June is loaded with social media moments, from Father’s Day, to Juneteenth, to the official beginning of summer.
And for brands looking to dig even deeper, there are days honoring doughnuts, selfies, and social media in general.
Social Media Holidays to Mark on Your Calendar
- June 1: Global Day of Parents
- June 6: National Doughnut Day
- June 8: International Children’s Day
- June 14: Flag Day
- June 15: Father’s Day
- June 19: Juneteenth
- June 20: First day of summer
- June 21: National Selfie Day
- June 30: World Social Media Day
Social Media Platform Updates
TikTok
The Pulse of TikTok
TikTok added to its TikTok Pulse suite of products for brands with its introduction of Pulse Core and Pulse Premiere.
Pulse Core enables advertisers to take advantage of conversation on the platform by placing their ads adjacent to the top user-generated content by category or holiday, or custom-built content that fits with their brand.
The company said Pulse Core campaigns are over 100 times more likely to appear next to trending topics than other campaign types.
Pulse Core options are:
- Custom Lineups: Leverages the power of generative artificial intelligence to offer advertisers the best content related to a completely bespoke category or lineup built just for the brand.
- Max Pulse: Places a brand’s ads next to the top 4% of content on TikTok across all content categories for maximum available reach.
- Category Lineups: Places ads next to the best content related to a topic or genre, like sports or beauty.
- Seasonal Lineups: Focuses on the best content related to a cultural moment, like Mother’s Day or back to school.
Pulse Premiere gives brands access to exclusive placement alongside official content from premium publishers during major tentpole events and cultural moments, as well as placement adjacent to evergreen content from publishers across categories such as entertainment, lifestyle, and sports.
TikTok said its existing roster of partners—which includes BuzzFeed, Condé Nast, Disney, DotDash Meredith, Hearst, Major League Soccer, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, NBCUniversal, Paramount, and Vox—will be joined by Formula 1, Red Bull Media, and Warner Bros. Discovery.
In other TikTok advertising news, the platform is introducing new Sponsorship Solutions that let brands establish their presence on the platform during cultural milestones and tentpole moments, as well as new Content Sponsorship Packages with partners like Beauty Month: Game Face, the Las Vegas Grand Prix, and Live Nation’s The Submix to place them at the heart of cultural moments.
AI Alive
New, first-of-its-kind creative feature TikTok AI Alive lets creators transform static photos into dynamic, immersive videos directly within TikTok Stories.
AI Alive is available exclusively within the application’s Story Camera, and it uses intelligent editing tools that allow anyone, regardless of editing experience, to transform static images into captivating, short-form videos enhanced with movement, atmospheric, and creative effects.
After an AI Alive Story is created and posted, TikTok users can view it within the app’s For You and Following feeds, as well as on the creator’s profile page.
Adding SoundCloud to the Mix
SoundCloud is being integrated into TikTok’s Add to Music App music discovery feature, which lets TikTok users save tracks they discover on the platform to their music streaming services.
TikTok said that since Add to Music App rolled out last year, it has led to more than 1 billion track saves and several billion streams on music streaming platforms.
Recently introduced SoundCloud feature Move Your Music lets users of that platform transfer their music libraries—including liked songs and playlists—from other platforms such as Amazon Music, Apple Music, Deezer, Spotify, Tidal, and YouTube Music.
Other TikTok News
- TikTok will extend its Meditation in Sleep Hours feature—which encourages users to stay off the app at night—to all users, making it the default for those under 18. The company also announced a $2.3 million donation in ad credits to 31 mental health organizations in 22 countries around the world as part of its Mental Health Education Fund.
- Speaking of ad credits, TikTok marked Small Business Month by awarding $1 million worth to small and midsized businesses across the U.S.
- TikTok reached a strategic partnership with Skilled Careers Coalition and SkillsUSA to promote workforce development and spark interest in skilled trades via unique content on the platform.
