Stay Up to Date on the Latest Trends, Platform Updates, and Social Media Holidays
April showers bring May flowers, and May brings several key dates for agencies, brands, and creators.
The month of May includes diversity (Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Cinco de Mayo), empathy (Mental Health Awareness Month, International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia), and the unofficial start of summer, Memorial Day weekend.
Also, whatever you do, don’t forget mom: Mother’s Day falls on May 12 this year.
Social Media Holidays to Mark on Your Calendar
- May 1: First day of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
- May 1: First day of Mental Health Awareness Month
- May 4: Star Wars Day
- May 5: Cinco de Mayo
- May 12: Mother’s Day
- May 17: International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia
- May 18: Armed Forces Day
- May 20: National Rescue Dog Day
- May 25: National Wine Day
- May 27: Memorial Day
- May 28: National Burger Day
Social Media Platform Updates
TikTok
Washington Worries
The most important social media news of last month by a landslide was not good news for TikTok, but there are still chapters to be written in this book.
President Joe Biden signed a bill that gives ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, nine months to sell the video sharing application, at which point it would be subject to a ban in the U.S.
That nine-month period can be extended by another three months if a deal is in the works.
Congress cited national security concerns, fearful that the Chinese government might access the personal data of 170 million U.S. TikTok users.
Legal challenges are likely, and there is also the possibility of the Chinese government blocking a sale of the assets.
TikTok released the following statement on the day Biden signed the bill into law: “This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court. We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail. The fact is, we have invested billions of dollars to keep U.S. data safe and our platform free from outside influence and manipulation. This ban would devastate 7 million businesses and silence 170 million Americans. As we continue to challenge this unconstitutional ban, we will continue investing and innovating to ensure that TikTok remains a space where Americans of all walks of life can safely come to share their experiences, find joy, and be inspired.”
In related news, TikTok and ByteDance general counsel Erich Andersen will take on the new role of special counsel to the companies, tasked with fighting to overturn the potential ban.
Taking Aim at Instagram
TikTok began testing Instagram competitor TikTok Notes in Australia and Canada.
The company described TikTok Notes as “a dedicated space for photo and text content,” and images in the two countries’ Apple App Store and Google Play Store indicate that content appears in two-column grids, and carousel posts containing multiple images are supported.
Big Bucks for Small Businesses
Oxford Economics released a new report, “TikTok: Helping Grow Small and Midsized Businesses and Delivering Value for Consumers Across the United States,” which the platform is using to support arguments that the app brings positive contributions to the U.S.
According to the report, TikTok helped bring over $24 billion to the country’s gross domestic product—$15 billion through SMB investments in paid advertising and marketing on the platform, and the rest via its free services—along with more than 224,000 jobs.
The study also found that nearly 40% of SMBs said TikTok was critical to their businesses’ existence.
Other TikTok News
- Social commerce marketplace TikTok Shop is adding a secondhand luxury category in the U.K., pitting it against platforms such as Depop, Mercari, Poshmark, The RealReal, and Vestiaire Collective.
- TikTok updated its community guidelines for better clarity and added new safety features, including updated For You eligibility standards. Account Check will let creators audit their account and their last 30 posts to ensure that they are in good standing on the platform. And the company published the new TikTok Creator Code of Conduct.
- The company announced global ticketing partnerships with AXS in Australia, Sweden, the U.K., and the U.S., and with TS EVENTIM in Germany, enabling fans to purchase concert tickets in just a few clicks without leaving the TikTok app.
- TikTok’s dedicated STEM feed, which has been bringing educational content related to science, technology, engineering, and math to U.S. users, was extended to Ireland and the U.K.
Major Algorithm Changes
Instagram announced four significant changes to its algorithm late last month with the aim of giving creators with smaller follower bases a chance to break through the clutter.
Previously, surfaces with recommended content were populated based on interactions by an account’s followers, favoring those with more followers, since they would generate more reach.
Now, every piece of eligible content that is original, in good standing with community guidelines, contains no visible watermarks, and meets Instagram’s recommendation guidelines will be shown to a small audience that is likely to enjoy it, including followers and non-followers.
