School is back in session, Hispanic Heritage Month is nearing its midway point, and people are starting to overthink their Halloween costumes.
And if that isn’t enough, preparations for the holiday shopping season are in full throttle at brands and retailers.
Social Media Holidays to Mark on Your Calendar
- Oct. 1: International Coffee Day
- Oct. 9: Indigenous Peoples’ Day
- Oct. 10: World Mental Health Day
- Oct. 19: International Day Against Breast Cancer
- Oct. 31: Halloween
Download our Social Media Holidays Trend Report to ensure that you don’t miss out on any big dates in 2023.
Social Media Platform Updates
TikTok
TikTok Shop
After testing in various iterations since November 2022. TikTok Shop was officially rolled out in the U.S. Sept. 12.
The pitch deck for TikTok Shop emphasized how essential creators have become for brands looking to engage with Generation Z and encouraged “Shoppertainment,” which is aimed at giving brands more effective, closed-loop measurement of their return on investment.
Users can shop tagged products directly from live and posted videos in the For You feed, as well as browse sellers’ product showcases, which let them see product tiles from offerings in curated collections, read reviews, and purchase products directly via those brands’ profile pages on the application.
On the seller side, the app’s new Shop tab enables them to display products and share promotions with potential consumers, with product recommendations showcased via product listings and shoppable content, enabling shoppers to manage their orders via a single tab. They can also promote their TikTok Shops via new ad product TikTok Shop Ads.
The platform’s affiliate program lets creators share products in short-form videos and livestreams, connecting with the sellers behind those products on commission-based product marketing opportunities.
A new logistics solution allows sellers to focus on their inventory while TikTok Shop stores, picks, packs, and ships products to fulfill customer orders. And when purchases are made, the platform works with third-party payment platforms to keep the checkout process quick, smooth, and secure.
The platform introduced the TikTok Shop App & Service Store, giving sellers easy access to:
- Commerce platform partners such as BigCommerce, Magneto Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Shopify, and WooCommerce, as well as connector apps including AfterShip, CEDCommerce, ShoppeDance, Silk, and SKUIQ.
- Multichannel partners such as Channel Advisor, ChannelEngine, Cymbio, Feedonomics, GoDataFeed, Pipe17, Productsup, SellerCloud, ShoppingFeed, and Uniworks.
- Other apps and services for customer service (1440. Gorgias, Zendesk), print on-demand merchandise (NovaTomato, Printful, Printify), reviews (Yotpo), and shipping (Easyship, Flowspace, WeeBee).
TikTok said more than 200,000 merchants are already active on TikTok Shop.
Other TikTok Updates
To ensure that its users know when they are engaging with content generated by artificial intelligence, TikTok is rolling out a tool for creators to label their AI-generated content, with plans to test ways for the platform to automatically affix those labels, when applicable.
TikTok is testing a partnership with Google, under which TikTok users searching on the app see the option to conduct the same search via Google.com.
Users in the test group who click on the option are taken to an in-app browser displaying Google’s search results.
The Creativity Program Beta, the platform’s replacement for the TikTok Creator Fund, was extended beyond the U.S. and made available to eligible creators in Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and the U.K.
TikTok teamed up with Billboard on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart, which will track the most popular songs on TikTok in the U.S. on a weekly basis.
The chart is based on a combination of creations, user engagement, and video views in the U.S., and it will be released every Thursday.
Augmented reality development platform Effect House is officially out of beta.
Finally, in other TikTok marketing news, the platform introduced the first ever #TikTokFashion Collective, a group of global creators , designers, and fashion thinkers with an eye toward the future of fashion.
Instagram began testing a feature that would enable creators to share fan comments on their posts or Reels to their Stories, and creators who are in the test group can swipe on comments they wish to highlight and tap the “Add to Story” icon.
Search for Instagram’s stand-alone Threads app is being extended to countries where posts are predominantly in English or Spanish.
Instagram is also testing a way to boost engagement on Threads by adding For You on Threads carousel posts to users’ feeds, potentially providing a boost for creator marketing on the platform.
