attention and striving to offer more engaging content.

8. X Previews Coming Improvements to Ad Analytics

https://www.socialchamp.io/news/x-previews-upcoming-improvements-to-ad-analytics/

After rolling out its updated account analytics features last month, X is now also preparing to launch updated ad analytics, with improved dashboards and metric overviews, making it easier to track your paid content performance.

 X’s updated ad analytics dashboard will include a range of large performance charts so that you can see your ad performance at a glance. Most of the information itself isn’t new, but the presentation is much more intuitive, with easier tabs and clickable links, so you can expand the dataset, switch between campaigns, track performance, etc.

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.