Content that performs well will be shown to a wider audience, with content performing well at that stage shown to an even wider audience, and so on.
Original content will be prioritized by recommending only the original piece of content when Instagram detects identical content. Exceptions will be made for changes such as editing it to become a meme, including it in a parody compilation, narrating it with a new voiceover, or remixing it.
In cases of reposted content, labels will be added linking to the original content.
Instagram is also going after content aggregators, saying that accounts posting content from other users that they did not create or enhance 10 or more times in the past 30 days will not be shown on surfaces where content is recommended.
Publishers with licensing agreements or explicit permissions from creators will be exempt.
Incentives
Instagram began testing Spring Bonus, which it described as a seasonal program that compensates creators for engagement on photo carousels, Reels, and single-image photo posts.
Spring Bonus is only available in Japan, South Korea, and the U.S., and branded content and collab posts are not eligible for monetization through the program.
A similar, limited-time initiative is also ongoing for Instagram’s stand-alone Threads app, with invited creators in the U.S. having to meet “individualized” requirements for bonuses.
Posts on Threads must receive at least 2,500 views to be eligible, and posts with boosted views, copyrighted material, or no text will not qualify.
Blend
Instagram is in the early stages of testing a new feature called Blend, which creates a private feed of Reels recommended for a user and a friend.
If a user invites a friend to a Blend, they would see a feed of Reels that they would both likely be interested in, based on factors such as Reels the two participants have shared with each other in the past and Reels interests.
Protection Against Sextortion
Instagram began testing new features and tools to help users guard against abuse of their intimate images and sextortion.
The platform is working on a nudity protection feature for direct messages, which blurs images that are detected to contain nudity and prompts people to reconsider before sending those images.
People sending or receiving these images will be directed to safety tips, developed with guidance from experts, about the potential risks involved.
Instagram is also developing technology that helps to identify when accounts may potentially be engaging in sextortion scams, based on a range of behavioral signals.
Messages from accounts that are detected as such will go directly to recipients’ hidden messages folder, meaning that they will not be notified about the message and will not see it.
New pop-up messages are being tested to alert users who have interacted with accounts that were removed for sextortion and direct those users to expert-backed resources.
Other Instagram News
- Threads, the app Instagram released as a competitor to Twitter (now X), is indeed competing. Threads topped X in daily active users in December, and has maintained that lead, according to Apptopia. And Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Instagram parent company Meta, said during Meta’s first-quarter earnings call that Threads had over 150 million monthly active users as of the end of March, up from 130 million in February.
- Instagram’s Hidden Words option, which lets people filter out unwanted content from feed, profiles, replies, and search, was extended to Threads.
- Threads is helping developers prepare for the public launch of its application-programming interface in June, releasing developer documentation and a sign-up sheet. Current beta-testers include Hootsuite, Social News Desk, Sprinklr, Sprout Social, and Techmeme.
- Instagram began testing the ability for Threads users to archive posts with a small number of users. Those in the test group can archive posts manually or opt to automatically archive all posts after a certain time period, and those actions can be reversed.
- President Joe Biden: Welcome to the fediverse. The @Potus account on Threads shared its first federated post. The fediverse is made up of interconnected servers running social networks that can communicate with each other, and its social web is made up of 9.9 million total users, with 1.08 million of them active on a monthly basis.
YouTube
Going Long on Shorts
YouTube added new categories of content where brands can reserve Shorts ads, ensuring that their ads appear next to creators in beauty, entertainment, food, sports, and other niches.
The platform is also providing more creative guidance to potential Shorts advertisers.
YouTube parent Google said there are now more than 70 billion daily views of YouTube Shorts, among 2 billion logged-in viewers.
Shop ‘Til You Drop
YouTube introduced three new shopping options, saying that over 30 billion hours of shopping-related videos were watched on its platform in 2023, and there was a 25% jump in watch time for videos that help people shop.
Shopping Collections let creators curate products from their favorite brands or their own offerings, and they will appear in the creator’s product list, Store tab, and video description.
A new Affiliate Hub was added directly to the YouTube app so that creators can get the latest information on competitive commission rates, request samples from top brands, and see the most up-to-date list of the platform’s shopping partners.