- The company returned as an official partner for the 78th Cannes Film Festival, bringing select creators to the event to share behind-the-access content with their communities.
- Finally, Pereira O’Dell will manage TikTok’s global creative efforts following a competitive review.
Worthwhile Referrals
Instagram began testing a new Referrals program that compensates creators for driving sign-ups and traffic to the app.
U.S.-based creators in the invite-only test group receive $100 for every new user or 1,000 visits, up to $20,000.
Instagram parent Meta is working with third-party partner Glimmer to handle the payments.
Other Instagram News
- Stand-alone app Threads topped 350 million monthly active users.
- Threads users can now add up to five external links to their profiles.
- The recently launched Edits stand-alone app was updated to add inspiration, video effects, and the ability to add beat markers for aligning clips, text, and overlays with audio while editing.
- Finally, the new Account Status option on Threads lets users see actions that Instagram has taken on their posts or replies that violate its community standards.
YouTube
More Creator Tools
YouTube introduced several tools aimed at helping brands tap into the relationships between creators and its users.
- A new creator partnerships hub brings improved sponsored video discovery, creator search, and paid and organic reporting for linked videos.
- New application-programming interfaces focused on connecting brands with creators will soon enable eligible influencer marketing agencies and software-as-a-service platforms to supercharge their creator tools with creator insights.
- Insights Finder lets brands search for relevant creators and learn about their fandoms.
- Partnership ads powered by BrandConnect are coming soon to Display & Video 360.
- Finally, Takeovers help deepen fan engagement by starting videos with a personalized message from the creator.
Cultural Moments Sponsorships
YouTube unveiled Cultural Moments Sponsorships, describing it as a suite of solutions that enable brands to insert themselves at the heart of cultural moments such as awards season or golf’s PGA Championship.
Another new offering crafted with parent company Google’s Gemini AI chatbot, Peak Points, identifies the most meaningful moments within content so advertisers can place their creative where viewers are most engaged.
Finally, YouTube introduced two new options for the television: Masthead on CTV, an edge-to-edge canvas for ads on the YouTube homepage; and Shoppable CTV, which lets viewers browse and engage with products directly via their TV screen.
Meta
New Offerings for Creators and Brands
The parent company of Facebook and Instagram announced several new options for creators and brands on its various surfaces.
New content targeting option Reels Trending Ads lets brands deliver ads immediately after the most popular creator-created Reels across Meta’s platforms.
Brands can choose between overall top trending Reels or top trending topical lineups such as beauty and sports. Meta’s brand safety and suitability controls default to the ‘limited’ setting, and verification from Meta Business Partners is part of the process.
Trends are being tested in Instagram’s Creator Marketplace to enable brands to discover real-time culturally relevant insights on the platform and respond with related content. The feature leverages AI to identify trending topics, ranking them on a variety of metrics, and showcasing relevant Reels content and recommended creators.
Meta is also testing the Creator Marketplace API, which helps brands discover and connect with high-quality creators at scale and make data-driven decisions about their partnerships.
For Partnership Ads, Meta added the ability to feature one partner in the ad’s header on Facebook and Instagram, and it began testing Facebook Live Partnership Ads with the option of boosting user-generated content.
Video Expansion on Facebook Reels helps brands unlock more performance from their video assets and drive better outcomes, seamlessly adjusting video creative assets by generating unseen pixels in each video frame to expand the aspect ratio, creating a more immersive and native experience.
Finally, a small number of advertisers on Threads will shortly be able to test 16:9 or 1:1 video ad creative delivered between pieces of organic content on the app.
The Impact of AI Ad Tools
Meta conducted a study to measure how ads on its platforms drive purchases and determine the impact of its AI-driven ad technologies on the U.S. economy, businesses, and workers.
The company found that its personalized advertising technologies were linked to nearly $550 billion in economic activity and 3.4 million jobs in 2024, representing a 32.5% increase in economic activity and a 10% increase in jobs compared to an identical study conducted in 2022.