And Threads users can now long-press to switch between different profiles on mobile.
Post by @mosseriView on Threads
YouTube
YouTube announced generative AI feature Dream Screen for YouTube Shorts, which will enable YouTube creators to type what they want to see and create AI-generated image backgrounds or videos. Dream Screen is slated for rollout in early 2024.
The Google-owned platform also revamped its streaming experience for connected TVs, experimenting with making ad breaks longer but less frequent, as well as testing ways to let viewers know how soon those ad breaks will end and they will return to the content they were watching.
Finally, the platform introduced a change to its Community Guidelines, which will allow creators who violate those guidelines to take an educational training course when they receive a warning. That warning will be lifted if the creator does not duplicate the violation in the next 90 days.
Individual warnings will be issued based on specific policy violations, rather than single warnings for the channel’s lifetime.
Meta
The company is extending its Meta Verified program to businesses on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, kicking off testing in select countries in the coming weeks.
Meta Verified debuted for creators earlier this year.
Business subscriptions will be available in the countries where Meta Verified is being tested for $21.99 per month, per Facebook page or Instagram account, or $34.99 per month for both, with testing to begin on the WhatsApp Business app for the messaging app.
Benefits include:
- A verified badge confirming that the business is validated and authentic.
- Proactive impersonation monitoring.
- Access to support and help troubleshooting account issues.
- New ways for the business to be discovered.
Facebook users can now have multiple personal profiles, with each offering a unique feed with content relevant to that profile, and the ability to toggle between those profiles without logging in and out.
The social network explained in a blog post, “Think one profile for the foodie scene you love and another one to keep up with your friends and family … You may want to keep your personal and professional relationships separate, or you may want to keep one profile tied to a community you’re a part of and another profile just for friends.”
Facebook is helping advertisers prep for the holiday shopping season with the introduction of bid multipliers and budget scheduling, enabling them to boost their daily budget in order to take advantage of promotional and sales opportunities, without having to manually adjust the budget at the desired time.
The platform also began testing the ability for advertisers to share how they value specific audiences and increase their bids when targeting those audiences in Advantage+ automated shopping campaigns.
Promotional ads—which let businesses more easily incorporate promo codes—will be extended to more advertisers in Australia, Canada, the U.K., and the U.S. for the upcoming holiday season.
More advertisers are also gaining access to Reminder ads, which let them build anticipation, awareness and consideration for brand events such as new product drops or seasonal sales, leading to greater influencer marketing engagement.
Finally, Facebook Is testing integrations with Adobe Commerce, Magento Open Source, and Salesforce Commerce Cloud to make it easier for businesses to set up Facebook Shops and Instagram Shops, as well as to use its Shops ad product.
Updates From PInterest Presents
The platform announced a host of updates and new features at its annual Pinterest Presents global advertiser summit.
- Pinterest’s Premiere Spotlight ad format gives brands exclusive premium ad placements in search, and it is being extended to the platform’s home feed so that users will encounter those brands as soon as they access Pinterest.
- The platform’s new interactive Showcase ads let Pinners explore and preview content from brands by swiping through branded images, enabling brands to create rich interactive features and provide more context.
- Quiz ads, another new option, allow brands to include up to three questions per quiz to deliver more personalized ideas to users and boost engagement.
- Advertisers and agencies now have access to Business Manager, a single destination for managing accounts, employees, and partners. New features are being added, such as comprehensive business dashboards helping them understand the impact of their investments, and audience sharing features to build on targeting tactics that have proven successful.
- Creative Studio will smooth the process for brands seeking lifestyle imagery for their Product Pins, letting them add the Pin link and choose prompts that fit their needs, at which point the platform generates a selection of custom background images. Select U.S. advertisers will get to test Creative Studio later this year.
- Pinterest added direct links to the mobile deep links it rolled out earlier this year, instantly directing users to a specific page on the retailer’s mobile app and streamlining the conversion process.
- The platform announced e-commerce integrations with Adobe Commerce and Salesforce Commerce Cloud.
- On the user side, new feature Collages lets Pinners cut objects from a Pin and combine them with other cutout objects to create interactive collages featuring their favorite ideas.