All creators on YouTube now have the ability to tag products across their videos in bulk.
And Fourthwall joined YouTube’s list of integrated platforms.
Exclusive Shorts
The platform debuted Members Only Shorts, which let creators share shorts exclusively with paying viewers.
Those viewers will see the exclusive videos on the creator’s channel, in the Shorts tab, or in their Subscriptions feed, and it will be displayed with a star icon, indicating that it is only available to paying subscribers.
Other YouTube News
- YouTube is introducing a read-only comments option for younger users in experiences supervised by their parents. They will be able to read comments but not write them.
Updated Video Player
Facebook rolled out an updated, full-screen video player with a consistent design across live videos, long-form videos, and Reels.
It debuted on Android and iOS in Canada and the U.S., with a global rollout set for the coming months.
New controls include full-screen mode for horizontal videos, a slider that lets people skip around during lover videos, and the ability to pause and jump back or forward 10 seconds by tapping on the video.
The platform also tweaked its video recommendations with the aim of making them more relevant to users.
Facebook also shared recommendations for creators to ensure that their videos take advantage of the new player and recommendation system.
The social network suggested that they:
- Maintain a focus on authenticity and storytelling.
- For those who have not already, experiment with Reels.
- Keep producing longer-form content.
- Share unique content rather than uploading unedited videos from other platforms.
- Experiment with vertical video with a 9:16 aspect ratio.
Snapchat
Snap Advanced Partner Program
Snap Inc. Introduced its Snap Advanced Partner Program to give agencies and partners that qualify the opportunity to work closely with the company on creating innovative solutions for advertising on Snapchat.
Partners will receive benefits including personalized training and enablement sessions, dedicated support, and additional tools and resources, and they can take advantage of new features to more easily buy, manage, and measure ads on the platform.
Snap said pilot partners include independent media agencies Gale, Horizon Media, Kepler, PMG, Rise, Tinuiti, VaynerMedia, and Wpromote, joined by authorized sales partners, media agencies, marketing partners, augmented reality production partners, and measurement partners.
Ad Platform Updates
Snap detailed updates to its ad platform during its first-quarter earnings call.
Its Pixel Purchase optimization model was extended to new categories, such as app install and app purchase, and goals to be added during the second quarter include custom event optimization and value optimization.
A new version of its Conversions API enables new identifiers and parameters for unlocking dynamic retail ads and improved support for return on ad sales optimizations.
New campaign setup tools include dynamic campaign setup recommendations and codeless Pixel setups.
Finally, the platform announced a partnership with Integral Ad Science to jointly develop a new brand safety third-party measurement product.
More Partnerships
Snap also detailed new partnerships on the privacy front.
A new partnership and integration with Snowflake will let Snap serve as a key mobile platform partner for Snowflake’s Marketing Data Cloud, covering privacy-enhancing technologies such as data clean rooms.
The company teamed up with AppsFlyer on an advanced privacy-centric measurement solution, helping Snapchat advertisers better understand the platform’s performance within mobile measurement partner attribution for their iOS campaigns.
New third-party providers offering access to Snapchat’s conversions API include Datahash, Jellyfish, mParticle, Segment, Stape.io, and Tealium.
Finally, Snap plans an improved version of its Event Quality Score in the coming months, letting partners better understand signal health, with greater precision.
AI Safety
Snapchat detailed the steps it is taking and plans to add to support safety and transparency regarding artificial intelligence on its platform.
In-app icons, labels, and symbols provide context to users interacting with AI-powered features, and the company said it will soon add watermarks to AI-generated images created with its generative AI tools. Users will see a small ghost logo with the sparkle icon beside it.
Political ads are vetted “through a rigorous human review process” to prevent the use of AI to create deceptive content or images.
And Snap developed a safety review process to detect and remove potentially problematic prompts in the earliest stages of AI lens development.
Other Snapchat News
- Snap detailed new features to help users express themselves on Snapchat. Templates make it easy to create high-quality videos in a few clicks. Videos of up to three minutes can now be created and up to five minutes can be uploaded for chats, Spotlight, and Stories. A new AI-powered lens lets people add a festive theme with a single tap. Users of subscription service Snapchat+ can use Friendship Profiles, where their avatar poses alongside that of their friend. Finally, Snapchat+ users can upload a photo of their pet through Snap Map to create an avatar for it.