Meta also found that its AI-driven advertising tools drive a 22% improvement in return on ad spend for advertisers, meaning that for every $1 U.S. advertisers spend with Meta, they see a $4.52 return.
Other Meta News
Meta shared a new report that expanded on principles from its Measurement 360 framework to dig deeper into tactics to enhance the accuracy and depth of measurement with a multifaceted approach grounded in incrementality.
Virtual assistant Meta AI now has more than 1 billion monthly active users.
The company plans to extend its retail footprint, opening brick-and-mortar stores and hiring people to staff them.
Meta shared steps it is taking, and steps that users of its family of apps should take, to thwart online investment and payment scams.
Ray-Ban Meta Glasses are now available in India.
The company released a study on the effects of its personalized ads on the European Union economy, saying that those tools were linked to €213 billion ($241 billion) in economic activity and 1.44 million jobs across the EU in 2024.
Finally, on the accessibility front, Meta AI can be customized to provide detailed responses on Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, enriching the experience for people with disabilities.
Boosting Visual Search
Pinterest introduced a new set of visual search features that allow users to further interact with Image Pins and shop the ideas contained within.
The new tools are launching for women’s fashion content across Canada, the U.K., and the U.S., with more categories and countries to be added over time.
Pinterest is breaking down and decoding images on its platform, generating words when users view a Pin to help them shop for an overall aesthetic, a color palette, a specific fit, or a product category.
A new refinement bar lets users narrow their search results and look for items in a different color, style, or fabric.
And visual search features can now be accessed via the Search Image button on the platform, letting users long-press on any Pin in their home feed.
Pinterest’s in-house agency, Pinterest House of Creative, released a brand campaign to help raise awareness of the new features.
Other Pinterest News
- The company announced a partnership with the New York Liberty, the 2024 Women’s National Basketball Association champions, to celebrate women’s sports through exclusive content, in-game experiences, and community outreach.
- Pinterest released a guide to setting up shopping campaigns on its platform.
- Finally, Pinterest shared some ideas for summer marketing.
Snapchat
New Ad Options
Snapchat introduced several new advertising options for brands on its platform.
Sponsored Snaps enable brands to engage with users via visual messaging in their chat feed, and updates revealed by the company included:
- First Snap: A first-impression, single-day takeover that delivers a Snap in the chat feed, which can open to a full-screen video asset and be followed up by a call to action from the brand.
- Web and App Auction Ads: Targeted ads delivered to users via the platform’s ads auction, using goal-based bids for the web (Pixel Purchase, Pixel Add to Cart, Pixel Page View, Pixel Sign-Up) or app (App Install, App Purchase).
- Sponsored Snaps From Creators: Advertisers can send a Sponsored Snap directly from a creator’s handle to Snapchatters in the chat feed.
Snapchat also debuted a Promoted Places option for its Snap Map location-based feature, helping brands seamlessly integrate into the experience, while letting users find and visit those brands’ physical locations.
The platform is premiering music performance series Under the Ghost, hosted at its studio in Santa Monica, Calif., and sharing unique performances and conversations with artists. Full sponsorship opportunities are available to advertisers.
Snapchat said it is “doubling down” on its existing partnerships with the National Football League and the WNBA.
Finally, the platform introduced Snapchat Smart Campaign Solutions, a new suite of solutions to deliver AI-powered performance and ease-of-use enhancements. The two main solutions are:
- Smart Bidding: Advertisers set a target cost-per-action, and Snapchat’s systems consistently deliver CPAs within a reasonable range of that bid, automatically adjusting bids and budgets spent on behalf of advertisers to maximize scale.
- Smart Budget: Advertisers can automatically shift spend to the highest performing ad sets within a campaign to maximize outcomes while reducing time spent in Ads Manager.
Other Snapchat News
- Snap Map topped 400 million monthly active users.