Other Pinterest Updates
Prior to Pinterest Presents, the company unveiled a new AI body type technology that uses form, shape, and size to identify body types in more than 5 billion images on the platform, helping to promote inclusivity.
X
The platform formerly known as Twitter teamed up with Israel-based identity verification solutions provider Au10tix to roll out government ID-based account verification for X Premium subscribers, with the aim of preventing impersonation.
X Premium subscribers can now also:
- Hide their likes.
- Post up to two hours of 1080p video or three hours of 720p.
- Access Media Studio, which enables them to download videos from their timeline to their camera roll. Users can opt to disable this option for videos they post.
And all users can:
- Stream videos to their TV via new AirPlay support.
- Use picture-in-picture playback to watch videos while scrolling the X timeline or other apps.
- Use video controls including playback speed and double tapping to fast-forward or rewind.
- See improved quality in live videos.
- Access an immersive video player in Android and iOS that allows for swiping up to view the next video.
- Speak in or co-host a Twitter Spaces audio session on the web.
The platform’s ban on political ads, enacted in 2019, was reversed.
X is shutting down its Circles feature—which enabled users to share posts solely with a group of other users of their choice—Oct. 31.
Snapchat
Snap Inc. teamed up with Microsoft Advertising to add sponsored links to its My AI artificial-intelligence-powered chatbot. Snapchat’s parent company said that since debuting My AI in April, more than 150 million people have used it to send over 10 billion messages.
Snap Inc.’s sixth annual Lens Fest for AR developers will be livestreamed Nov. 9, featuring creators, developers, and partners.
Snapchat introduced new generative-AI-powered feature Dreams, which lets Snapchatters use their own face to create “fantastical” selfies and new identities.
Snapchat also introduced Agency Adventure, a custom desktop 16-bit video game aimed at helping the platform’s agency partners understand the value it provides and how they can harness that value.
And the platform is rolling out several features aimed at protecting its users between the ages of 13 and 17:
- In-app pop-up warnings to teens who add friends with no mutual friends or not in their contacts, urging them to be sure the person is someone they trust.
- Increasing the number of mutual friends before another Snapchatter shows up in search results or as a friend suggestion.
- A new strike system for the removal of age-inappropriate content.
- In-app content that explains the risks of actions such as catfishing, financial sextortion, and taking and sharing explicit images.
Subscription service Snapchat+—which offers early access to exclusive features—topped 5 million subscribers.
Clubhouse
The social audio app is pivoting to messaging, releasing a massive Android and iOS update with Chats as its centerpiece.
Chats are voice-only group chats that take place asynchronously, with features including listen at double speed, push to talk, slide into voicemails, swipe to the next Chat, and tap to skip.
When users open the app, they will see their friends, in addition to rooms that are live.
Brands That Stay on Trend
Michaels
@makeitwithmicah prepped a Halloween-themed movie night.
@makeitwithmicah What treat is your favorite? #ad Let’s create an epic Halloween-themed movie night with @Michaels Stores !! Michaels is my one-stop-shop for all of my Halloween baking supplies and decor needs; and the best part is Michaels is having a Halloween sale! Run to Michaels to grab your Halloween decor and baking supplies now. #michaels #makeitwithmichaels #michaelsstores #halloween #halloweenmovienight #movienight ♬ Halloween ・ cute horror song – PeriTune
Yamaha Music
Gianluca Bocci unboxes the R-N800A + NS-600A.
Haverdash
@smithatrish breaks down her first experience with the clothing rental service.
@smithatrish ad Me 🤝🏻 @Haverdash This was my first time trying a rental service and I am absolutely obsessed. You are able to rent for free for the first 30 days to see how you like it and I am over the moon. I love how Haverdash has upscale options as well as regular everyday wear because I haven’t rented prior since other services aren’t so versatile. Haverdash is made for the everyday girlies and I’m here for it! #Haverdash ♬ Do It Better – Beachcrimes & Tia Tia
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 global creator marketing agency dedicated to creating engaging campaigns. Reach out to us today!