- Snapchat is turning off its Solar System feature by default. Solar System is only available to Snapchat+ subscribers, and the company said less than 0.25% of its community uses the feature on a daily basis. It shows users how often one of their friends communicates with them by depicting the friend as the sun and the user’s Bitmoji avatar as a planet in its solar system.
- During its first-quarter earnings call, Snap said total watch time on its Spotlight TikTok competitor was up 125% year over year.
- Luxury brand Cartier teamed up with Snapchat on a first-of-its-kind augmented reality try-on experience celebrating the 100th anniversary of The Trinity Collection.
- The Snap Partner Summit will be held Sept. 17 at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif., followed by the company’s seventh annual Lens Fest Sept. 18 and 19.
- Snap detailed its preparations for the 2024 U.S. presidential election, teaming up with Vote.org on in-app tools for Snapchatters to check their registration status, register to vote, sign up for election reminders, and plan for Election Day without leaving the app.
- Snap participated in the IAB NewFronts in New York May 1. President of Americas Patrick Harris and Chief Creative Officer Colleen DeCourcy co-hosted the presentation, joined by Director of Advertiser Solutions Katelyn Kroneman, Head of Public Figures Francis Roberts, and Director, Product Marketing, AR Content Sophia Dominguez.
- Finally, Snap shared the results of a meta-analysis of media mix modeling that it conducted with TransUnion.
Meta
Say Hi to Meta AI
AI assistant Meta AI, powered by Meta Llama 3, is rolling out across the company’s family of apps—Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp—in more countries, and it can be accessed in chats, feed, search, and other surfaces.
The company wrote in a blog post, “Planning a night out with friends? Ask Meta AI to recommend a restaurant with sunset views and vegan options. Organizing a weekend getaway? Ask Meta AI to find concerts for Saturday night. Cramming for a test? Ask Meta AI to explain how hereditary traits work. Moving into your first apartment? Ask Meta AI to ‘imagine’ the aesthetic you’re going for and it will generate some inspiration photos for your furniture shopping.”
Meta AI surfaces real-time information, and its image generation capabilities have been sped up, with sharper, higher-quality results.
More on AI
The company detailed changes to its process of labeling AI-generated content and manipulated media.
A wider range of audio, image, and video content will be labeled with “Made with AI” when Meta detects standard AI image indicators or people disclose that they uploaded AI-generated content.
Meta’s manipulated media policy, created in 2020, only covers videos created or altered by AI to make a person appear to say something that they didn’t say, and this policy will be updated, as well.
Mixed Reality
Meta opened up the operating system that powers its Meta Quest devices to third-party hardware makers with the aim of giving developers a larger ecosystem to build apps for.
This new hardware ecosystem will run on Meta Horizon OS, the mixed reality operating system that powers Meta Quest headsets. It combines the core technologies that power today’s mixed reality experiences with a suite of features that put social presence at the center of the platform.
Creators and developers can create mixed reality experiences and tap the content discovery and monetization platforms built into Meta Horizon OS, including the Meta Horizon Store (formerly the Meta Quest Store).
The social layer enables users’ avatars, friend groups, identities, and social graphs to seamless move with them across virtual spaces, and developers can integrate these features into their apps.
Other Meta News
- Meta returned to the IAB NewFronts for the third consecutive year with a May 2 presentation focused on its AI-powered solutions and the power of Reels and short-form video.
- The company announced its commitment to new principles from Thorn and All Tech Is Human, designed to mitigate the potential risks of generative AI.
- New styles were released in the Ray Ban-Meta smart glasses collection, and new features include video calling with Messenger and WhatsApp, as well as Meta AI with Vision, which lets people ask their glasses about what they’re seeing and get helpful information, completely hands-free.
- Finally, Meta is requesting that anyone with a Meta Account on its Quest 2 or Quest 3 VR headsets confirm their age by re-entering their birthday, so it can be sure that an age-appropriate experience is provided.