- The company opened a new 4,000-square-meter office in the heart of Paris with more than 100 employees.
- Finally, Snapchat teamed up with Publicis Media and NRG on a study of the latest consumer trends reshaping apparel purchases in 2025.
More Metrics
The professional network added new metrics to help brands and marketers gain deeper insights into their return on investment and the impact of their efforts on LinkedIn.
Creators on LinkedIn can now track how many profile views and followers they gain from each post.
And for those using custom buttons that drive users to destinations like newsletter, online stores, or websites, they can see how many times each post leads to a click on those buttons.
Find a Job With AI
What if AI could help you find a job, instead of taking your job?
Saying that more than one-half of job candidates believe they miss postings due to not using the right filters or job titles, LinkedIn is incorporating AI into the job search, letting members express what they are looking for in plain language, and delivering relevant results.
New hiring insights aimed at making job listing more transparent include verifications, which make it easy to identify trusted companies and opportunities. LInkedIn is also sharing details such as typical response time, whether a company is actively reviewing candidates, and when jobs are promoted.
LinkedIn Premium subscribers can create highly personalized practice scenarios in LinkedIn Learning, such as preparing for an interview, and receive AI-powered coaching.
Finally, also on LinkedIn Learning, the new My Career Journey tool helps members outline where they want to go and set a personalized learning plan on how to get there.
Other LinkedIn News
- LinkedIn released a new e-book, Collaborate with Confidence: Your Guide to B2B Creator Marketing on LinkedIn, which explores what’s changing in the world of business-to-business creators and how leading brands are staying ahead.
- Finally, LinkedIn launched a closed review for a lead creative agency.
Going Shopping
The Dynamic Product Ads that Reddit began beta-testing last year are now available to all advertisers via the platform’s Ads Manager.
Dynamic Product Ads automatically generate personalized ad experiences by pulling from an advertiser’s product catalog in real time and intelligently matching products with the most engaged audiences and relevant conversations.
The process works by analyzing on-platform engagement on Reddit—such as the communities that users join—as well as off-platform interactions with products through prospecting and retargeting.
Reddit said that advertisers that ran both Dynamic Product Ads and standard conversions campaigns during the first quarter of this year saw double the return on ad spend from the former, as well as more than 94% the ROAS of campaigns run during the previous year.
The company also detailed an integration with multichannel advertising platform Smartly, which lets brands plan, create, personalize, launch, and measure Reddit campaigns alongside those on other channels, all within Smartly’s unified platform.
Keeping a High Profile
Reddit added tools to help businesses using Reddit Pro craft their profiles.
The setup process was streamlined, with Reddit suggesting profile biographies during the signup process for Reddit Pro. At this point, businesses can provide the URL of their official website and choose from one of several suggested descriptions.
Relevant community posts and comments can be showcased on these profiles, helping businesses establish credibility on the platform and build trust with the Reddit community.
Oh, the Humanity
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman shared a lengthy post regarding the platform’s efforts to thwart bots and ensure that content that appears is from real human beings.
The plan is for Reddit to begin working with third-party services to ensure that users are actually human, and not automated.
Huffman wrote, “To keep Reddit human and to meet evolving regulatory requirements, we are going to need a little more information. Specifically, we will need to know whether you are a human, and, in some locations, if you are an adult. But we never want to know your name or who you are. The way we will do this is by working with various third-party services that can provide us with the essential information and nothing else. No solution is perfect—including the status quo—but we will do our best to preserve both the humanness and anonymity of Reddit. We will share more as we go.”
He also touched upon other topics, including the platform’s recently introduced moderation tools, its 20th anniversary, upcoming product improvements, and the potential of offering premium experiences and exclusive spaces without a paywall.
X
X is pausing its encrypted direct message feature to fine-tune it. Encrypted DMs can still be accessed, but new ones cannot be sent.
The platform said more than 1 million users worldwide are now contributing to Community Notes.
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