One Hot Summer
The Pinterest Summer 2024 Travel Report taps the platform’s 1 billion-plus annual travel-related searches and more than 10 billion travel saves to determine what is trending for the upcoming season. Highlights include:
- Searches for adventure activities are up 45% year over year.
- In contrast, searches for quiet life skyrocketed by 530% over the same time period.
- Searches for places on Earth that do not feel real were up 240%, while searches for mysterious places on Earth were up 40%, with the latter paced by Machu Picchu and its 190% climb.
- Generation Z Pinterest users are looking into road trips and travel with friends, highlighted by a 250% jump in searches for comfy road trip outfit, while what to bring on a road trip was up 66%.
- London is the top trending destination, with searches for London lifestyle up 340% compared with last year.
X
Simple Sales
Machine learning and AI are driving X’s new simplified setup process for sales campaigns within its Ads Manager, reducing necessary steps and improving targeting.
Advertisers can choose their conversion event, set their daily ad budget, and add their desired demographic targeting for age, gender, and location, launching campaigns within minutes.
A new cost estimate feature provides a projected range of CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) for sales campaigns.
Other X News
- X is revisiting its policy of charging new users before they can bookmark, like, or reply to a post. Owner Elon Musk explained, “Unfortunately, a small fee for new user write access is the only way to curb the relentless onslaught of bots. Current AI (and troll farms) can pass ‘are you a bot’ with ease.”
- The company shared data for March, saying that roughly 3 million calls were made on X, more than 2 million Spaces were created (over 2.4 million hours of content), 6.4 million Spaces were created in the first three months of 2024, users are spending 495% more time in Communities and 118% more time in direct messages, and 80% of X users consume video on the platform daily.
- X warned users that some accounts may see changes in follower counts due to an initiative to eliminate accounts violating its rules on platform manipulation and spam.
- Subscribers to X Premium will soon lose the ability to hide their checkmarks.
- Calls can be made on X without users being required to share their phone number.
- X announced that Spaces can be created on the web.
- The National Football League and X renewed their content partnership in a multiyear agreement, giving brands the chance to sponsor co-branded highlights, Spaces, polls, and other creative formats.
- iOS users worldwide can now login via passkeys.
- X announced several updates and improvements to Communities, including: All administrators can add topics, which can be linked to Communities on all devices; NSFW (not safe for work) content will be auto-filtered, but admins can reverse that in the settings; a ban button was added to the reported posts page; all Community posts are shown in global search and the profile likes tab; users not eligible to join a Community will see more detailed explanations; People kicked out of Communities for spam will be temporarily or permanently banned from joining more; all member and moderator lists will be viewable; and join requests will be viewable.
- Finally, the company announced two new leaders on its safety team. Kylie McRoberts was promoted to head of safety. And Yale Cohen joined X as head of brand safety and advertiser solutions. He had been executive vice president, global digital standards at Publicis Media.
CTV Ads and Live Event Ads
LinkedIn introduced two new ad formats for business-to-business marketers: LinkedIn CTV Ads and Live Event Ads.
The professional network said nearly 90% of U.S. households used connected TV platforms in 2023, so it looked to build on the success of its In-Stream Video Ads, letting advertisers launch CTV campaigns directly via Campaign Manager through publishers including Paramount, Roku, and Samsung Ads.
LinkedIn also teamed up with NBCUniversal on LinkedIn Premiere, a managed offering in Campaign Manager that lets brands target decision makers in the U.S. across NBCU’s premium streaming content on CTV.
And the platform is collaborating with partners including iSpot for advanced audience measurement and Kantar for objective brand lift studies.
The professional network cited a 34% leap in members viewing events on its platform as the motivation behind Live Event Ads, which let advertisers promote their offerings before, during, and after the event, with dynamic adjustments.
Turn the Page
LinkedIn announced several new features and updates for pages on its platform.
Super admins can now choose up to three posts to feature front-and-center on the page, appearing in the Featured section of the Home tab.
LinkedIn Articles, created on the platform with unique LinkedIn URLs, can be published on pages or written and posted by thought leaders inside or outside of the company. They can also be sponsored through the Boost flow in pages or through single-image ad campaign creation in Campaign Manager. The ability to drive newsletter subscriptions is on tap soon.
All companies now have access to Pages Messaging, letting them reach out to organizations that feature message buttons on their pages, as well as be contacted by customers, influencers, job candidates, and prospects.
LinkedIn also announced Pages Messaging API integrations with Bird, Brandwatch, Hootsuite, Oktopost, Sprinklr, and Zoho.
Page admins can use competitor analytics to compare the performance of their page with others in the same category. They can track metrics including all-time followers, new followers gained within a specific time range, and top trending original posts over the past 30 days.
Analytics for newsletters were bolstered, as well, letting their creators see article views and new subscribers over a specific period, along with article views, engagements, and impressions for specific editions. They also get a picture of subscriber demographics by company, company size, job title, location, and seniority.
Other LinkedIn News
- LinkedIn shared highlights from parent company Microsoft’s fiscal third-quarter earnings report. Revenue was up 10% year over year. AI-assisted messages saw a 40% higher acceptance rate and were accepted over 10% faster by job seekers. And LinkedIn Premium revenue rose 29% year over year.
In Store for 2024
Newly public Reddit shared an update on its plans for 2024, with a focus on improving the experience for moderators and users, safety, and empowering developers.
Moderators are getting more sophisticated, AI-powered tools to ease the process on mobile devices, including post guidance, keyword highlighting, and saved responses.
Continuing safety efforts that have been ongoing for the past few months, Reddit will release features such as improved automated removal of undesired content, large language model-powered harassment filters, and user details reporting.
For users, the new web platform is more than twice as fast, and app start time was down 10% in 2023.
Reddit said it is working on simpler experiences for navigation conversations that will be consistent across desktop, mobile, and logged-out access.
Support for more languages is being added, and on the accessibility front, closed captioning for videos and font resizing on Reddit’s native mobile apps were implemented.
Reddit’s signature Ask Me Anything experience is undergoing a complete revamp, with a scheduler and event reminder coming soon.
Finally, Reddit is ramping up its developer platform to allow the co-creation of elements to make its platform more engaging and fun.
Other Reddit News
- Reddit’s Android and iOS apps were updated with instant comment loading and shortcuts to comments.
- The platform’s Community Funds program is now two years old, and key numbers include 94 eligible applications received, 30 proposals funded, $320,000 in funding disbursed, and over 33 million users engaging in those funded communities.
Messenger
HD Photos and Shared Albums
Meta’s flagship messaging app announced several updates.
Messenger now supports HD photos, which can be done via a new HD toggle in the chat composer.
Shared albums can be created in group chats, enabling everyone in the chat to view, add, delete, and download pictures and videos from the album.
Messenger users can now add new connections by scanning their Messenger QR code.
And files of up to 100 megabytes are now supported in chat, with formats including Word, PDF, Excel, and ZIP.
Other Messenger News
- Messenger shared a complete guide to end-to-end encryption.
Chat Filters
Three new chat filters were added to the top of chat lists on WhatsApp:
- All: The default view of all messages.
- Unread: Messages that are either marked as unread or haven’t been opened yet.
- Groups: All group chats are now organized in one place, and subgroups of Communities will also be shown.
WhatsApp wrote in a blog post, “We believe filters will make it easier to stay organized, find your most important conversations and navigate through messages more efficiently. We’ll continue to build more options to help you focus on what matters most.”
Brands That Stay on Trend
While moms should be appreciated every single day, Mother’s Day provides the perfect opportunity for a special token of appreciation for everything they do.
Creator thatsbriannab and her daughter went shopping for mother-daughter outfits at Macy’s.
View this post on Instagram
Chocolate is a traditional Mother’s Day gift, and creator balanced_becs shopped for some from Dove on Walmart’s website.
View this post on Instagram
And Hallmark recognized that Mother’s Day is not the easiest day for everyone, sharing the story of creator itstashhaynes and her struggles with the holiday while growing up without a mom.
View this post on Instagram
Open Influence’s team stays on top of the latest trends and is here to help you maximize your creator campaigns. Open Influence is a leading global creator marketing agency dedicated to creating engaging campaigns.
